NIST | Ntirety

How to Align Your Cybersecurity Strategy with the NIST Framework

In today’s digital age, cybersecurity is more critical than ever. Cyber threats are constantly evolving, and organizations of all sizes must be proactive in protecting their data and systems. Implementing the NIST Cybersecurity Framework is one of the most effective ways to enhance your cybersecurity posture.

What Is the NIST Cybersecurity Framework?

The NIST Cybersecurity Framework is a set of guidelines and best practices designed to help organizations manage and reduce cybersecurity risks. Developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), this framework is widely recognized and used by organizations across various industries to improve their cybersecurity defenses.

Key Benefits of the NIST Framework

Comprehensive Coverage: The NIST framework covers all aspects of cybersecurity, from identifying potential risks to responding to and recovering from incidents. This comprehensive approach ensures that no part of your cybersecurity strategy is overlooked.
Customizable to Your Needs: One of the strengths of the NIST framework is its flexibility. It can be tailored to fit the specific needs and resources of your organization, regardless of size or industry.
Alignment with Business Goals: The framework helps align cybersecurity efforts with your organization’s business objectives. This ensures that your cybersecurity strategy supports and enhances your business goals rather than hindering them.
Improved Risk Management: By following the NIST framework, organizations can better identify, assess, and manage cybersecurity risks. This proactive approach helps in prioritizing and addressing the most critical threats.
Enhanced Incident Response: The NIST framework includes guidelines for responding to and recovering from cybersecurity incidents. This ensures your organization is prepared to handle incidents effectively, minimizing damage and reducing recovery time.
Compliance and Best Practices: Implementing the NIST framework can help organizations comply with regulatory requirements and industry standards. It also ensures that you are following cybersecurity best practices recognized globally.

How the NIST Framework Works

The NIST Cybersecurity Framework is organized into five core functions:

Identify: Develop an understanding of your environment to manage cybersecurity risk to systems, assets, data, and capabilities.
Protect: Implement appropriate safeguards to ensure the delivery of critical services.
Detect: Develop and implement activities to identify the occurrence of a cybersecurity event.
Respond: Be prepared to act regarding a detected cybersecurity event.
Recover: Maintain plans for resilience and restore any capabilities or services impaired due to a cybersecurity event.

These functions provide a high-level, strategic view of the lifecycle of an organization’s management of cybersecurity risk.

Why Adopt the NIST Framework?

Adopting the NIST Cybersecurity Framework is a strategic move that can significantly strengthen your organization’s cybersecurity posture. It provides a structured approach to managing cybersecurity risks and ensures that your efforts are comprehensive, effective, and aligned with your business goals. By implementing the NIST framework, you can enhance your organization’s resilience against cyber threats and ensure that you are well-prepared to handle incidents that may arise.

How to Align Your Organization with the NIST Framework

Ntirety has developed a self-service, online security assessment to help organizations identify and address cybersecurity gaps and risks. The free assessment consists of 10 questions aligned with the NIST framework, covering the key areas: Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, Recover. Upon completion, you’ll receive a comprehensive report with tailored recommendations for each area, prioritized to help you tackle the most critical gaps first. This report is an excellent first step in upgrading your organization’s cybersecurity posture.

Click here to take the assessment and get started.

Ntirety is the leader in comprehensive managed services, partnering with organizations to modernize and secure today’s complex IT environment. Ntirety’s solutions span cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, data, and compliance, connecting mission-critical data across highly secure, available, and resilient environments.

If you’re looking to take the next steps in understanding and implementing the NIST CSF for your organization, the experts at Ntirety can help. Request a consultation to get started.

The NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0: A Guide to Implementation

The NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) is a set of best practices practices for improving cybersecurity published by the US Government’s National Institute of Standards and Technology. It was originally designed to help organizations deemed to be part of a ‘Critical Infrastructure Sector’ identify, assess, and manage their cybersecurity risks. Over time the NIST CSF has traversed across industries, and today it can be configured to meet the specific needs of almost any organization.

