🏛️NIST 800-53 MA-2Rule: NIST-MA-002medium

Controlled Maintenance

Description

Schedule, document, and review records of maintenance, repair, or replacement of system components; sanitize equipment to remove information prior to maintenance, removal, or disposal.

⚠️ Risk Impact

Maintenance windows are opportunity windows. Servers removed for repair often retain data. Devices traded in or recycled without sanitization leak data months or years later.

🔍 How EchelonGraph Detects This

NIST-MA-002Automated scanner rule

EchelonGraph's Tier 1 Cloud Scanner automatically checks for this condition across all connected cloud accounts. Violations are flagged as medium-severity findings with remediation guidance.

🔧 Remediation

Document maintenance schedule. Require pre-maintenance data sanitization (cryptographic erasure for cloud volumes, DoD wipe for physical media). Maintain a maintenance log with technician identity + actions taken.

💀 Real-World Attack Scenario

A federal agency disposed of 47 retired laptops via a recycling vendor. The vendor was supposed to wipe disks. Spot-check inspection by an OIG audit found 31 of 47 still contained recoverable PII including SSN + DOB on former employees. The recycling contract had no verification mechanism. Remediation: emergency staff notification + monitoring + $2.4M settlement.

💰 Cost of Non-Compliance

Data-leak from disposed equipment: avg $1.8M per incident (Privacy Rights Clearinghouse 2024). FISMA MA-2 violations: $200K-$1M remediation cost.

📋 Audit Questions

  • 1.Show the maintenance log for the last 90 days.
  • 2.What is the sanitization procedure for retired equipment?
  • 3.How is sanitization verified?
  • 4.Are third-party recyclers contractually bound to verifiable sanitization?

🎯 MITRE ATT&CK Mapping

T1485 — Data Destruction

⚡ Common Pitfalls

  • ⛔Cloud-only orgs forgetting laptop / workstation disposal scope
  • ⛔Trusting recyclers without verification
  • ⛔Maintenance log incomplete — actions taken not recorded

📈 Business Value

Controlled maintenance prevents the 'forgotten disk' breach pattern. Low cost, high audit defensibility.

⏱️ Effort Estimate

Manual

4-8 hours per disposal event for documented sanitization

With EchelonGraph

EchelonGraph tracks cloud-volume disposal + cryptographic erasure events

🔗 Cross-Framework References

SOC2-CC6.5ISO27001-A.7.13

Automate NIST 800-53 MA-2 compliance

EchelonGraph continuously monitors this control across all your cloud accounts.

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