[The NIST Computer Security Division prepared this report for the Security, Privacy, and Critical Infrastructure Committee of the CIO Council.]

The Federal Information Technology (IT) Security Assessment Framework (or Framework) provides a method for agency officials to 1) determine the current status of their security programs relative to existing policy and 2) where necessary, establish a target for improvement. It does not establish new security requirements. The Framework may be used to assess the status of security controls for a given asset or collection of assets. These assets include information, individual systems (e.g., major applications, general support systems, mission critical systems), or a logically related grouping of systems that support operational programs, or operational programs (e.g., Air Traffic Control, Medicare, Student Aid). Assessing all asset security controls and all interconnected systems that the asset depends on produces a picture of both the security condition of an agency component and of the entire agency.