# NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 RA-4 — Risk Assessment Update - Source: https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/ra-4-risk-assessment-update - 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-4`·high·Component: **Risk Assessment** ## What this control requires > Update risk assessments to reflect changes in system, environment, or threats to ensure ongoing risk management. This control supports the Risk Assessment Report capability within the Risk Assessment family. > > — NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5, Control RA-4 ### In plain English Update risk assessments to reflect changes in system, environment, or threats to ensure ongoing risk management. In practice, this means you can prove you review 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-4) 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 - **Review.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence. - **Changes.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence. - **System.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence. - **Control.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence. - **Testing,.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence. - **Scope:** management, system, assessments, assessment, review, capability, threats, assessment update. ## Evidence to collect - **Code Repo Scan.** Source-control evidence — branch protection, required reviewers, CI status, SCA / SAST reports. Source control pipelines (GitHub, GitLab) enforce SDLC guardrails. Focus: Risk Assessment Update. ## Common pitfalls - CI security checks set to warn-only; the merge button is faster than the security feedback. ## How it maps to other frameworks Computed from shared tags, control component and key-operation subjects — handy when you are reconciling controls across an audit. - [**NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3 3.11.2** — Vulnerability Monitoring and Scanning](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-171-rev-3/3-11-2-vulnerability-monitoring-and-scanning) - [**BSI C5:2020 OPS-03** — Capacity Management - Controlling of Resources](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/bsi-c5-2020/ops-03-capacity-management-controlling-of-resources) - [**ISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.8.31** — Separation of development, test and production environments](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-8-31-separation-of-development-test-and-production-environments) ## 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-5(11)** — Public Disclosure Program](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/ra-5-11-public-disclosure-program) - [**Control CA-7** — Continuous Monitoring](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/ca-7-continuous-monitoring) - [**Control RA-5(1)** — Update Tool Capability](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/ra-5-1-update-tool-capability) - [**Control PL-5** — Privacy Impact Assessment](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/pl-5-privacy-impact-assessment) - [**Control RA-3(1)** — Supply Chain Risk Assessment](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/ra-3-1-supply-chain-risk-assessment) ## 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-4` Topics: governance risksecure 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.