NIST 800-53 REV 5 • PROGRAM MANAGEMENT
PM-11 — Mission and Business Process Definition
Define organizational mission and business processes with consideration for information security and privacy and the resulting risk to organizational operations, organizational assets, individuals, other organizations, and the Nation; and Determine information protection and personally identifiable information processing needs arising from the defined mission and business processes; and Review and revise the mission and business processes {{ insert: param, pm-11_odp }}.
Supplemental Guidance
Protection needs are technology-independent capabilities that are required to counter threats to organizations, individuals, systems, and the Nation through the compromise of information (i.e., loss of confidentiality, integrity, availability, or privacy). Information protection and personally identifiable information processing needs are derived from the mission and business needs defined by organizational stakeholders, the mission and business processes designed to meet those needs, and the organizational risk management strategy. Information protection and personally identifiable information processing needs determine the required controls for the organization and the systems. Inherent to defining protection and personally identifiable information processing needs is an understanding of the adverse impact that could result if a compromise or breach of information occurs. The categorization process is used to make such potential impact determinations. Privacy risks to individuals can arise from the compromise of personally identifiable information, but they can also arise as unintended consequences or a byproduct of the processing of personally identifiable information at any stage of the information life cycle. Privacy risk assessments are used to prioritize the risks that are created for individuals from system processing of personally identifiable information. These risk assessments enable the selection of the required privacy controls for the organization and systems. Mission and business process definitions and the associated protection requirements are documented in accordance with organizational policies and procedures.
Practitioner Notes
You need to define your mission and business processes clearly enough to identify which ones depend on information security. This ensures security resources are focused on what matters most to your operations.
Example 1: Map your key business processes (contract management, proposal development, engineering design) and identify the information systems each one depends on. Then rank them by criticality so you know which systems need the strongest protections and fastest recovery times.
Example 2: Conduct a Business Impact Analysis (BIA) that documents each critical process, the maximum tolerable downtime, and the data classification of information involved. Use the BIA results to justify security investments and set recovery time objectives for your backup and disaster recovery planning.