What this requirement asks
Test the organizational incident response capability.
This is a CMMC Level 2 requirement in the Incident Response family, drawn from NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 2. An assessor evaluates it objective by objective — every objective below must be supported by evidence, not just described in a policy.
Assessment objectives (1)
- 3.6.3[a] — the incident response capability is tested
What an assessor examines
Examine:
- Incident response policy
- contingency planning policy
- procedures addressing incident response testing
- procedures addressing contingency plan testing
- incident response testing material
- incident response test results
- incident response test plan
- incident response plan
- contingency plan
- system security plan
- other relevant documents or records
Interview:
- Personnel with incident response testing responsibilities
- personnel with information security responsibilities
- personnel with responsibilities for testing plans related to incident response
Test:
- Mechanisms and processes for incident response
Evidence that defends it
Upload tabletop report, lessons learned
Check your readiness
Score this requirement against your own environment with the Level 2 self-assessment checklist, or estimate your SPRS score with the free CMMC compliance tool. Self-reported answers are planning signals only — they do not establish a verified or assessor-accepted result.