SC-47 Alternate Communications Paths

Baselines

Guidance

An incident, whether adversarial- or nonadversarial-based, can disrupt established communications paths used for system operations and organizational command and control. Alternate communications paths reduce the risk of all communications paths being affected by the same incident. To compound the problem, the inability of organizational officials to obtain timely information about disruptions or to provide timely direction to operational elements after a communications path incident, can impact the ability of the organization to respond to such incidents in a timely manner. Establishing alternate communications paths for command and control purposes, including designating alternative decision makers if primary decision makers are unavailable and establishing the extent and limitations of their actions, can greatly facilitate the organization’s ability to continue to operate and take appropriate actions during an incident.

References 3

• SP 800-34 Swanson MA, Bowen P, Phillips AW, Gallup D, Lynes D (2010) Contingency Planning Guide for Federal Information Systems. (National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD), NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-34, Rev. 1, Includes updates as of November 11, 2010.
• SP 800-61 Cichonski PR, Millar T, Grance T, Scarfone KA (2012) Computer Security Incident Handling Guide. (National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD), NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-61, Rev. 2.
• SP 800-160-2 Ross RS, Pillitteri VY, Graubart R, Bodeau D, McQuaid R (2019) Developing Cyber Resilient Systems: A Systems Security Engineering Approach. (National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD), NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-160, Vol. 2.

Related controls 2

• CP-02 Contingency Plan L M H P
• CP-08 Telecommunications Services L M H P