Northeastern University Personnel Security Standard

Related Policy: NU Information Security Policy
Responsible Office: Office of Information Security (OIS)

Purpose and Scope

Northeastern University is committed to securing its data and providing clear and concise guidance on protecting the many information technology (IT) systems we use. Given the widespread use and diversity of the types of IT systems employed within Northeastern University, it is paramount that a technology-agnostic set of standards are in place and uniformly applied across all IT systems.

This standard establishes the minimum personnel security criteria to carry out and meet the intent of the directives within Northeastern University’s Information Security Policy. This standard applies to all organizations (e.g., academic entities, entities other than Colleges and Departments, legally separate but wholly owned entities) of Northeastern University.

IT systems are considered in the scope of this standard if they utilize any of the following: Northeastern’s Network, ITS troubleshooting or administration, OIS incident response or investigation, or a Northeastern Microsoft account (e.g., @northeastern.edu).

Personnel Security Overview

This standard focuses on Personnel Security (PS). PS seeks to minimize the associated risks to sensitive information environments accessed by Northeastern University employees (e.g., staff, faculty,) and contractors utilizing screening and protection capabilities.

Roles and Responsibilities

The following high-level functional roles support the personnel security processes for IT systems. In some cases, there may be more than one functional role associated with a specific process or task; similarly, more than one person may perform some roles. The following describe the roles and responsibilities associated with maintenance within the Northeastern University environment.

Chief Information Security Officer (CISO): Individual responsible for the overall Northeastern University information security program.

Office of Information Security (OIS): An organization or team employed by Northeastern University’s ITS department responsible for information security. The duties assigned to this role may be assigned to a single person employed by ITS/OIS.

System Administrator: An organization or individual responsible for setting up and maintaining an IT system, appliance, or specific IT system elements. This role revolves around hands on management of the IT system, usually more technical in nature than the System Owner. They are also responsible for implementing approved secure baseline configurations, incorporating secure configuration settings for IT products, and conducting/assisting with configuration monitoring activities as needed.

Depending on the size of the IT system, these responsibilities can be split across multiple skill-based domains listed below. These domains can be managed by separate teams across Northeastern University depending on the skills necessary to carry out the listed responsibilities.

• Infrastructure: manages any servers that are not aligned to a specific skill-based domain listed below.
• Network: manages all hardware and IT systems related to managing network communications.
• Security: manages all IT systems that ensure and confirm security of the environment. Sentinel,Defender, Tenable, Azure, Intune, Windows Cloud PC, etc.
• Desktop: manages the physical workstations and the software installed on them.
• Identity: manages IT systems that control identity-based access, like Entra ID.

System Owner: An individual or organization responsible for the development, procurement, integration, modification, operation, and maintenance, and/or final disposition of an information IT system.

Also responsible for maintaining the appropriate operational security posture for an IT system or enclave and for ensuring the information assurance of a program or organization. Depending on the size of the system, these responsibilities can be assigned to someone with a role closely aligned to that of an Information System Security Officer.

Standard

This standard is scoped primarily around a subset of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 800-171 controls to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information. The related NIST controls have been tagged (e.g., 3.9.1) in the text below to identify where each listed responsibility inherits its requirements from.

As the personnel security capability is matured over time, additional controls may be considered to augment confidentiality and address the availability and integrity of information. Additionally, when implementing the criterion of this document, organizations may choose to implement stricter criteria; however, the criterion cannot be lessened without formal exception by the Northeastern University Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) as described in the Compliance section of this standard.

Screen Personnel

(3.9.1) Individuals requiring access to Northeastern University IT systems, equipment, and operating environments must first pass a comprehensive background check. The Northeastern University Human Resource Department is authorized to perform the background check and approve the individuals’ access to information within any Northeastern University IT system environment. The Northeastern University Human Resource (HR) department begins the screening and background checks once a candidate accepts an offer of employment.

