# NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SA-13 — Trustworthiness

- Source: https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/sa-13-trustworthiness
- 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) › SA — System and Services Acquisition
- Last updated: 2026-06-05
- Publisher: iCompaas, Inc. (https://www.icompaas.com)

**NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5**·Control `SA-13`·high·Component: **System and Services Acquisition**

## What this control requires

> Implement supply chain risk management to ensure trustworthy components and mitigate vendor risks. This control supports the Supply Chain Risk Management Plan capability within the System and Services Acquisition family.
> 
> — NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5, Control SA-13

### In plain English

Implement supply chain risk management to ensure trustworthy components and mitigate vendor risks. 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 **System and Services Acquisition**, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Control SA-13) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

## How to implement

1.  Write a short policy stating intent, scope and named owner.
2.  Encode it as a platform guardrail — SCP, Azure Policy initiative, Organisation Policy, or repository policy.
3.  Wire a monitoring signal that catches drift (CSPM rule, SIEM rule, scheduled query, Workspace alert) and ticket it.
4.  Review on a documented cadence and capture the review in the risk register or compliance tracker.

### Operational checklist

-   **Security.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Chain.** 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.
-   **Plan.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Scope:** management, system, management plan, components, services, capability, implement, security.

## Evidence to collect

-   **Vendor Risk Management.** `vendor_risk_management` evidence

Third-party risk management evidence (assessments, contracts, due diligence) shows supplier oversight. Focus: Trustworthiness.

## 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 3.16.2** — Unsupported System Components](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-171-rev-3/3-16-2-unsupported-system-components)
-   [**SOC 2 (2017 TSC) CC9.2** — Vendor Risk Management](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/soc-2-trust-services-criteria/cc9-2-vendor-risk-management)
-   [**ISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.5.19** — Information security in supplier relationships](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-5-19-information-security-in-supplier-relationships)
-   [**BSI C5:2020 OIS-03** — Interfaces and Dependencies](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/bsi-c5-2020/ois-03-interfaces-and-dependencies)

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

-   [**Control SA-12** — Supply Chain Protection](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/sa-12-supply-chain-protection)
-   [**Control SA-12(2)** — Supplier Reviews](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/sa-12-2-supplier-reviews)
-   [**Control SA-9(2)** — Identification Of Functions, Ports, Protocols, And Services](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/sa-9-2-identification-of-functions-ports-protocols-and-services)
-   [**Control SR-3(1)** — Diverse Supply Base](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/sr-3-1-diverse-supply-base)
-   [**Control SA-5(2)** — Security-Relevant External System Interfaces](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/sa-5-2-security-relevant-external-system-interfaces)
-   [**Control SA-22** — Unsupported System Components](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/sa-22-unsupported-system-components)

## 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 SA-13`

Topics: vendor riskvendor managementsupply chain securitythird party monitoring

## 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.
