FedRAMP Definitions

An account with elevated privileges that enables administrative functions over some aspect of the cloud service offering that may affect the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of information beyond those given to normal users; levels of privilege may vary wildly.

The most privileged account with the highest level of access within a cloud service offering for a customer organization, typically with complete control over all aspects of the cloud service offering, including managing resources, users, access, privileges, and the account itself.

The first full assessment of a cloud service offering obtaining FedRAMP Certification, coordinated by the provider with all necessary assessors, that results in a FedRAMP Certification.

Follow-on assessments of a cloud service offering focused on Key Security Indicators, coordinated by the provider with all necessary assessors, to maintain FedRAMP Certification or change its FedRAMP Certification class.

Security-related materials that supply information regarding or evidence of functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations, or other such activities, for the purposes of obtaining and maintaining a FedRAMP Certification. All such artifacts are considered FedRAMP Certification Data and are included in the FedRAMP Certification Package.

The collective information required by FedRAMP for initial and ongoing FedRAMP Certification of a cloud service offering, including the FedRAMP Certification Package.

Has meaning from 44 USC § 3607 (b)(8) given to "authorization package", which is "the essential information that can be used by an agency to determine whether to authorize the operation of an information system or the use of a designated set of common controls for all cloud computing products and services [certified] by FedRAMP."

The status of a cloud service offering that has received FedRAMP Certification and meets the legal requirement to be FedRAMP authorized.

The first FedRAMP Certification of a cloud service offering based on the applicable initial assessment, validation, certification package, and certification data.

A regular synchronous meeting hosted by a FedRAMP Certified cloud service provider for agency customers, following FedRAMP Collaborative Continuous Monitoring rules.

An unwanted customer effect that interrupts use of the cloud service for most users or compromises the integrity or confidentiality of most federal customer data. If the adverse customer effect is unknown then it should be treated as if it is debilitating until proven otherwise.

An unwanted customer effect that interrupts use of the cloud service for many users for less than 24 hours, or that compromises the integrity or confidentiality of large amounts or many types of federal customer data.

An unwanted customer effect that is only noticeable by some users. This includes minor inconveniences such as reduced performance.

An unwanted customer effect that interrupts use of the cloud service for some users for less than 12 hours, or that compromises the integrity or confidentiality of an extremely limited amount and type of federal customer data.

An incident that affects the confidentiality or integrity of federal customer data or is likely to affect the confidentiality or integrity of federal customer data.

A final report after recovery from an incident that is supplied by FedRAMP Certified cloud service providers to FedRAMP and agency customers, following FedRAMP Incident Communications Procedures.

Has the meaning given in 44 USC § 3552 (b)(2) which is "an occurrence that (A) actually or imminently jeopardizes, without lawful authority, the integrity, confidentiality, or availability of information or an information system; or (B) constitutes a violation or imminent threat of violation of law, security policies, security procedures, or acceptable use policies."

An initial report about an incident that is supplied by FedRAMP Certified cloud service providers to FedRAMP and agency customers, following FedRAMP Incident Communications Procedures.

A recurring report about an ongoing incident that is supplied by FedRAMP Certified cloud service providers to FedRAMP and agency customers, aligned to the rules in the FedRAMP Incident Communications Procedures.

Has the meaning from 44 USC § 3502 (6): "information and related resources, such as personnel, equipment, funds, and information technology." This includes any aspect of the cloud service offering, both technical and managerial, including everything that makes up the business of the offering from non-machine-based information resources like organizational policies, procedures, employees, etc. to machine-based information resources like hardware, software, cloud services, code, etc.

Any information technology information resource—including systems, processes, software, hardware, services, cloud-native capabilities, and any other such capability, component, or resource—that relies primarily on mechanical or electronic devices (i.e. computers) for operation.

Any information resource that is not entirely included in the Minimum Assessment Scope for the cloud service offering obtaining FedRAMP Certification.