Protect Northeastern University During Personnel Actions

(3.9.2) Prior to an employee’s termination, the Northeastern University Human Resource department will notify the respective department(s) to submit an account revocation ticket for deactivation of any account owned by the terminating employee.

The System Administrator will disable access and credentials to the Northeastern University IT system once they receive the request ticket.

The System Owner will collect all related information (e.g., printouts, USB drives), devices (e.g., workstations) and access devices (e.g., badges, keys) before termination.

Definitions

The following definitions have been derived from industry standard definitions provided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Computer Security Resource Center Glossary1 and, where appropriate, tailored for Northeastern University’s IT environment.

Information Technology (IT): Computing and/or communications hardware and/or software components and related resources that can collect, store, process, maintain, share, transmit, or dispose of data. IT components include computers and associated peripheral devices, computer operating systems, utility/support software, and communications hardware and software.

Organization: An entity of any size, complexity, or positioning within an organizational structure (e.g., school, department, lab, operational elements).

Compliance

This standard complies with the directives defined in the Northeastern University Information Security Policy. The university recognizes that on rare occasions there might be compelling reasons to consider allowing an organization to operate outside of the criterion defined in this standard, as derived from the Northeastern University information Security Policy. To facilitate this consideration the System Owner must submit a petition for a risk-based policy exception in writing, including supporting rationale, and forward it to the Northeastern University CISO for review and approval. All approved risk-based policy exceptions must be formally documented by the Northeastern University CISO and indicate the exception duration (e.g., temporary, long-term). The Northeastern University CISO is responsible for disseminating and communicating all risk-based exception approvals and rescissions to the relevant stakeholders in a timely manner.

Change and Review Log

Date	Description	Version	Editor
12/17/2024	Initial draft	0.1	Esau Johnson
1/24/2025	Manager review before stakeholder review	0.2	Brad Wing
9/3/2025	Final draft approved by CISO	1.0	Brad Wing

Appendix A. NU Personnel Security Standard Summary

The table below summarizes the Northeastern University IT system environment minimum criteria for enabling personnel security capabilities within the Northeastern University IT system environments.

• The first column “Northeastern University Practice ID” identifies the related Northeastern University practice ID as defined in the NIST 800-171.
• The “Northeastern University Practice Statement” column includes the Northeastern University practices required to be met for that control.
• The third column, “Derived Requirement”, provides a description of the requirement derived from the high-level Northeastern University practice statement. Derived requirements were developed from analysis of the intent of the practice and the logical components required to satisfy the practice. In some instances, an Northeastern University practice statement may be derived into several requirements to be addressed to satisfy the Northeastern University practice.
• The final column, “Northeastern University IT system environment Criteria”, defines the minimum criteria (e.g., configurations, actions, responsibilities, practices, etc.) which the university will implement to satisfy the related Northeastern University practice.

Northeastern University Practice ID	Northeastern University Practice Statement	Derived Requirement	Northeastern University Environment Criteria (Northeastern University Practice Implementation)
3.9.1	Screen individuals prior to authorizing access to organizational systems containing sensitive information.	Background Check	The Northeastern University Human Resource Department is responsible for: • Performing the background check • Approve the individuals’ access to information within any Northeastern University IT system environment. • Screening and background checks once a candidate accepts an offer ofemployment.
3.9.2	Ensure that organizational systems containing Northeastern University are protected during and after personnel actions such as terminations and transfers.	Termination Notification	The Northeastern University Human Resource Department is responsible for: • Notify the respective department(s) to submit an account revocation ticket for deactivation of any account owned by the terminating employee.
		Personnel Action	The System Administrator is responsible for: • Disabling access and credentials to the Northeastern University IT system once they receive the request ticket.

Appendix B. Personnel Security References

The following list of references are common industry standards used to carry out the personnel security criterion defined within this standard.

1. NIST 800-53 (PS) domain, Personnel Security.

Personnel Security