The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is responsible for developing standards and guidelines for information security for all civilian federal agencies. It produces security controls for information systems, which are the safeguards necessary to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the data. The NIST SP (Special Publication) 800-53: Recommended Security Controls for Federal Information Systems defines security controls for executive agencies of the US federal government. This article introduces the publication and some of its key concepts.

Purpose of NIST SP 800-53

The FISMA (Federal Information Security Management Act) mandates that information system must adequately protect government data. Under [...]