Domain: Information
Question:
An organization is aligning its cybersecurity program to NIST CSF 2.0 outcomes across three sub-environments (a tightly controlled regulated enclave, a standard corporate environment, and a guest/BYOD collaboration layer). After a competitor breach and an internal near-miss, executives want a defensible, outcome-based justification that the organization is closing "untrusted hardware/software" exposure paths without breaking collaboration workflows.

CSF outcome ID.RA-09 states that the authenticity and integrity of hardware and software are assessed prior to acquisition and use. While the enclave has strong pre-acquisition controls, the organization routinely exchanges sensitive PDFs and other critical documents through cloud collaboration and storage surfaces (e.g., OneDrive/Teams), including scenarios where:
- documents are uploaded from outside the enclave (vendors/contractors, email-to-Teams/OneDrive workflows, or cross-tenant sharing),
- users access files from personally owned or otherwise unmanaged endpoints and unknown client software,
- the platform's built-in encryption/retention/eDiscovery requirements can't be relaxed,
- "viewing" vs "downloading" vs "syncing offline" create different exposure paths, and
- change governance is weak (controls are inconsistently rolled out and exceptions are common).

In this environment, how should the organization enforce ID.RA-09 so that (1) both the collaboration platform handling the data and the devices/software interacting with it are validated as trusted before interaction occurs, (2) file authenticity/integrity is verifiably checked across the full lifecycle (upload, storage, and access/download), (3) access from untrusted or unmanaged endpoints is constrained in a way that still supports necessary collaboration, and (4) enforcement is automated and consistent (minimizing manual judgment and exception drift) while remaining traceable for audit?

Answer in a way that stays aligned to CSF 2.0 outcomes and also explains how the organization should connect these enforcement mechanisms with identity, device posture, and cloud security controls to prevent sensitive PDFs from being processed on untrusted hardware/software.

Expected points in a correct answer:
States organizations must assess the authenticity of hardware
States organizations must assess the authenticity of software
States organizations must assess the integrity of hardware
States organizations must assess the integrity of software
States controls must extend to the cloud collaboration platform
States controls must extend to the access path Microsoft Teams
Identifies the need for technical validation to achieve desired security outcome
Identifies the need for access control to achieve desired security outcome
Identifies the need for automation to achieve desired security outcome
Identifies cryptographic hashing as desired security to verify integrity
Identifies digital signatures as a control to verify file integrity
Identifies hardware backed credentials as desired security control
States access/downloads of sensitive documents should be blocked on non-compliant endpoints
States local storage on non-compliant endpoints should be blocked
Identifies information protection labels as desired security control
States sensitive files should be encrypted
Identifies sandboxing and/or detonation environments to analyze files for malicious content
States devices should be compliant with posture checks
Identifies that untrusted or unmanaged devices should be restricted to browser-only or view-only access
States Change Advisory Board necessary for added defense
Identifies integrity checks as potential automation opportunity
Identifies malware scanning as potential automation opportunity
Identifies policy enforcement at upload time as potential automation opportunity
Identifies policy enforcement at download time as potential automation opportunity
States automation should be integrated with existing tooling
States that the platform handling the data must be validated and trusted before interaction occurs
States that the device/software accessing the data must be validated and trusted before interaction occurs
States NIST CSF 2.0 Function ID.RA-09 as defensible security posture
States NIST CSF 2.0 Function PR.AA as defensible security posture
States NIST CSF 2.0 Function PR.DS as defensible security posture
States NIST CSF 2.0 Function PR.PS as defensible security posture
States that controls must extend to OneDrive as a collaboration/access path
States that certificate-based authentication should be used to establish device trust
States that documents should remain protected regardless of where they are accessed
States that assessment of hardware/software authenticity and integrity should occur prior to acquisition and use
States that enforcement should be consistent and centralized
States that the goal is to reduce human error through automation
Identifies browser-only sessions as a restriction for unmanaged/untrusted devices
States the organization should combine technical validation, access controls, and automation