What is NIST Cyber Security?
As your business or organization grows, so does the risk for potential cyber threats. That’s why as you grow and improve, your cyber security practices should improve too! NIST Cyber Security actually refers to the Cyber Security Framework (CSF) created by The National Institute of Technology (NIST).
The National Institute of Standards and Technology is a sector of the U.S. Department of Commerce, although their Cyber Security Framework has become the industry standard globally. In fact, the CSF acts as a voluntary framework to provide organizations with guidance on preventing, detecting, and responding to cyberattacks.
The Five Key Functions of The NIST Cyber Security Framework
The NIST Cyber Security Framework is organized into five key functions:
Identify
Develop an organizational understanding to manage cybersecurity risk to systems, assets, data, and capabilities.Â
Protect
Develop and implement the appropriate safeguards to ensure delivery of services.
Detect
Develop and implement the appropriate activities to identify the occurrence of a cybersecurity event.Â
Respond
Develop and implement the appropriate activities to take action regarding a detected cybersecurity event.
Recover
Develop and implement the appropriate activities to maintain plans for resilience and to restore any capabilities or services that were impaired due to a cybersecurity event.
The NIST Cyber Security Framework and Enterprise Security
The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security outlines a path to enterprise security and references The NIST Cyber Security Framework as an integral component.
No matter if your organization is small, medium, or on its way to becoming an enterprise, cyber security should always be part of the equation. The only changing factor is the extent of the cyber security measures in place.
According to The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, small and medium businesses need to focus on baseline controls and organizational controls before all else. Particularly, baseline and organization controls include:
- Assess Organizational Size (Organizational)
- Determine What Information Technology is in Scope (Organizational)
- Determine the Value of Information Systems and Assets (Organizational)
- Confirm the Cyber Security Threat Level (Organizational)
- Confirm Cyber Security Investment Levels (Organizational)
- Develop an Incident Response Plan (Baseline)
- Automatically Patch Operating Systems and Applications (Baseline)
- Enable Security Software (Baseline)
- Securely Configure Devices (Baseline)
- Use Strong User Authentication (Baseline)
- Provide Employee Awareness Training (Baseline)
- Backup and Encrypt Data (Baseline)
- Secure Mobility (Baseline)
- Establish Basic Perimeter Defences (Baseline)
- Secure Cloud and Outsourced IT Services (Baseline)
- Secure Websites (Baseline)
- Implement Access Control and Authorization (Baseline)
- Secure Portable Media (Baseline)
Once an organization has these in place, they can move on to further tools and best practices (like the NIST Cyber Security Framework) that adapt to their team as they scale.
QuickProtect and The NIST Cyber Security Framework
As an established provider and educator of cyber security best practices, QuickProtect incorporates The NIST Cyber Security Framework in our services to help manage and mitigate risk.
With this framework in place, QuickProtect is ready at a moment’s notice to diagnose and triage a cyber security situation to protect your organization. Explicitly, we identify and gain an understanding of your organization, and create a full-circle solution to protect your organization that ensures the help you need. With these tools, we will be able to detect and respond to any cybersecurity breach occurring within your organization. Overall, we develop a recovery plan to get your organization back on track, stronger than ever.
QuickProtect can help your organization get where they need to be, whether it’s discovering your baseline controls or improving your cyber security as you grow towards enterprise status. Get in touch to book a demo with one of our experts, or reach out to ask any questions you may have!
