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CP-8(3) CP · Contingency Planning

Separation of Primary and Alternate Providers

LOW MODERATE ✓ HIGH
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Requirements NIST SOURCE

Obtain alternate telecommunications services from providers that are separated from primary service providers to reduce susceptibility to the same threats.

Discussion (NIST Supplemental Guidance)

Threats that affect telecommunications services are defined in organizational assessments of risk and include natural disasters, structural failures, cyber or physical attacks, and errors of omission or commission. Organizations can reduce common susceptibilities by minimizing shared infrastructure among telecommunications service providers and achieving sufficient geographic separation between services. Organizations may consider using a single service provider in situations where the service provider can provide alternate telecommunications services that meet the separation needs addressed in the risk assessment.

Implementation Guidance

Engineering Interpretation

Original engineering commentary written for this explorer — not NIST source text and not authoritative guidance.

No engineering interpretation has been authored for CP-8(3) yet. This section is architected to receive it — see the Requirements and Assessment sections above for the authoritative NIST source content in the meantime.

Assessment

NIST SP 800-53A REV 5.2.0

Assessment Objectives

  1. alternate telecommunications services from providers that are separated from primary service providers are obtained to reduce susceptibility to the same threats.

Examine

[SELECT FROM: Contingency planning policy; procedures addressing primary and alternate telecommunications services; contingency plan; primary and alternate telecommunications service agreements; alternate telecommunications service provider site; primary telecommunications service provider site; other relevant documents or records].

Interview

[SELECT FROM: Organizational personnel with contingency plan telecommunications responsibilities; organizational personnel with system recovery responsibilities; primary and alternate telecommunications service providers; organizational personnel with information security responsibilities].

Overlays

Showing the OT/ICS overlay for the parent control CP-8 — see the CP-8(3) entries within each baseline below.

OT/ICS Overlay SP 800-82r3

NIST SP 800-82r3 Appendix F, Table 22. Blank baseline means the control/control enhancement is not selected in that initial OT baseline.

LOW

Not applicable at this tier.

MODERATE

  • Base control: Included (matches standard baseline)
  • Included: (1) (2)

HIGH

  • Base control: Included (matches standard baseline)
  • Included: (1) (2) (3) (4)

STIGs & CCIs

No STIG checks or CCI mappings are currently loaded for CP-8(3). This section is architected to display, per product: STIG ID, Finding ID, Severity, Title, Description, Check, Fix, CCI, and NIST control mapping — but nothing is populated here until a real DISA STIG/CCI dataset is ingested.

Learn more about STIG/CCI integration →

Evidence

Potential Evidence — Derived

Categorized from the SP 800-53A "Examine"/"Test" artifact list above by keyword — not an authoritative NIST evidence list.

Policy

  • Contingency planning policy
  • contingency plan

Other Records

  • procedures addressing primary and alternate telecommunications services
  • primary and alternate telecommunications service agreements
  • alternate telecommunications service provider site
  • primary telecommunications service provider site
  • other relevant documents or records