Has your organization formally assigned responsibilities for processing, analyzing, and responding to cybersecurity disclosures from external parties, and do you verify these procedures are being executed?
Explanation
Handling inbound cybersecurity disclosures is the focus here, covering whether you have assigned responsibility for processing and responding to reports from external parties and confirm those procedures run. Having defined roles and responsibilities ensures that vulnerability disclosures and threat intelligence are properly processed, impact-analyzed, and responded to in a timely manner rather than being overlooked or handled inconsistently.
Evidence could include a documented RACI matrix or responsibility assignment chart specifically for external disclosure handling, job descriptions that explicitly include these duties, or process documentation showing the workflow for handling external security disclosures with named roles. Meeting minutes or audit logs demonstrating regular verification that these procedures are being followed would also serve as supporting evidence.
Implementation Example
Assign responsibilities and verify the execution of procedures for processing, analyzing the impact of, and responding to cybersecurity threat, vulnerability, or incident disclosures by suppliers, customers, partners, and government cybersecurity organizations
ID: ID.RA-08.174
Context
- Function
- ID: IDENTIFY
- Category
- ID.RA: Risk Assessment
- Sub-Category
- Processes for receiving, analyzing, and responding to vulnerability disclosures are established
Related questions
- Does your organization implement vulnerability management tools to detect unpatched software and misconfigurations?
- Does your organization regularly conduct security architecture reviews to identify and remediate design and implementation weaknesses?
- Does your organization conduct security reviews, analysis, or testing of internally developed software to identify vulnerabilities in design, code, and default configurations?
- Has your organization conducted a comprehensive physical security assessment of all facilities housing critical computing assets within the past 12 months?
- Does your organization actively monitor cyber threat intelligence sources for information about new vulnerabilities in your products and services?
- Does your organization regularly conduct vulnerability assessments of business processes and procedures to identify potential cybersecurity weaknesses?

