NIST 800-53 REV 5 • CONTINGENCY PLANNING

CP-8(2)Single Points of Failure

Obtain alternate telecommunications services to reduce the likelihood of sharing a single point of failure with primary telecommunications services.

CMMC Practice Mapping

No direct CMMC mapping

NIST 800-171 Mapping

No direct NIST 800-171 mapping

Related Controls

No related controls listed

Supplemental Guidance

In certain circumstances, telecommunications service providers or services may share the same physical lines, which increases the vulnerability of a single failure point. It is important to have provider transparency for the actual physical transmission capability for telecommunication services.

Practitioner Notes

This enhancement requires you to eliminate single points of failure in your telecommunications — one cut cable should not take down all your communications.

Example 1: Ensure your primary and backup internet connections enter your building through different physical paths (e.g., different conduits, different street sides) to avoid a single cable cut affecting both.

Example 2: Use SD-WAN technology to automatically fail over between multiple internet connections (fiber, cable, LTE) without manual intervention or service interruption.