United States Code
USC most recently checked for updates: Jun 09, 2025
§ 5727.
Definitions
In this subchapter:
(1)
The term “availability” means ensuring timely and reliable access to and use of information.
(2)
The term “confidentiality” means preserving authorized restrictions on access and disclosure, including means for protecting personal privacy and proprietary information.
(3)
The term “control techniques” means methods for guiding and controlling the operations of information systems to ensure adherence to the provisions of subchapter III of chapter 35 of title 44 and other related information security requirements.
(4)
The term “data breach” means the loss, theft, or other unauthorized access, other than those incidental to the scope of employment, to data containing sensitive personal information, in electronic or printed form, that results in the potential compromise of the confidentiality or integrity of the data.
(5)
The term “data breach analysis” means the process used to determine if a data breach has resulted in the misuse of sensitive personal information.
(6)
The term “fraud resolution services” means services to assist an individual in the process of recovering and rehabilitating the credit of the individual after the individual experiences identity theft.
(7)
The term “identity theft” has the meaning given such term under section 603 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681a).
(8)
The term “identity theft insurance” means any insurance policy that pays benefits for costs, including travel costs, notary fees, and postage costs, lost wages, and legal fees and expenses associated with efforts to correct and ameliorate the effects and results of identity theft of the insured individual.
(9)
The term “information owner” means an agency official with statutory or operational authority for specified information and responsibility for establishing the criteria for its creation, collection, processing, dissemination, or disposal, which responsibilities may extend to interconnected systems or groups of interconnected systems.
(10)
The term “information resources” means information in any medium or form and its related resources, such as personnel, equipment, funds, and information technology.
(11)
The term “information security” means protecting information and information systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction in order to provide integrity, confidentiality, and availability.
(12)
The term “information security requirements” means information security requirements promulgated in accordance with law, or directed by the Secretary of Commerce, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Office of Management and Budget, and, as to national security systems, the President.
(13)
(14)
The term “integrity” means guarding against improper information modification or destruction, and includes ensuring information non-repudiation and authenticity.
(15)
The term “national security system” means an information system that is protected at all times by policies and procedures established for the processing, maintenance, use, sharing, dissemination or disposition of information that has been specifically authorized under criteria established by statute or Executive Order to be kept classified in the interest of national defense or foreign policy.
(16)
The term “plan of action and milestones”, means a plan used as a basis for the quarterly reporting requirements of the Office of Management and Budget that includes the following information:
(A)
A description of the security weakness.
(B)
The identity of the office or organization responsible for resolving the weakness.
(C)
An estimate of resources required to resolve the weakness by fiscal year.
(D)
The scheduled completion date.
(E)
Key milestones with estimated completion dates.
(F)
Any changes to the original key milestone date.
(G)
The source that identified the weakness.
(H)
The status of efforts to correct the weakness.
(17)
The term “principal credit reporting agency” means a consumer reporting agency as described in section 603(p) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681a(p)).
(18)
The term “security incident” means an event that has, or could have, resulted in loss or damage to Department assets, or sensitive information, or an action that breaches Department security procedures.
(19)
The term “sensitive personal information”, with respect to an individual, means any information about the individual maintained by an agency, including the following:
(A)
Education, financial transactions, medical history, and criminal or employment history.
(B)
Information that can be used to distinguish or trace the individual’s identity, including name, social security number, date and place of birth, mother’s maiden name, or biometric records.
(20)
The term “subordinate plan”, also referred to as a “system security plan”, means a plan that defines the security controls that are either planned or implemented for networks, facilities, systems, or groups of systems, as appropriate, within a specific accreditation boundary.
(21)
The term “training” means a learning experience in which an individual is taught to execute a specific information security procedure or understand the information security common body of knowledge.
(22)
The term “VA National Rules of Behavior” means a set of Department rules that describes the responsibilities and expected behavior of personnel with regard to information system usage.
(23)
The term “VA sensitive data” means all Department data, on any storage media or in any form or format, which requires protection due to the risk of harm that could result from inadvertent or deliberate disclosure, alteration, or destruction of the information and includes information whose improper use or disclosure could adversely affect the ability of an agency to accomplish its mission, proprietary information, and records about individuals requiring protection under applicable confidentiality provisions.
(Added Pub. L. 109–461, title IX, § 902(a), Dec. 22, 2006 , 120 Stat. 3457; amended Pub. L. 111–275, title X, § 1001(m)(2), Oct. 13, 2010 , 124 Stat. 2897.)
cite as: 38 USC 5727
