A guide to the latest version of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework to achieve compliance and improve security standing
By Chris Sirianni, President & Founder
Cybersecurity professionals rely heavily on NIST compliance to protect sensitive information from hackers and potential data breaches. What is NIST compliance in cyber security? NIST compliance is a set of regulatory requirements developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). These standards are designed to help organizations manage and reduce cybersecurity risks.
Learn all about NIST compliance—what it is, why it’s important, and how to get there.
WHAT IS NIST COMPLIANCE?
NIST compliance is about adhering to the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF). The goal is to promote the data protection of critical infrastructure. The framework helps organizations to manage and reduce their cybersecurity risks. In essence, NIST compliance means implementing the recommended security requirements. It also involves maintaining them to ensure ongoing protection against cyber threats
Understanding NIST Compliance
The purpose of a NIST compliance guide is to create a structure for handling cybersecurity threats. This framework is not a universal solution. Rather, it is a flexible guide that can easily be adjusted to the specific needs of individual companies.
Becoming NIST compliant is not a legal requirement for all organizations. However, it is mandatory for federal agencies and their contractors. For non-government sectors, it serves as a best practice guide. It helps to establish robust cybersecurity measures and manage information security risks effectively.
Fulfilling NIST Compliance Requirements
The NIST compliance framework includes 110 requirements in five core categories. Each category addresses a different aspect of an organization’s IT ecosystem, from data and access management to preventative security and disaster recovery measures.
WHAT IS THE NIST CYBERSECURITY FRAMEWORK?
The NIST Cybersecurity Framework is the U.S. Government’s requirements for establishing cyber and information security standards. Compliance is mandatory for all government contractors and subcontractors. However, the frameworks also establish industry best practices that are useful for other organizations.
The NIST Framework: A Closer Look
The NIST Cybersecurity Framework is a voluntary guide. It’s designed for organizations to manage and reduce cybersecurity risks. The framework is built around five core functions. These are Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover.
Each function is further divided into categories and subcategories. These detail specific outcomes of cybersecurity activities. The NIST Framework is not a checklist. Rather, it’s a set of best practices that organizations can customize to their specific needs and risks.
- Identify: Develop an organizational understanding of managing cybersecurity risk to systems, assets, data, and capabilities.
- Protect: Implement appropriate safeguards to ensure the delivery of critical infrastructure services.
- Detect: Implement appropriate activities to identify the occurrence of a cybersecurity event.
- Respond: Take action regarding a detected cybersecurity incident.
- Recover: Develop and implement appropriate activities to maintain plans for resilience and to restore any capabilities or services that were impaired due to a cybersecurity incident.
WHAT IS NIST CSF 2.0?
The NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) is a voluntary set of standards, guidelines, and best practices for improving the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure and other organizations. It was first released in 2014 and has since been widely adopted by various sectors and industries, both in the U.S. and internationally.
In April 2018, NIST released an updated version of the CSF, dubbed CSF 2.0, which incorporates feedback from stakeholders and reflects the evolving threat landscape and emerging technologies. The main changes in CSF 2.0 include:
- A new section on self-assessing cybersecurity risk, which provides guidance on how to measure and communicate the effectiveness of the CSF implementation.
- An expanded section on identity management and access control, emphasizing the need for secure authentication and authorization mechanisms, especially for remote and mobile devices.
- A revised section on supply chain risk management, which addresses the challenges of managing the security of third-party vendors and service providers.
- An updated section on coordinated vulnerability disclosure, which encourages organizations to establish processes for receiving and responding to reports of security weaknesses from external sources.
The core structure of the CSF remains the same, consisting of five functions: Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover. Each function is further divided into categories and subcategories, which describe specific outcomes and activities for achieving cybersecurity objectives.
The CSF also provides informative references, which link the subcategories to existing standards, guidelines, and practices from various sources, such as NIST, ISO, COBIT, and CIS.
WHY USE IT INSIGHTS FOR NIST CSF 2.0?
IT Insights offers cloud services that provide comprehensive visibility and control over your IT environment, including your devices, applications, networks, and users. We help you monitor, manage, and secure your IT assets, as well as optimize your IT performance and costs.
IT Insights can help you adhere to NIST CSF 2.0 in several ways, such as helping you:
- Identify your assets, risks, and gaps by providing a complete inventory of your IT assets, their configuration, status, and vulnerabilities, and a risk score.
- Protect your assets by enabling you to enforce policies and controls such as patch management, antivirus, encryption, backup, firewall, and VPN across your IT environment, as well as manage user access and privileges, using role-based and multi-factor authentication.
- Detect and respond to incidents, by alerting you to any anomalies, threats, or breaches, and providing you with the tools and guidance to investigate and remediate them, such as incident response plans, forensic analysis, and automated actions.
- Recover from incidents by restoring your data and systems to their normal state, using backup and restore capabilities, and providing you with reports and recommendations to prevent recurrence and improve your resilience.
IT Insights also integrates with other trusted security partners, to provide you with additional expertise, services, and solutions, to enhance your security posture and compliance.
HOW IT INSIGHTS ACHIEVES NIST STANDARDS
Achieving NIST Compliance is a process. It involves several steps that we help organizations follow.
The first step is to create a personal compliance program, based on the NIST Framework. This includes becoming familiar with the core functions, categories, and subcategories of an organization. Then a risk assessment is conducted. This involves identifying an organization’s assets, threats, vulnerabilities, and risks.
Based on the risk assessment, we can then select appropriate security controls. These controls should be implemented to mitigate the identified risks. After implementing the controls, we help monitor their effectiveness. This involves regular audits and assessments.
Challenges and Best Practices
Achieving and maintaining NIST Cybersecurity Framework compliance is not without its challenges. Organizations must contend with the evolving nature of cyber threats, the complexity of their IT environments, and resource constraints.
To overcome these challenges, it’s essential to adopt best practices such as regular risk assessments, continuous employee training, and the integration of cybersecurity into business processes. Additionally, staying informed about changes to the NIST framework and related regulations will ensure your compliance efforts are always up to date.
Maintaining NIST Compliance
An NIST Compliance control map needs to be constantly adapted to keep up with changing technology. New threats emerge all the time. It’s an ongoing process that organizations need to continuously monitor their compliance while regularly updating their security controls.
Tailor security measures to your needs by understanding the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and its core functions. NIST compliance is a continuous process that calls for constant attention and adjustments. With IT Insights’ support and expertise, navigate the journey with confidence.
GET STARTED WITH IT INSIGHTS AND NIST CSF 2.0
If you are interested in using IT Insights to implement NIST CSF 2.0, you can follow these simple steps:
01
Identify your priorities and goals for improving your cybersecurity and compliance.
02
Implement the recommended actions and controls to address your gaps and risks.
03
Monitor your progress and performance using the IT Insights reports and analytics.
04
Contact your IT Insights representative for any questions or assistance.
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