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IR-4(3) IR · Incident Response

Continuity of Operations

LOW MODERATE HIGH
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Requirements NIST SOURCE

Identify [classes of incidents] and take the following actions in response to those incidents to ensure continuation of organizational mission and business functions: [actions].

Discussion (NIST Supplemental Guidance)

Classes of incidents include malfunctions due to design or implementation errors and omissions, targeted malicious attacks, and untargeted malicious attacks. Incident response actions include orderly system degradation, system shutdown, fall back to manual mode or activation of alternative technology whereby the system operates differently, employing deceptive measures, alternate information flows, or operating in a mode that is reserved for when systems are under attack. Organizations consider whether continuity of operations requirements during an incident conflict with the capability to automatically disable the system as specified as part of IR-4(5).

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 IR-4(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. classes of incidents requiring an organization-defined action (defined in IR-04(03)_ODP[02]) to be taken are defined;
  2. actions to be taken in response to organization-defined classes of incidents are defined;
  3. <IR-04(03)_ODP[01] classes of incidents> are identified;
  4. <IR-04(03)_ODP[02] actions> are taken in response to those incidents (defined in IR-04(03)_ODP[01]) to ensure the continuation of organizational mission and business functions.

Examine

[SELECT FROM: Incident response policy; procedures addressing incident handling; incident response plan; privacy plan; list of classes of incidents; list of appropriate incident response actions; system security plan; other relevant documents or records].

Interview

[SELECT FROM: Organizational personnel with incident handling responsibilities; organizational personnel with information security responsibilities].

Test

[SELECT FROM: Mechanisms that support and/or implement continuity of operations].

Overlays

Showing the OT/ICS overlay for the parent control IR-4 — see the IR-4(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

  • Base control: Included (matches standard baseline)

MODERATE

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

HIGH

  • Base control: Included (matches standard baseline)
  • Included: (1) (4) (11)

STIGs & CCIs

No STIG checks or CCI mappings are currently loaded for IR-4(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

  • Incident response policy
  • incident response plan
  • privacy plan
  • system security plan

Testing

  • Mechanisms that support and/or implement continuity of operations

Other Records

  • procedures addressing incident handling
  • list of classes of incidents
  • list of appropriate incident response actions
  • other relevant documents or records