Episode 43 — Triage and Rate Assessment Findings

After the assessment, findings must be analyzed, categorized, and prioritized for remediation. This episode outlines FedRAMP’s required severity levels—High, Moderate, Low, and Very Low—and the factors that influence each rating: exploitability, impact, exposure duration, and available mitigations. We explain how to separate false positives from valid issues, aggregate duplicates across scans, and distinguish configuration drift from systemic design flaws. You will learn how to document root cause, affected assets, and associated controls so that each finding can be tracked through the POA&M lifecycle. Proper triage converts raw test data into actionable risk intelligence that authorizing officials can trust.

We then illustrate how to perform triage sessions and rating reviews. Use multidisciplinary teams—security engineers, system owners, compliance analysts, and 3PAO liaisons—to ensure consistent interpretation. Record risk rationale and any compensating evidence discussed, such as redundant controls or segmentation boundaries. Verify that each confirmed finding receives a remediation milestone with realistic timing and that dependencies are captured. Review severity adjustments with 3PAO concurrence before finalizing the SAR. Finally, reflect results into control improvement backlogs so lessons are institutionalized. Effective triage turns findings from one-time corrections into enduring control maturity. Produced by BareMetalCyber.com, where you’ll find more cyber audio courses, books, and information to strengthen your educational path. Also, if you want to stay up to date with the latest news, visit DailyCyber.News for a newsletter you can use, and a daily podcast you can commute with.