A type of significant change that does not routinely recur and does not introduce substantive potential security risks that need to be assessed in depth.

A type of significant change that is likely to change the FedRAMP Certification class for the entire cloud service offering (e.g. from Class B to Class C or from Class D to Class C).

The type of significant change that regularly and routinely recurs as part of ongoing operations, vulnerability mitigation, or vulnerability remediation.

Has the meaning given in NIST SP 800-37 Rev. 2 which is "a change that is likely to substantively affect the security or privacy posture of a system."

The type of significant change that introduces substantive potential security risks that are likely to affect existing risk determinations and must be assessed in depth.

An entity that helps a provider understand, prepare for, or maintain FedRAMP Certification without replacing the provider's responsibility or the assessor's independence.

Has the meaning given in 44 U.S. Code § 3502 (1), which is "any executive department, military department, Government corporation, Government controlled corporation, or other establishment in the executive branch of the Government (including the Executive Office of the President), or any independent regulatory agency, but does not include—(A) the Government Accountability Office; (B) Federal Election Commission; (C) the governments of the District of Columbia and of the territories and possessions of the United States, and their various subdivisions; or (D) Government-owned contractor-operated facilities, including laboratories engaged in national defense research and production activities."

All federal entities whose interests are affected directly or are likely to be affected directly in the event of a vulnerability or incident related to federal customer data. This always includes FedRAMP and directly impacted federal customer agencies.

All entities who participate in the FedRAMP assessment of a cloud service offering in the context of a FedRAMP Certification. This always includes FedRAMP and any FedRAMP Recognized independent assessor contracted by a provider to perform a FedRAMP assessment.

All entities whose interests are affected directly by activity related to a specific cloud service offering in the context of FedRAMP Certifications. This always includes FedRAMP and any agency customer who is using the cloud service offering, but may include additional parties depending on agreements made by the cloud service provider (such as consultants or independent assessors). Potential agency customers or third-party cloud service providers should also be included in most cases but this is not a mandatory requirement under FedRAMP because the cloud service provider may choose who they wish to do business with.

An assessor that performs assessment, verification, or validation activities for a cloud service offering seeking to obtain or maintain FedRAMP Certification; FedRAMP is the final assessor for FedRAMP Certification, but FedRAMP Recognized independent assessment services are typically also utilized.

The cloud service provider responsible for a cloud service offering in the context of FedRAMP Certification.

A vulnerability that the provider does not intend to fully mitigate or remediate, OR that has not or will not be fully mitigated or remediated within the maximum overdue period in FedRAMP Vulnerability Detection and Response rules.

A detected vulnerability that is not actually present in an exploitable state in the information resource

A vulnerability where the likelihood of exploitation or Potential Agency Impact N-rating has been reduced from the original evaluation until either are negligible, but the vulnerability is still detected.

A vulnerability in a machine-based information resource that might be exploited or otherwise triggered by a payload originating from a source on the public internet.

Has the meaning given in CISA Binding Operational Directive 22-01, which is any vulnerability identified in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.

A vulnerability that is not fully mitigated AND is reachable by a likely threat actor; AND a likely threat actor with knowledge of the vulnerability would likely gain unauthorized access, cause harm, disrupt operations, or otherwise have an undesired adverse impact within the cloud service offering by exploiting the vulnerability.

A vulnerability that the provider intends to fully mitigate or remediate but has not or will not do so within the time frames recommended or required by FedRAMP.

A vulnerability where the likelihood or Potential Agency Impact N-rating has been reduced from the original evaluation but the risk of exploitation still exists and the vulnerability is still detected.

A vulnerability that has been neutralized or eliminated and is no longer detected.

Has the meaning given to "security vulnerability" in 6 USC § 650 (25), which is "any attribute of hardware, software, process, or procedure that could enable or facilitate the defeat of [...] management, operational, and technical controls used to protect against an unauthorized effort to adversely affect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of an information system or its information." This includes gaps in Rev5 controls and 20x Key Security Indicators, software vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, exposures, weak credentials, insecure services, and all other such potential weaknesses in protection (intentional or unintentional).

