Citation[]
NIST, Managing Information Security Risk: Organization, Mission, and Information System View (NIST Special Publication 800-39) (Mar. 2011) (full-text).
Overview[]
This publication places information security into the broader organizational context of achieving mission/business success. The objective is to:
- Ensure that senior leaders/executives recognize the importance of managing information security risk and establish appropriate governance structures for managing such risk;
- Ensure that the organization's risk management process is being effectively conducted across the three tiers of organization, mission/business processes, and information systems;
- Foster an organizational climate where information security risk is considered within the context of the design of mission/business processes, the definition of an overarching enterprise architecture, and system development life cycle processes; and
- Help individuals with responsibilities for information system implementation or operation better understand how information security risk associated with their systems translates into organization-wide risk that may ultimately affect the mission/business success.
The purpose of Special Publication 800-39 is to provide guidance for an integrated, organization-wide program for managing information security risk to organizational operations (i.e., mission, functions, image, and reputation), organizational assets, individuals, other organizations, and the Nation resulting from the operation and use of federal information systems. Special Publication 800-39 provides a structured, yet flexible approach for managing risk that is intentionally broad-based, with the specific details of assessing, responding to, and monitoring risk on an ongoing basis provided by other supporting NIST security standards and guidelines.
The guidance provided in this publication is not intended to replace or subsume other risk-related activities, programs, processes, or approaches that organizations have implemented or intend to implement addressing areas of risk management covered by other legislation, directives, policies, programmatic initiatives, or mission/business requirements. Rather, the risk management guidance described herein is complementary to and should be used as part of a more comprehensive Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) program.