The first version of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework was introduced almost ten years ago, and was divided into five functions:

Identify: Identify assets that need to be protected, threats and vulnerabilities that could impact those assets, and potential consequences of a security incident.
Protect: Implement security controls to protect the organization’s assets from threats and vulnerabilities.
Detect: Detect security incidents as early as possible.
Respond: Respond to security incidents in a timely and effective manner.
Recover: Recover from security incidents and minimize their impact.

Version 2.0 of the CSF includes a new pillar called “Govern.” This pillar focuses on the organizational structures, policies, and processes that support cybersecurity. The Govern pillar includes the following subcategories:

Policy: The policies that define the organization’s cybersecurity requirements.
Procedures: The procedures that describe how the organization’s policies are implemented.
Roles and Responsibilities: The roles and responsibilities of individuals and teams involved in cybersecurity.
Culture: The organization’s culture and values related to cybersecurity.
Metrics and Measurement: The metrics and measurements used to track the organization’s cybersecurity performance.

The Govern pillar is essential for successful implementation of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. By ensuring strong governance is in place, an organization can improve their cybersecurity posture and reduce their risk of a security incident.

Version 2.0 also expands the framework’s scope and enhances guidance. The NIST CSF is now applicable to all organizations, regardless of their type, size, or whether they’re part of the “Critical Infrastructure Sector” or not. The updated framework also introduces guidance on creating “profiles,” which aim to tailor the CSF for a variety of situations. For example, there is now a profile for smaller firms who’d like to address their cybersecurity needs.

As you can see, the NIST Cybersecurity Framework is both comprehensive and straightforward. And, with the release of Version 2.0, it’s now inclusive. By implementing the CSF, any organization can improve their cybersecurity posture and reduce their risk of a security incident. The benefits of implementing the complete NIST CSF can be significant, yet implementation can be quite challenging.

Here are some of the primary reasons why implementation of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework is so complex:

The comprehensive nature of the framework means it includes a lot of detail, which can make it difficult to understand and implement.
There is no “one size fits all” configuration; the CSF must be configured to meet the specific needs of each individual organization.
Implementation of the CSF can be time-consuming, resource intensive, and costly.
Implementation requires a commitment from the entire organization, from top management down to individual employees.

Despite its complexities, taking the time to fully understand and implement the NIST Cybersecurity Framework can prove immensely valuable for your organization. This is especially true as data continues to become more valuable – and the bad actors going after this data (and the technology they use) continue to get smarter. If your organization were to experience a cybersecurity breach or your data were to be exposed, the ramifications could be catastrophic. The cost of inaction could prove to be greater than investment in implementing the NIST CSF.

So, how would an organization go about implementing the NIST CSF? Here are some tips for getting started:

Start by understanding the CSF. Read the framework carefully and get familiar with the terminology and concepts.
Assess your organization’s cybersecurity posture. This will help identify the areas where you need to improve.
Develop a specific, measurable plan for implementing the CSF.
Get buy-in from top management and all employees.
Focus on the new “Govern” pillar, as it’s the foundation for successful implementation.
Monitor and evaluate the implementation, to identify positive changes and areas of improvement.

While this list provides a good starting point, implementing the NIST Cybersecurity Framework can be a daunting task. If your organization lacks the resources, expertise, or simply the time to do this on your own, there are security service providers who can guide you through the process, and some that can even help you implement it. Ntirety has been connecting mission critical data across highly secure, available, and resilient environments for over 25 years, and has guided and implemented the NIST Cybersecurity Framework for customers through our comprehensive, NIST CSF-oriented approach to security. Ntirety is here to help organizations like yours reduce risk, reduce complexity, free up IT, optimize spend, and strengthen cybersecurity posture overall.

If you’re looking to take the next steps in understanding and implementing the NIST CSF for your organization, the experts at Ntirety can help. To get started, visit us at ntirety.com.

CFO Focus on Cybersecurity: NIST and Ntirety

C-Levels, and specifically CFOs and other financial executives, have increasingly used NIST standards to respond to cybersecurity requirements and the significant data risks they address. This transition of framework practices is possible in large part due to the existence of similar controls and measures in traditional finance operations.

