# NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SA-9(1) — Risk Assessments And Organizational Approvals

- Source: https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/sa-9-1-risk-assessments-and-organizational-approvals
- 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-9(1)`·high·Component: **System and Services Acquisition**

## What this control requires

> Conduct risk assessments before acquiring or outsourcing information security services. Ensure such acquisitions are formally approved by organization-defined personnel or roles. This control supports the Risk-Informed Acquisition Protocol capability within the System and Services Acquisition family.
> 
> — NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5, Control SA-9(1)

### In plain English

Conduct risk assessments before acquiring or outsourcing information security services. In practice, this means you can prove you information 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-9(1)) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

## How to implement

#### Incident Response

**Runbook.** Maintain a runbook keyed by incident type with named roles (IC, comms, scribe), an out-of-band comms channel, and a 72-hour timeline for external notification.

**Tabletop.** Run a quarterly tabletop exercise (ransomware, insider, supply-chain) and feed gaps back into the runbook.

### Operational checklist

-   **Information.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Security.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Response.** 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.
-   **Scope:** management, information, organization, system, personnel, assessments, services, capability.

## Evidence to collect

-   **Ticketing Workflow.** `ticketing_workflow` evidence
-   **Infra Scan.** Continuous infrastructure-posture telemetry — AWS Config, Azure Policy compliance, GCP Organisation Policy, Wiz / Prisma findings.

Workflow metrics (ServiceNow, Jira) show approvals and remediation. Focus: Risk Assessments And Organizational Approvals.

## Common pitfalls

-   Runbooks that name a role but no person, or list a paging channel that no longer exists.

## 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.

-   [**ISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.5.8** — Information security in project management](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-5-8-information-security-in-project-management)
-   [**NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3 3.3.5** — Audit Record Review, Analysis, and Reporting](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-171-rev-3/3-3-5-audit-record-review-analysis-and-reporting)

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

-   [**Control SA-15(10)** — Incident Response Plan](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/sa-15-10-incident-response-plan)
-   [**Control IR-6(2)** — Vulnerabilities Related To Incidents](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/ir-6-2-vulnerabilities-related-to-incidents)
-   [**Control SA-8(25)** — Economic Security](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/sa-8-25-economic-security)
-   [**Control IR-2(1)** — Simulated Events](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/ir-2-1-simulated-events)
-   [**Control SI-4(24)** — Indicators Of Compromise](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/si-4-24-indicators-of-compromise)
-   [**Control SA-21(1)** — Validation Of Screening](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/sa-21-1-validation-of-screening)

## 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-9(1)`

Topics: governance riskchange managementincident response

## 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.