When it comes to business, there aren’t many things out there more disruptive than a sudden cyberattack. Depending on the severity, a single attack is enough to bring even the biggest companies to a screeching halt. That’s why cybersecurity should be a top priority for any organization, regardless of size. If you want to keep your network secure, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) pillars can help.
Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover
For government organizations and businesses that contract with the government, it’s a requirement to be compliant with NIST. Included in the NIST are two standards known as 800-171 and 800-53. NIST SP 800-171 is a cybersecurity standard that requires all nonfederal computing systems to follow a set of rules for the storing, processing, and transferring of controlled unclassified information (CUI). NIST SP 800-53, on the other hand, covers federal institutions. The 800-53 provides a comprehensive layout of the guidelines on how government organizations should approach the development of secure and resilient federal information systems.
However, any company can improve its security by following the NIST framework steps. The NIST framework consists of five individual pillars: identify, protect, detect, respond, and recover. These pillars act as a backbone for all other cybersecurity measures. By following each step, you can bring your company closer to having holistic cybersecurity. But what do these functions entail?
Identify
The first part of the NIST framework involves identification. This function is about understanding how to manage cyber risks that affect systems, people, and data. It includes identifying regulatory requirements your company must meet to be cybersecurity compliant. Through identification, your organization can focus on its efforts to stay consistent with your established risk management strategies.
Protect
The next step in the cycle is the NIST protect function. This step calls for you to outline the safeguards your business has in place for protecting critical infrastructure. Its purpose is to support you in your attempts to limit or contain the impact of a cyberattack.
Detect
Are you actively monitoring your network and making sure all abnormal activity is being detected? Detection is an important part of keeping your company safe from cyberthreats. As its name suggests, the detect function is all about what you’re doing to detect threats in a timely fashion.
Respond
Once you detect something suspicious inside your network, what actions are you taking? Are you conducting forensic analysis to see where the activity came from? Did you activate mitigation tools to remove the threat from the system? This pillar is focused on what you do after detection, supporting your efforts to contain the impact of a threat.
Recover
The last part of the framework is recovery, which refers to timely recovery to normal operations. This is when you identify what actions are necessary to restore the capabilities or services of your business after a cyberattack. Defining your strategy to ensure the resilience of your business operations is also an important part of this step. One way you can develop a recovery program is by partnering with a third-party cybersecurity company and using their disaster recovery services.
How To Implement NIST
Building a cybersecurity program based on the NIST framework core can be intimidating. Being in compliance with the standards of NIST takes a lot of effort. Although challenging, it’s a worthwhile endeavor. A cybersecurity program that meets NIST regulation can stand up against the worst threats.
Fortunately, there’s a way to make NIST compliance simple. Certain managed services providers, like BL King, can offer NIST compliance services. This is a solution where compliance experts work together with your company to deploy NIST standards in the most straightforward and cost-effective way possible. In short, these experts take the burden off your shoulders and implement the solutions you need, allowing you to refocus your attention on running your business.
Make NIST Compliance Easy
When you need reliable cybersecurity solutions, you won’t find a better partner than BL King. As experts in compliance, our consultants can help your organization achieve your cybersecurity goals. From NIST to Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) and more, we offer everything you need to be compliant.
Interested in learning more about NIST compliance? Contact our team today and we can send more information your way.
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