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Media Protection

What is Media Protection?

Security controls for protecting storage media including hard drives, USB devices, tapes, and optical media from unauthorized access and damage.

Information Security

Each of these is named in at least one of the same controls as media protection. The number is how many controls name both.

What the standards actually require on media protection

Requirements naming media protection across 6 standards, quoted from the control text.

CMMC 2.01 control

Physically control and securely store system media holding CUI, in both paper and digital form.

MP.L2-3.8.1 · Media Protection

Protect digital and physical media containing criminal justice information from unauthorized access and securely sanitize or destroy media at end of life.

CJIS-5.8 · Media Protection
MARS-E1 control

Implement NIST 800-53 CP Contingency Planning + MP Media Protection + SI System and Information Integrity families per MARS-E v2.0. Contingency Planning with Business Impact Analysis (BIA) + Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 24 hours for Exchange consumer-facin...

MARS-E-Contingency-Media-Protection-System-Integrity-CP-MP-SI-Families-DR-COOP-Encryption-Sanitization · MARS-E Contingency + Media Protection + System Integrity + CP + MP + SI Families + DR + COOP

Protect system media that contain controlled unclassified information during storage, transport, and disposal, including marking, sanitisation, and access controls.

171-MP-1 · Media Protection

Requires a media protection policy with supporting procedures to be developed, approved, disseminated to defined personnel, owned by a named official, and reviewed and updated on a defined frequency and after defined events.

NIST800-MP-1 · Policy and procedures for media protection

Address information security within the program, covering access to systems and data with least privilege, separation of duties and account monitoring, user and device identification and authentication, security awareness training, audit log maintenance and an...

CFTC-SS-3 · Information Security Category

Questions people ask about media protection

What is Media Protection?
Security controls for protecting storage media including hard drives, USB devices, tapes, and optical media from unauthorized access and damage.
Why is Media Protection important for compliance?
Media Protection is a key concept in Information Security. Understanding media protection helps organizations meet regulatory requirements, reduce risk, and demonstrate due diligence during audits. Our compliance platform maps 686 frameworks with 311K cross-framework control mappings.
Which compliance frameworks address Media Protection?
Media Protection appears in the requirement text of CMMC 2.0, FBI CJIS Security Policy, MARS-E, NIST SP 800-171, NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5. Across these standards we have identified 6 controls that name it directly, each linked to the control text on the compliance platform.
Where can I learn more about Media Protection?
Explore our compliance framework pages to see how media protection applies across different standards and regulations. Our implementation guides provide step-by-step guidance, and the compliance platform offers AI-powered analysis of how this concept maps across 686 frameworks.

See how Media Protection applies across compliance frameworks

Our platform maps 686 frameworks with 311K cross-framework control mappings. Explore how this concept is addressed across standards.

Written and maintained by Gerard Blokdyk, The Art of Service.