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Under FIPS 199, a loss of confidentiality, integrity or availability with a serious adverse effect is rated at which impact level?

Moderate. Limited adverse effect is Low, and severe or catastrophic is High.

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  1. Low
  2. Moderate ✔
  3. High

Why: FIPS 199 uses three potential impact levels. Low means limited harm, Moderate means serious harm, and High means severe or catastrophic harm. Organizations use them to categorize systems and decide which controls to apply.

Huh, didn't know that: FIPS 199 applies the impact levels separately to confidentiality, integrity and availability.

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Data classification: Low, Moderate, High. My lunch order: Light, Regular, Mistakes Were Made.
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References

Answer: Moderate. FIPS 199 uses three potential impact levels. Low means limited harm, Moderate means serious harm, and High means severe or catastrophic harm. Organizations use them to categorize systems and decide which controls to apply.

  1. FIPS 199, Standards for Security Categorization of Federal Information and Information Systems nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/FIPS/NIST.FIPS.199.pdf
    The loss of confidentiality, integrity, or availability could be expected to have a serious adverse effect on organizational operations, organizational assets, or individuals.
    Checked 2026-10-10.

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