PR.IR-02: The organization’s technology assets are protected from environmental threats

PR.IR-02 requires you to protect technology assets from environmental threats by identifying relevant hazards (fire, water, power, HVAC, physical conditions), implementing preventive and detective controls, and proving they work through testing and recurring evidence. Operationalize it by scoping covered assets, setting facility and cloud requirements, assigning owners, and collecting audit-ready artifacts. ¹

Key takeaways:

• Treat “environmental threats” as a control domain with clear scope, owners, and measurable requirements, not a facilities checklist. ¹
• Cover on-prem, colocation, and cloud by mapping asset criticality to required protections and third-party assurances. ¹
• Evidence is the common failure mode; build recurring collection (tests, inspections, tickets, attestations) into your control calendar. ²

PR.IR-02: the organization’s technology assets are protected from environmental threats requirement is easy to “agree with” and hard to defend under examination because the work spans IT, facilities, security, procurement, and third parties. You need a single, auditable story that connects: (1) which assets matter, (2) which environmental risks could impact them, (3) which controls prevent or detect those risks, and (4) what proof you retain that controls operate as designed.

For most CCOs and GRC leads, the fastest path is to treat PR.IR-02 like any other requirement-level control: define scope, set minimum requirements by environment type (office IT closet vs. data center vs. cloud), assign control owners, and establish recurring evidence collection. NIST CSF 2.0 states the outcome you must achieve, but it does not prescribe specific technologies; your job is to make the outcome testable in your environment. ¹

This page gives you implementation steps, the evidence set auditors ask for, common hangups, and a practical execution plan you can run with facilities and IT operations without turning it into a multi-quarter program.

Regulatory text

Requirement (excerpt): “The organization’s technology assets are protected from environmental threats.” ¹

Operator interpretation: You must reduce the likelihood and impact of environmental events that can damage, degrade, or interrupt technology assets (hardware, network gear, storage media, and supporting infrastructure). You also must be able to show, with evidence, that protections exist and are maintained over time, not just installed once. ¹

What “environmental threats” typically includes (define this in your policy):

• Fire and smoke (detection, suppression, compartmentalization)
• Water (leaks, flooding, sprinkler discharge, humidity/condensation)
• Power anomalies (outages, surges, brownouts)
• Temperature and HVAC failures (overheating, inadequate airflow)
• Physical conditions (dust, vibration, corrosion)
• Site hazards (adjacent construction, seismic risk, local weather patterns) You do not need to claim coverage for every conceivable hazard. You do need a documented method for identifying relevant threats and applying protections based on asset criticality and environment. ¹

Plain-English requirement interpretation (what “good” looks like)

A defensible PR.IR-02 implementation has these traits:

1. Scoped: You can list the technology assets and locations in scope (including third-party hosted environments).
2. Risk-informed: You can explain which environmental risks you considered and why.
3. Controlled: You have baseline requirements (controls) for each environment type.
4. Verified: You test or inspect key protections and retain results.
5. Owned: Facilities/IT/security responsibilities are explicit, with escalation paths.
6. Repeatable: Evidence collection is recurring and traceable to tickets, logs, or reports. ²

Who it applies to (entity and operational context)

PR.IR-02 applies to any organization running a cybersecurity program under NIST CSF 2.0, regardless of industry. ¹

Operationally, scope it across:

• On-prem locations: HQ, branch offices, warehouses, labs, manufacturing floors, retail sites
• Data center/colocation: Any racks/cages you operate or contract
• Cloud environments: IaaS/PaaS and any hosted appliances; environmental controls shift to the cloud provider, but your requirement shifts to assurance and configuration boundaries
• Remote/edge assets: Network gear, kiosks, IoT/OT where environmental conditions are a known risk
• Third parties: Colocation providers, managed service providers, and any party hosting or operating your technology assets (you still own the risk; they operate many controls)

What you actually need to do (step-by-step)

Step 1: Define scope and tiers (asset criticality)

• Build or reuse an asset inventory and tag assets by criticality (for example: mission-critical production systems vs. standard office IT).
• Map each asset to a location/environment type: office closet, dedicated server room, colocation, cloud region, industrial floor. Output: “PR.IR-02 Scope Register” (asset class, location, owner, criticality).