The NIST framework helps organizations define full-cycle solutions for assisting in planning and management, measurement and analysis, and response systems. The systems can provide answers and refinement to issues such as:

Defining asset protection in strategy and planning
Plans to meet the requirements of critical infrastructure operations
Evaluation of incident response capabilities
Evaluation of incident communication plans
Identification of critical assets, along with risks and vulnerabilities
Plans to meet the standards of regulatory requirements

The list expands from there and, as described in the previous article, an organization can use the NIST framework to quickly build a roadmap to better security. Perhaps the biggest takeaway is that effective cybersecurity programs are proactive and continuous, aligning with operational strategies throughout. Additionally, frameworks can serve as a specific backbone towards maintenance and improvement.

NIST Highlights

Let’s dig into the tenants of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, which is composed of the following five elements:

Identify: Identify the cybersecurity risk (vulnerabilities) to systems, people, assets, data, and capabilities
Protect: Safeguard to ensure delivery of critical services
Detect: Identify the occurrence of a cybersecurity event
Respond: Take action regarding a detected cybersecurity incident
Recover: Support timely recovery to normal operations to reduce the impact from a cybersecurity incident

The framework helps companies create measures for practical cyber-incident prevention, response, and overall security design.

Ntirety: Beyond NIST

At some point, cybersecurity framework outcomes need to align with efforts. Cybersecurity is unique because of the systems and requirements involved; when cybersecurity is applied in a company environment, it is always layered through activities that build towards a complete solution. Complete is what we should all strive for, where nothing is left unmonitored, unverified, or unanswered.

Ntirety answers the total solution by leveraging its approach to NIST outcomes. Ntirety groups the five elements outlined above into two broad categories: Protection and Recovery. It wraps the elements within an Assurance service designed to ensure the enterprise meets any outside requirements and the standards it has set for itself.

Figure 1: Ntirety Cybersecurity Framework Grouping – Comprehensive Compliant Security

Finance leaders will recognize the following categories, which are contextually analogous to NIST frameworks. First, we can regroup the NIST framework elements by dividing them into the two primary categories that define Internal Control frameworks, which are:

Preventive

Identify: Finding the vulnerabilities
Protect: Implementing the systems and applications to close the identified vulnerabilities

Detective or Mitigating

Detect: Identify the occurrence of cybersecurity events
Respond: Take action against the CS event
Recover: Timely return to normal operations, minimizing the impact of the cybersecurity incident

Most Competitors are Single Track

By comparison, every competitor falls into an approach that offers these general services:

Protection Focus

Assessment Firms: Primarily do project-based work to identify cybersecurity vulnerabilities
Protection Technology Firms: Often hardware or application vendors (i.e. firewall firms, endpoint protection technology companies)

Detection/Mitigation Focus

Managed Detection & Response (MDR) Service/Technology Providers
Firms that specialize in mitigating cybersecurity incidents by identifying and addressing the cybersecurity event.  These firms are mix of technology providers to facilitate MDR and service providers

DRAAS & Backup Service Providers

A mix of application and service providers, providing technologies or the DR or backup service.  These are often not focused on security, but only in providing recovery from a platform or application failure

COMPREHENSIVE Compliant Security is Different

Unlike the competition, Ntirety’s comprehensive security solutions encompass both Protection and Mitigation in the context of financial controls. Further, unlike MDR firms Ntirety provides Secure Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) and Backup services. The competition generally addresses only a portion of the five elements of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, leaving the enterprise to manage the interoperation of various services, technologies, and applications – and often to execute the response actions provided by their MDR service providers.

Ntirety: NIST Foundation and Financial Sanctity

Corporate governance, auditing, and frameworks allow executives, employees, and shareholders to keep financials in line with expectations. In cybersecurity, similar measures help guide a countless number of companies on their journey to improved operations and capability to respond and recover from cybersecurity incidents. Ntirety has built an industry-unique Comprehensive Compliance Security system that covers the complete NIST framework, adding Assurance to its features. With comprehensive Ntirety services, clients excel on their cybersecurity initiatives and benefit from more than 25 years of experience in designing, building, operating, and securing client environments.

