# NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 RA-3(1) — Supply Chain Risk Assessment

- Source: https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/ra-3-1-supply-chain-risk-assessment
- Section: [Compliance](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance) › [NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 Controls](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5) › RA — Risk Assessment
- Last updated: 2026-06-05
- Publisher: iCompaas, Inc. (https://www.icompaas.com)

**NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5**·Control `RA-3(1)`·high·Component: **Risk Assessment**

## What this control requires

> Assess supply chain risks related to systems, components, and services. Identify threats such as counterfeits, malicious code, delivery issues, or defects. Update assessments when changes affect the supply chain or system environment. This control supports the Supply Chain Monitor capability within the Risk Assessment family.
> 
> — NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5, Control RA-3(1)

### In plain English

Assess supply chain risks related to systems, components, and services. In practice, this means you can prove you security management-level controls on a defined cadence.

## Why it matters

SP 800-53 is the catalogue every U.S. federal authorisation (FedRAMP, FISMA, CMMC) and most regulated industries point at. A missing control surfaces as a Plan of Action & Milestones (POA&M) item that an Authorizing Official must approve before the Authority To Operate is granted or renewed.

This control is rated **high**. Auditors expect a named owner, a remediation SLA, and a tooling artefact that evidences continuous operation.

## What an auditor looks for

A 3PAO (FedRAMP) or Independent Assessor (NIST RMF) tests against NIST SP 800-53A assessment procedures. For each control they expect a documented implementation that addresses every assessment objective (Examine, Interview, Test) and an implementation summary in the System Security Plan.

Within **Risk Assessment**, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Control RA-3(1)) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

## How to implement

#### Secure Development

**Pipeline.** Require code review, SAST (Semgrep / Snyk Code), SCA (Dependabot / Renovate), secret-scanning and IaC scanning in the merge pipeline.

**Branch protection.** Protected branches enforce reviews, signed commits and passing CI before merge; document the protection rules as the control evidence.

#### Code Review Testing

**Pipeline.** Require at least one human reviewer plus passing CI (lint, type, unit, security scan) before merge — protected branches enforce this.

### Operational checklist

-   **Security.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Review.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Chain.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Changes.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Monitor.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Scope:** management, system, application, assessments, assessment, monitor, review, components.

## Evidence to collect

-   **Code Repo Scan.** Source-control evidence — branch protection, required reviewers, CI status, SCA / SAST reports.
-   **Infra Scan.** Continuous infrastructure-posture telemetry — AWS Config, Azure Policy compliance, GCP Organisation Policy, Wiz / Prisma findings.

Source control pipelines (GitHub, GitLab) enforce SDLC guardrails. Focus: Supply Chain Risk Assessment.

## Common pitfalls

-   CI security checks set to warn-only; the merge button is faster than the security feedback.

## Related controls in NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5

-   [**Control SA-12(7)** — Assessments Prior To Selection / Acceptance / Update](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/sa-12-7-assessments-prior-to-selection-acceptance-update)
-   [**Control RA-4** — Risk Assessment Update](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/ra-4-risk-assessment-update)
-   [**Control RA-5** — Vulnerability Monitoring And Scanning](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/ra-5-vulnerability-monitoring-and-scanning)
-   [**Control SC-18(5)** — Allow Execution Only In Confined Environments](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/sc-18-5-allow-execution-only-in-confined-environments)
-   [**Control MA-3** — Maintenance Tools](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/ma-3-maintenance-tools)
-   [**Control SC-7(9)** — Restrict Threatening Outgoing Communications Traffic](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/sc-7-9-restrict-threatening-outgoing-communications-traffic)

## References

-   [NIST Computer Security Resource Center — NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5](https://csrc.nist.gov/Projects/risk-management/sp800-53-controls)
-   Catalogue identifier: `Control RA-3(1)`

Topics: application securitysecure developmentcode review testingdevsecopspatch management

## Related compliance guidance

- [NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5: a practical implementation guide for cloud teams](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5): Start with the full NIST SP 800-53 implementation guide — scope, roadmap, evidence and how the assessment runs.
- [NIST SP 800-171 and CMMC: a practical guide to protecting CUI in the cloud](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-171-rev-3): If your obligation is protecting CUI in your own systems for a federal or defence contract, this derived subset — not the full catalogue — is the requirement.
- [SOC 2 compliance: a practical implementation guide for cloud-native SaaS teams](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/soc-2-trust-services-criteria): Most commercial SaaS already hold a SOC 2 Type 2, and FedRAMP 20x Class A is designed for providers that have one.