What are the main safeguarding controls in DoD 5200.48?

• A. Physical safeguards only.
• B. Administrative safeguards only.
• C. Technical safeguards only.
• D. Physical, administrative, and technical safeguards, plus training and incident response.

Answer: (D)

Safeguarding controls rely on a layered, comprehensive approach that spans physical, administrative, and technical measures. Physical safeguards protect the actual environment and equipment—things like controlled access to facilities, locks, and secure rooms. Administrative safeguards cover the governance side—policies, risk management, personnel security, access approvals, and ongoing training to ensure people follow the rules. Technical safeguards are the technology tools that enforce protection—encryption, strong authentication, access controls, monitoring, and auditing of systems and data.

DoD 5200.48 emphasizes not only these three domains but also the need for training and an incident response capability. Training ensures individuals know how to handle information securely and recognize risks, while incident response procedures provide a prepared, coordinated way to detect, respond to, and recover from incidents. Because of this integrated, multi-faceted approach, the best answer includes physical, administrative, and technical safeguards plus training and incident response.

Options that focus on only one domain miss essential parts of the protection framework and the requirement for proactive training and incident handling.