Step 2: Write minimum environmental protection requirements

Create a short standard (1–3 pages) that sets baseline requirements per environment type. Keep it testable. Examples of requirement statements:

• Server rooms require access-controlled entry and environmental monitoring appropriate to the equipment density.
• Critical sites require documented power protection and recovery procedures.
• Water risks are mitigated through placement, leak detection, or protective barriers where relevant.
• Cloud-hosted critical workloads require documented reliance on provider controls and your internal configuration responsibilities. Do not over-specify brands. Specify outcomes and verification methods. ¹

Step 3: Assign control ownership (RACI) across IT and facilities

Typical split:

• Facilities: HVAC, fire detection/suppression systems, building maintenance, water leak response
• IT operations: UPS status, server room standards, rack/room monitoring tools, backup hardware handling
• Security: physical access controls, alarm monitoring coordination
• GRC: requirement mapping, evidence calendar, exception tracking Output: RACI matrix and named control owner for PR.IR-02. ²

Step 4: Implement controls by environment type

Use a pragmatic control set:

On-prem server rooms / closets

• Environmental monitoring (temperature/humidity where needed)
• Documented housekeeping standards (no water lines overhead if avoidable; cable management; clearance from sprinklers where feasible)
• Physical security controls aligned to asset criticality
• Power protection appropriate to the site (UPS/surge protection and documented maintenance checks)

Data center / colocation

• Contractual requirements for environmental safeguards and incident notification
• Obtain and review third-party assurance (attestations, audit reports, or contractual right-to-audit results where available)
• Verify your cage/rack controls: access lists, visitor logs access process, escort requirements

Cloud

• Document shared responsibility: what the provider covers (facility-level environmental controls) and what you cover (architecture, availability patterns, backups, region selection)
• Ensure workload resilience decisions are recorded for critical systems (e.g., architecture choices tied to BCDR expectations)

Step 5: Build an exception process you can defend

Environmental gaps happen (legacy closets, leased spaces). Create an exception workflow:

• Business owner acceptance
• Compensating controls (e.g., enhanced monitoring, faster spares, relocation plan)
• Target remediation date or condition-based trigger (lease renewal, office move) Output: Exception register tied to PR.IR-02.

Step 6: Test, inspect, and retain evidence on a recurring cadence

Your evidence method can be a mix of:

• Preventive maintenance records
• Inspection checklists signed by responsible teams
• Monitoring screenshots/exports
• Incident tickets for environmental events and remediation
• Tabletop exercises focused on facility outages for critical sites (if that’s how you validate readiness) The key is repeatability and traceability from requirement to proof. ²

Step 7: Map PR.IR-02 to policy, procedure, owner, and evidence collection

This is the control that keeps PR.IR-02 from becoming “tribal knowledge.” Put it into your control library with: objective, scope, owner, frequency, evidence list, and testing approach. Daydream is useful here because it turns the mapping into a recurring workflow so evidence arrives on schedule instead of being chased during an audit. ²

Required evidence and artifacts to retain

Keep evidence in a single “PR.IR-02 binder” (folder + index). Auditors want completeness more than volume.

Core artifacts

• PR.IR-02 control narrative (objective, scope, owners, frequency) ¹
• Environmental protection standard (minimum requirements by environment type) ¹
• Asset/location scope register (critical assets mapped to sites/providers)

Operational evidence (examples)

• Facilities maintenance logs relevant to IT spaces (HVAC service records, alarm checks, suppression inspections)
• Environmental monitoring outputs (alerts, dashboard exports, threshold settings)
• UPS/generator or power-protection inspection records where applicable
• Colocation or cloud assurance documentation and your review notes
• Exception approvals and compensating control documentation
• Tickets/incidents showing response to leak/temperature/power events and post-incident fixes

Common exam/audit questions and hangups

“Show me which assets are covered.”
Hangup: asset inventory doesn’t map to physical locations or hosting model.

“Who owns environmental controls?”
Hangup: facilities says “IT owns the room,” IT says “facilities owns the building.”

