AWS and Cloudanix team co-authored this blog: Real-Time Threat and Anomaly Detection for Workloads on AWS
NIST SP 800-171 logo

Protecting Controlled Unclassified Information in Nonfederal Systems

NIST SP 800-171

NIST Special Publication 800-171 defines security requirements that non-federal organizations — notably U.S. Department of Defense contractors and subcontractors — must implement to safeguard Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). Its requirements are organized into families covering access control, audit and accountability, configuration management, identification and authentication, incident response, and system and communications protection. For organizations processing CUI in AWS, Azure, GCP, or OCI, NIST 800-171 demands enforced least privilege, comprehensive audit logging, secure configuration baselines, and encryption. Cloudanix continuously assesses cloud environments against these requirement families and surfaces the evidence assessors expect.

Understanding NIST SP 800-171 Requirements

NIST SP 800-171 (Revision 3) organizes protection of Controlled Unclassified Information into control families such as access control, audit and accountability, configuration management, identification and authentication, and incident response. Cloudanix maps these families to continuous cloud checks across AWS, Azure, GCP, and OCI.

Just-In-Time Access for NIST SP 800-171

NIST SP 800-171 expects access to sensitive systems and data to be controlled, least-privileged, and auditable. Standing administrative privileges are a common source of risk and audit findings. Cloudanix Just-In-Time (JIT) access provides time-bound, temporary privileged access across AWS, Azure, GCP, and OCI. JIT eliminates standing admin rights, enforces approval workflows before access is granted, maintains a complete audit trail of who accessed what and when, and automatically revokes access when the task is done — directly supporting NIST SP 800-171's access-control expectations.

Database Activity Monitoring (DAM) for NIST SP 800-171

NIST SP 800-171 requires organizations to protect sensitive data and to detect and respond to unauthorized access. Visibility into database activity is central to meeting that expectation. Cloudanix DAM monitors database access in real time across AWS, Azure, GCP, and OCI data stores. It detects unauthorized or anomalous queries, maintains detailed audit logs of data access, and raises alerts that help teams investigate and respond within the timelines NIST SP 800-171 expects.

Identity and Access Governance for NIST SP 800-171

NIST SP 800-171 expects that only authorized identities can reach sensitive systems and that access is limited to what each role needs. Modern cloud estates contain thousands of human and non-human identities. Cloudanix provides identity governance across AWS, Azure, GCP, and OCI that inventories every identity, detects excessive or unused permissions, enforces least privilege, and tracks both human users and non-human identities such as service accounts, API keys, and workload identities — helping enforce the segregation of duties NIST SP 800-171 requires.

Cloud Security Posture and Misconfiguration Management

NIST SP 800-171 calls for secure configuration and technical safeguards to protect systems and data. Misconfigurations are a leading cause of breaches and audit findings. Cloudanix continuously scans AWS, Azure, GCP, and OCI for security misconfigurations relevant to NIST SP 800-171 — publicly exposed storage, unencrypted data stores, weak access controls, and disabled logging. Automated detection and guided remediation help organizations close gaps quickly and maintain a defensible posture.

Workload and Runtime Security

NIST SP 800-171 expects appropriate security throughout the lifecycle of the systems that process sensitive data. Cloud workloads — applications, containers, serverless functions, and virtual machines — must be secured accordingly. Cloudanix secures workloads across AWS, Azure, GCP, and OCI through vulnerability detection, runtime monitoring, configuration compliance, and network segmentation checks, helping organizations meet NIST SP 800-171's expectations for protecting systems in operation.

Software Supply Chain Visibility (SBOM)

NIST SP 800-171 increasingly expects organizations to understand and manage risk from third-party software components. Visibility into the software supply chain is essential to that effort. Cloudanix generates Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) for cloud applications and containerized workloads across AWS, Azure, GCP, and OCI. This provides visibility into components in use, identifies vulnerabilities in third-party libraries and dependencies, and supports the due diligence and third-party risk management NIST SP 800-171 calls for.

Fast Onboarding. Real-Time Visibility. Continuous Compliance.

How Cloudanix Secures Your Cloud

Cloudanix gives you full-stack visibility and protection from Day 1. You start seeing value in minutes — no complex setup required. Our real-time alerting surfaces misconfigurations and policy drifts as they happen. Whether it's unusual activity, access issues, or risky changes — Cloudanix alerts you instantly across multiple channels. Then, automated remediation steps in: from playbook-driven fixes to preventive controls that stop violations before they start. You stay secure, compliant, and always one step ahead — without slowing down your team.

Get Value in Minutes

You begin seeing insights and compliance violations within 5 minutes of onboarding. No long setups. No complex integrations. Just results.

Real-Time Alerting

Stay ahead of misconfigurations and policy drifts with real-time alerts. Cloudanix prioritizes signals based on severity and routes them across channels—before attackers exploit them.

Automated Remediation

Cloudanix enables out-of-the-box remediation playbooks and policy-driven automation to fix violations—or prevent them altogether—across your cloud infrastructure.

United States

Achieve NIST SP 800-171 Compliance with Cloudanix

NIST SP 800-171 sets expectations for securing systems and data. Cloudanix helps organizations implement and continuously validate the technical controls behind NIST SP 800-171 across their cloud infrastructure.

Loading animation...

Detect and respond to threats

Continuously monitor for the misconfigurations and anomalous activity NIST SP 800-171 expects you to catch.

  • Real-time detection of unauthorized data access
  • Database Activity Monitoring across cloud data stores
  • Misconfiguration detection with guided remediation
  • Audit logging and evidence for investigations

Multi-cloud NIST SP 800-171 coverage

Maintain consistent NIST SP 800-171 controls across AWS, Azure, GCP, and OCI.

  • Unified posture monitoring across cloud platforms
  • Continuous control evaluation and drift detection
  • Workload, container, and runtime security checks
  • Audit-ready evidence and reporting

Customer Voice

In the world of Fintech, trust is our currency. Cloudanix provided the frictionless visibility we needed to secure our EKS workloads across AWS, ensuring we stay audit-ready for SOC2 and GDPR without slowing down our engineering velocity.
Amol Naik
Amol Naik Head of Security & Infrastructure, HugoHub
See all stories

Ready to see your graph?

Connect a cloud account in under 30 minutes. See every finding rooted in identity, asset, and blast radius — with a fix path attached.

Book a Demo

CLOUDANIX

Insights from Cloudanix

Explore guides, checklists, and blogs that simplify cloud security and help you secure your infrastructure.