The systematic process of discovering and identifying security vulnerabilities in information resources through assessment, scanning, threat intelligence, vulnerability disclosure mechanisms, bug bounties, supply chain monitoring, and other capabilities. This process includes the initial discovery of a vulnerability's existence and the determination of affected information resources within a cloud service offering.

The systematic process of tracking, evaluating, mitigating, monitoring, remediating, assessing exploitation, reporting, and otherwise managing detected vulnerabilities.

A specific, packaged cloud computing product or service supplied by a cloud service provider for use by customers, that is the subject of a FedRAMP Certification.

Verifiable data collected directly from an authoritative source that represents a factual and reproducible observation of the attributes of a system such as the system's state, configuration, or behavior.

Changes to information resources that cause deviations from the intended and assessed state; common forms of drift include changes to configurations, deployed software, privileges, running processes, and availability.

All electronic information, content, and materials that an agency or its authorized users upload, store, or otherwise supply to a cloud service for processing or storage. This does NOT include account information, service metadata, analytics, telemetry, or other similar metadata generated by the cloud service provider.

The status of independent assessment services that are recognized by FedRAMP to perform assessment activities on behalf of FedRAMP for cloud service offerings seeking to obtain or maintain FedRAMP Certification.

An email address that follows the FedRAMP Security Inbox rules.

Has the plain language meaning inclusive of any possible action taken with information, such as access, collect, control, create, display, disclose, disseminate, dispose, maintain, manipulate, process, receive, review, store, transmit, use... etc.

A reasonable degree of probability based on context.

Automatically produced by a computer process, application, or other mechanism without the intervention or manipulation of a human during production.

Has the meaning from 44 U.S. Code § 3502 (18) which is "the term "machine-readable", when used with respect to data, means data in a format that can be easily processed by a computer without human intervention while ensuring no semantic meaning is lost"

The continued FedRAMP Certification of a cloud service offering based on the applicable ongoing assessment, validation, monitoring, reporting, and certification data.

A regular report that is supplied by FedRAMP Certified cloud service providers to agency customers, following FedRAMP Collaborative Continuous Monitoring rules.

Occurring in a firm, steady way that is repeated over a long period of time in spite of obstacles or difficulties. Persistent activities may vary between actors, may occur irregularly, and may include interruptions or waiting periods between cycles. These attributes of persistent activities should be intentional, understood, and documented; the status of persistent activities will always be known.

The estimated cumulative effect of unauthorized access, disruption, harm, or other adverse impacts to all agencies using the cloud service that are likely to result from security incidents or the exploitation of vulnerabilities in the cloud service offering; as estimated following appropriate FedRAMP rules to calculate the Potential Agency Impact N-rating (PAIN).

Without unnecessary delay.

Performing the activity on a consistent, predictable, and repeated basis, at set intervals, automatically if possible, following a documented plan. These intervals may vary as appropriate between different activities.

In a way that shows that you have good judgment and the ability to act correctly and make decisions on your own.

Has the meaning from NIST FIPS 199, which is "The characterization of information or an information system based on an assessment of the potential impact that a loss of confidentiality, integrity, or availability of such information or information system would have on organizational operations, organizational assets, or individuals." Security categories are often referred to as "impact levels" and include Low, Moderate, and High.

A secure repository or service used by cloud service providers to store and share FedRAMP Certification Data. Trust centers are the complete and definitive source for FedRAMP Certification Data and must follow the FedRAMP Certification Data Sharing rules to be FedRAMP-compatible.

Confirmation through objective evidence that implemented security capabilities and related certification data are suitable for their intended FedRAMP Certification use and support the expected security outcomes for a cloud service offering.

Confirmation through objective evidence that specified FedRAMP rules, controls, indicators, or certification data requirements have been fulfilled for a cloud service offering.