Advanced Tips for Leveraging the NIST Cybersecurity Framework for Compliance

Depending on the industry, location, and business operations of your organization, you may have any number of cybersecurity regulations to comply with. Keeping track of each law that affects your organization and the various requirements associated with them can be overwhelming, but the consequences of noncompliance are often far worse.

While diligent adherence to regulatory requirements is not a one-and-done task, following commonly accepted cybersecurity frameworks is an effective way to fulfill many of these requirements. The National Institute of Standards and Technology Cybersecurity Framework (NIST CSF) is one such framework, providing thorough guidance to help organizations develop security strategies, mitigate risk, and maintain compliance with regulations and industry standards.

About the NIST Cybersecurity Framework

The NIST CSF was originally published in 2014 and was designed to provide cybersecurity guidance to critical infrastructure organizations. Developments in threat trends, technological advances, and the digital landscape led to the NIST CSF 2.0. The newer edition of the framework features an expanded scope to organizations across all industries, as well as changes to the guidance it offers.

The NIST Cybersecurity Framework presents advice in six key areas:

• Governance: Establishing, communicating, and monitoring the organization’s cybersecurity strategy, policies, and measures.
• Identification: Locating, understanding, and documenting all of the software, hardware, and data under the purview of the organization and creating policies that clearly address user roles and responsibilities in threat prevention and mitigation.
• Protection: Controlling and monitoring network access, encrypting sensitive data, performing regular backups, implementing security awareness training (SAT) and cybersecurity tools and solutions.
• Detection: Monitoring devices and networks for unauthorized, unusual, or suspicious users, connections, and activities that may indicate a cyberthreat.
• Response: Developing and regularly testing preparations for use in case of an attack, including plans for notifying customers and employees, minimizing business disruptions, reporting to authorities, and investigating and containing the threat.
• Recovery: Remediating the attack by restoring hardware and software that was affected by the threat and continuing to update customers and employees on the progress of remediation.

Compliance with the NIST CSF is not necessarily a comprehensive way to address all regulations, but following the guidelines of the framework can go a long way toward protecting any organization against cyberattacks. Preventing attacks, mitigating damage, and maintaining compliance with mandatory regulations can be made much easier with the help of guidelines from organizations like NIST.

Leveraging the NIST CSF for Compliance with Regulations

The NIST Cybersecurity Framework, along with additional NIST publications and other guidance, can be used to meet compliance requirements in a wide range of areas, from internationally enforced data privacy regulations to industry-specific protections. Many of the most commonly applied regulations require some of the same measures and practices to prevent attacks and mitigate threats. The NIST CSF offers guidance that can help maintain compliance with regulations such as:

• HIPAA: The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Security Rule and Privacy Rule are two provisions laying out requirements related to the protection of information security and data privacy in the healthcare and health insurance industries. NIST provides CSF profiles to help organizations align with the requirements upon them, including securing protected health information (PHI) as required under HIPAA.
• GDPR: The EU’s General Data Privacy Regulation is designed to protect the personally identifiable information (PII) and sensitive data of EU citizens. While this is an EU-specific regulation, it also applies to any international organizations that handle the data of EU citizens. The NIST CSF offers thorough guidance on data protection, from the development of security strategies to the remediation of data breaches.
• SOX: The Sarbanes-Oxley Act regulates financial reporting and corporate governance, which impacts cybersecurity requirements for maintaining the integrity and accuracy of sensitive financial data. The NIST CSF provides practices and policies for preventing attacks and breaches, as well as guidelines for reliable reporting and transparency in financial services.
• PCI DSS: The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is designed to protect cardholder data, including financial information and PII. It applies to any organization or business that processes transactions with payment cards. The provisions of the NIST CSF provide organizations with many steps and measures that can help to prevent attacks and mitigate threats to the privacy and integrity of cardholder data. PCI DSS requirements directly map to 96 of NIST’s 108 subcategories of the core pillars.

Aligning with NIST CSF Guidelines

While it is still vital for organizations in all industries and regions to dedicate resources to ensuring full compliance with all relevant regulations, aligning business goals and initiatives with widespread standards like the NIST CSF can help cover a lot of area under these laws, especially in the areas where many regulation requirements overlap.

Establishing and maintaining compliance with the six core pillars and 108 subcategories of the NIST CSF also requires an investment of time and effort. Organizations can use tools, solutions, and managed services to achieve compliance without overly complicating the process or pulling resources from other vital business operations. To learn more about how Fortra can help your organization comply with NIST CSF guidelines, read here.

Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in this and other guest author articles are solely those of the contributor and do not necessarily reflect those of Tripwire.