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Governance, Risk, Audit & Privacy · Intermediate

Authorization to Operate (ATO)

Official management decision by an authorizing official to accept the risk of operating a federal information system.

Definition

An ATO is granted after review of the authorization package and indicates residual risk is acceptable. It may have conditions and a termination date or be ongoing under continuous monitoring. Variants include interim authorization to test (IATT), common control authorization, and type authorization.

Example

A FedRAMP agency ATO lets an agency use a SaaS product for moderate-impact data.

Exam tip

The ATO is a risk acceptance decision, not proof that a system is secure.

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