Security News > 2021 > March > NIST Cybersecurity Framework: A cheat sheet for professionals
TechRepublic's cheat sheet about the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Cybersecurity Framework is a quick introduction to this new government recommended best practice, as well as a "Living" guide that will be updated periodically to reflect changes to the NIST's documentation.
Executive summaryWhat is the NIST Cybersecurity Framework? The NIST CSF is a set of optional standards, best practices, and recommendations for improving cybersecurity and risk management at the organizational level.
NIST wrote the CSF at the behest of Obama in 2014.Why does the NIST Cybersecurity Framework matter? As cyberattacks become more complex, repelling them becomes more difficult, especially without a single cohesive strategy for information security and private sector organizations.
Who does the NIST Cybersecurity Framework affect? The CSF affects anyone who makes decisions about cybersecurity and cybersecurity risks in their organizations, and those responsible for implementing new IT policies.
Trump's 2017 cybersecurity executive order made it federal government policy, and in 2018 NIST released an updated version of the CSF, version 1.1.How can I implement the NIST Cybersecurity Framework? NIST has thorough documentation of the CSF on its website, along with links to FAQs, industry resources and other information necessary to ease enterprise transition into a CSF world.
"If NIST learns that industry is not prepared for a new update, or sufficient features have not been identified to warrant an update, NIST continues to collect comments and suggestions for feature enhancement, bringing those topics to the annual Cybersecurity Risk Management Conference for discussion, until such a time that an update is warranted," NIST said.