Program Review for Information Security Management Assistance (PRISMA)

Several sources of guidance, policies, standards and legislative acts provide many requirements for the federal agencies when protecting entrusted information. Various assessments, reviews, and inspections are an outcome of these information security requirements to monitor federal agency compliance. The manner in which these monitoring approaches are implemented may be very different, impacting agency resource constraints. The Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) of 2002 charged NIST to provide technical assistance to agencies regarding compliance with the standards and guidelines developed for securing information systems, as well as information security policies, procedures, and practices. This Interagency Report provides an overview of the NIST Program Review for Information Security Management Assistance (PRISMA) methodology. PRISMA is a tool developed and implemented by NIST for reviewing the complex information security requirements and posture of a federal program or agency. This report is provided as a framework for instructional purposes as well as to assist information security personnel, internal reviewers, auditors, and agency Inspector General (IG) staff personnel.