TABLE OF CONTENTS On completion of the pre-assessment site visit, the assessment team will hopefully have the opportunity to return to home base and prepare for the onsite portion of the assessment. The focus of the pre-assessment site visit and the focus of the onsite phase are different. The pre-assessment phase is focused on identifying business mission, critical information, and critical systems, whereas the onsite phase is focused on gathering information about the organization s security posture. The pre-assessment phase helps the assessment team understand the customer s business objectives and the underlying infrastructure that supports these business objectives. This type of information is critical to establishing the scope of the effort and defining impacts on the business operations. The onsite phase takes this information into account to determine whether the customer is meeting their objectives related to security or if additional actions need to be taken to improve the organization s overall security. To address the differences between the two phases, the assessment team will have to shift gears. They may also need to add or change team members to conduct the onsite portion of the assessment. The assessment team will not know what exactly has to be accomplished until they conduct the pre-assessment site visit. Technically, NSA defines this preparation time as the end part of the pre-assessment process. Figure 7.1 shows the preparation time as part of the IAM pre-assessment process.
Preparation gives the team time to review information collected...