CFO Focus on Cybersecurity: Why NIST Cybersecurity Frameworks Matter

From the moment any data system comes online, it is at risk of breach. Modern workloads and data reside, change, and grow in a medium of capabilities and simultaneous risk. In the wild, more than a million cyberattacks occur on the web on average each day. The odds of avoiding becoming a target are simply not very good. The need for continual cybersecurity measures is extremely prevalent, and there is a call for programs that feature heightened vigilance and performance in the face of modern threats.

Threats to Financial Teams

Financial teams are in an especially exposed position. Their data is a high-value target treading in a mass of computing largesse, and any leak could pose an existential threat to their careers, not to mention the company itself. The implications of just one successful attack could cost millions, and thus CFOs have grown to be shared custodians of cybersecurity initiatives. CFO executives have started to focus on cybersecurity solutions with more emphasis than ever before, and to explore the depths of current cybersecurity threat conditions. What this exploration has revealed is that the familiar benefits of frameworks can be applied towards solutions.

The Familiarity of Frameworks

Framework systems build on basic concepts and controls, and work as scaffolding systems that guide efforts through reporting, analysis, and workflows. Financial professionals are familiar with frameworks, as the framework is the core of financial operations. Without it, a business would lose control over finances and ultimately fail to succeed.

Over the years, as threat and risk conditions have escalated, the setting for advanced cybersecurity measures has moved out of the server room (and the hands of information technology teams) and to the executive table. Championed by the CFO and other executives, this change demands direct access to the board and the budget planning process. Cybersecurity investments are critical and significant, and along with those characterizations the familiar standards of frameworks have proven to provide valuable measurement of risks, controls, and performance.

The NIST Standard

One of the most accepted cybersecurity frameworks is the NIST standard known as the “NIST Cybersecurity Framework.” The NIST Cybersecurity Framework covers five key functions:

Identify
Protect
Detect
Respond
Recover

Organizations are leveraging this framework as an anchor to build an approach that is repeatable, flexible, prioritized, cost-effective, and based on performance. In other words, the NIST framework checks all the boxes as it offers guidance and assistance toward the management of cybersecurity risks. Prevention, ruling measures, and the ability to recover in the event of an attack are all rolled into the framework.

The NIST framework has gained merit with C-suites, boards, and CFOs, and it’s important to recognize its value in the cybersecurity conversation – and in providing a high-level overview of the business and its protections. Digging deeper, specific NIST publications (SP 800-171 and SP 800-53, as examples) offer more than 100 controls and measures and provide a roadmap to a better secured, lower risk future. These serve as the vehicle of justification for cybersecurity initiatives, creating greater success in the mission and for the business.

Cybersecurity as Business Imperative

Once relegated to information technology teams, cybersecurity has taken on an appropriate scope of enterprise-wide focus. Financial executives have stepped up to the risks and challenges of an age where traditional security mindsets cannot meet the standards of acceptance. Due to its existential nature and massive financial implications, cybersecurity has become the most significant risk to the business. Security frameworks have created a consumable channel at the executive table, providing valuable guidance towards better security practices and technologies.

With any framework in place, the business begins to gain insight into and confidence in its measures. This applies in both financial matters and cybersecurity. With cybersecurity frameworks, organizations can leverage the virtual blueprints that emerge to create effective actions that feed directly into their cybersecurity infrastructure. These frameworks can take their place in technology decisions, as planning plus action equals results and improvements. Cybersecurity frameworks such as NIST help organizations assess and build actionable plans and determine exposure to risks.

Cybersecurity guidance that is derived from a framework approach offers the most value when tactical points are matched up to actions. Organizations can pragmatically build out on a custom cyber-resilience strategy that aligns with the extremely individual context of an organization’s assumption of risks.

How Ntirety Can Help

Ntirety Compliance Services provide a comprehensive and reliable solution for ensuring your business remains compliant with industry regulations and NIST standards. Our team of experienced compliance experts will work closely with you to assess your current compliance posture, identify any potential gaps, and develop a customized plan to help your organization achieve and maintain compliance. With Ntirety services, you can feel confident your business is meeting all the necessary requirements and avoid costly penalties or other negative consequences. By choosing Ntirety Compliance Services, you can focus on running your business while we take care of the complicated compliance issues.

Assess Your Risk