NIST 800-171 3.6.1 (IR.L2-3.6.1): Incident Handling

Establish an operational incident-handling capability for organizational systems that includes preparation, detection, analysis, containment, recovery, and user response activities.

NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 2, requirement 3.6.1

CMMC Level 2 practice IR.L2-3.6.1Published 2026-11-11

What 3.6.1 means in practice

You need a working incident response capability, not just a plan: people assigned, tools ready, and procedures that cover preparation, detection, analysis, containment, recovery and support for users. Assessors ask to see how a real or practice incident moved through each of those stages.

SPRS points and the CMMC POA&M

CMMC Level 2 practice: IR.L2-3.6.1
SPRS points: 5 points. When it is not met, the DoD Assessment Methodology subtracts 5 from the score of 110.
CMMC POA&M: Not allowed. It is worth 5 points, and 32 CFR 170.21(a)(2)(ii) admits only requirements worth 1 point, with one exception: 3.13.11 when encryption is used but not FIPS validated.

Sources: NIST SP 800-171 DoD Assessment Methodology, version 1.2.1 (June 24, 2020), Annex A; 32 CFR 170.21, Plan of Action and Milestones requirements.

What an assessor checks for 3.6.1

NIST SP 800-171A gives 7 determination statements for 3.6.1, each found satisfied or other than satisfied. Determine if:

3.6.1[a] an operational incident-handling capability is established.
3.6.1[b] the operational incident-handling capability includes preparation.
3.6.1[c] the operational incident-handling capability includes detection.
3.6.1[d] the operational incident-handling capability includes analysis.
3.6.1[e] the operational incident-handling capability includes containment.
3.6.1[f] the operational incident-handling capability includes recovery.
3.6.1[g] the operational incident-handling capability includes user response activities.

NIST SP 800-171A (June 2018), assessment objectives for 3.6.1

Evidence that shows 3.6.1 is met

The incident response plan, with roles and contact details.
The detection tools and the alerts that open an incident.
Records from a real or practice incident showing each stage.
Playbooks for the common incident types.

How PolicyCortex gathers the evidence

PolicyCortex reads this evidence with the collectors below, read only, and grades 3.6.1 from it. Each line says what the product checks.

Microsoft Sentinel: Automation and alert rules. Reads Microsoft Sentinel automation rules and checks that incident response automation and playbooks are configured and enabled.

Related pages

Calculator: SPRS score calculator: mark 3.6.1 and the other 109 requirements and see the score.
Sample package: Sample package: an SSP, a POA&M and an evidence chain the product generated from demonstration data.
Family: All 3 Incident Response requirements (3.6).
Previous: 3.5.11: Obscured Feedback
Next: 3.6.2: Incident Reporting
All requirements: All 110 NIST SP 800-171 requirements, by family.

Related records

Guides and articles describe the work. The evidence that work produces is described in three proof pages, the architecture page, and the two pages on authorization.

proof.state: Proof of State. What the environment was, as of a date someone else picks: point-in-time records, content hashed and chained.
proof.change: Proof of Change. Who or what altered the environment, under what authority, with before and after state hashes.
proof.agency: Proof of Agency. What a machine was permitted to do before it acted, what it did, and what would have stopped it.
architecture: Architecture. How the chain is built and where the evidence is stored in each delivery mode.
authorization: Continuous ATO. How an authorizing official's decision is recorded with its package, and how the authorized system is checked against it every hour.
baseline: NIST SP 800-53. The Low, Moderate and High baselines as evidence, with the SSP, SAR and POA&M generated from one record.