SI.L2-3.14.3: Monitor and Respond to Security Alerts and Advisories

What this means

This control requires organizations to establish processes for receiving, reviewing, and responding to security alerts and advisories from vendors, government sources, and security organizations. You must monitor for relevant alerts affecting your information systems and implement appropriate remediation actions—whether that's applying patches, disabling vulnerable services, or updating configurations. The goal is to reduce the window of exposure between when a vulnerability is publicly disclosed and when you've addressed it in your environment.

How to comply

1. 1.Identify authoritative sources for security alerts relevant to your systems (vendor security bulletins, CISA alerts, NVD, threat intelligence feeds)
2. 2.Establish a documented process for monitoring these sources regularly and consistently
3. 3.Define roles and responsibilities for alert triage, assessment, and response
4. 4.Create decision criteria to prioritize alerts based on system criticality and vulnerability severity
5. 5.Document all alerts received, the systems affected, and actions taken in response
6. 6.Track remediation timelines from alert receipt through verification of patching or mitigation
7. 7.Maintain records showing follow-up and validation that vulnerabilities have been addressed
8. 8.Review monitoring and response processes quarterly to identify gaps or improvements

Evidence auditors look for

• Security alert monitoring policy and procedures documentation
• List of subscribed alert sources (vendor mailing lists, CISA AIS, security feeds)
• Alert receipt and triage logs showing dates, systems affected, and severity assessment
• Change management records documenting patches applied in response to alerts
• Remediation tracking spreadsheets or ticketing system records with resolution dates
• Email confirmations or receipts from vendor security bulletin subscriptions
• Scan reports or audit logs showing vulnerable software/firmware versions before and after remediation
• Meeting notes or emails showing alert review and response decisions
• Quarterly process reviews with documented improvements or findings

Frequently asked questions

GRCWatch automates security alert monitoring by aggregating feeds from CISA, NVD, and vendor sources into a single dashboard, prioritizing alerts by your system inventory, and tracking remediation status—eliminating manual monitoring and providing audit-ready evidence of timely response.

See how GRCWatch handles this control automatically

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