NIST 800-53 REV 5 • SYSTEM AND COMMUNICATIONS PROTECTION
SC-16(1) — Integrity Verification
Verify the integrity of transmitted security and privacy attributes.
Supplemental Guidance
Part of verifying the integrity of transmitted information is ensuring that security and privacy attributes that are associated with such information have not been modified in an unauthorized manner. Unauthorized modification of security or privacy attributes can result in a loss of integrity for transmitted information.
Practitioner Notes
Verify the integrity of security and privacy attributes during transmission — make sure labels have not been tampered with in transit.
Example 1: Use digital signatures on sensitivity labels so receiving systems can verify the label was applied by an authorized source and has not been modified. Microsoft Purview labels support this natively.
Example 2: Configure your email gateway to check classification markings in message headers against a cryptographic hash. If the header has been altered in transit, the gateway quarantines the message and alerts security.