“How do you know controls work?”
Hangup: controls exist, but there’s no test/inspection record.

“What about cloud?”
Hangup: teams assume provider coverage is automatic but can’t show shared responsibility analysis or assurance review. ¹

“How do you handle exceptions?”
Hangup: informal acceptance via email with no register and no compensating controls.

Frequent implementation mistakes (and how to avoid them)

1. Writing a policy with no site-specific requirements.
   Fix: add a standard with measurable requirements by environment type, then link sites to the standard.

2. Treating facilities documentation as “non-IT.”
   Fix: pull relevant facilities records into your cybersecurity evidence set; PR.IR-02 crosses domains. ¹

3. No evidence calendar.
   Fix: define what you collect, who collects it, and how often. Automate reminders in your GRC tooling; Daydream can manage recurring evidence requests and track completion against PR.IR-02. ²

4. Ignoring third-party hosted environments.
   Fix: add colocation/cloud assurance review to procurement and third-party risk workflows, with documented review notes.

5. Over-scoping environmental threats.
   Fix: document your risk identification method and tie it to business impact; don’t promise controls you cannot sustain.

Enforcement context and risk implications

No public enforcement cases were provided in the source catalog for PR.IR-02. Practically, failures here tend to surface as availability incidents, data loss events, and safety issues that trigger customer audits, contractual breaches, or regulator scrutiny under broader security and resilience expectations. Your main compliance risk is defensibility: you cannot show that protections are planned, owned, and maintained. ¹

Practical 30/60/90-day execution plan

Use this as an execution checklist; adjust sequencing to your change windows and facility constraints.

First 30 days (stabilize and define)

• Name PR.IR-02 control owner and backups; publish RACI.
• Produce the PR.IR-02 scope register for critical assets and their hosting locations.
• Draft minimum environmental protection requirements by environment type.
• Stand up an exception register and intake process.

Next 60 days (implement and evidence)

• Perform site walk-throughs (or remote attestations) for in-scope locations; record gaps and owners.
• Collect baseline evidence: monitoring configuration exports, maintenance records, physical access procedures.
• For colocation/cloud, gather assurance documents and document your review and any follow-ups.
• Configure recurring evidence tasks in your workflow (Daydream or your GRC system) tied to PR.IR-02. ²

Next 90 days (validate and operationalize)

• Close priority gaps or document compensating controls and timelines.
• Run at least one test of an environmental response path (e.g., power/HVAC outage escalation) and retain results.
• Review exceptions with leadership; approve remediation plans.
• Finalize your PR.IR-02 control narrative and evidence index for audit readiness.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does PR.IR-02 apply to cloud workloads if the provider runs the data centers?

Yes. The provider may operate facility-level controls, but you must document your reliance on those controls and your responsibilities for resilience, configuration, and assurance review. ¹

What counts as “technology assets” for this requirement?

Include hardware and infrastructure that store, process, or transmit organizational data, plus supporting components like network gear and storage media. Treat OT/IoT as in scope when environmental conditions can disrupt operations. ¹

How do I prove compliance without deploying new sensors everywhere?

Start with risk-based scope and evidence. For lower-criticality locations, documented inspections, facilities maintenance records, and incident tickets can be sufficient if your requirements are explicit and consistently followed. ²

Our facilities team won’t “own” cybersecurity controls. What’s the workaround?

Keep cybersecurity ownership in GRC/InfoSec, but assign operational responsibilities to facilities via a RACI and evidence obligations. Auditors care that someone is accountable and the work is done. ¹

What’s the minimum evidence set auditors usually accept?

A control narrative with scope and owners, a standard with measurable requirements, proof of operation (maintenance logs, monitoring outputs), and an exception register for gaps. Consistency across sites matters more than volume. ²

How should we handle leased offices where we can’t change building systems?

Document the constraint as an exception, add compensating controls you control (placement, monitoring, spares, response runbooks), and tie remediation to a trigger like lease renewal or office relocation. Retain the approval trail. ¹

Footnotes

1. NIST CSWP 29

2. NIST CSF 1.1 to 2.0 Core Transition Changes