Demystifying NIST Cybersecurity Framework: Identify
Demystifying NIST Cybersecurity Framework: Identify
Cybersecurity Framework
Initially developed for critical infrastructure, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
established a framework for improving cybersecurity, titled the NIST Cybersecurity Framework.
At the core of the framework exists five functions, which are further divided into multiple categories and
subcategories, providing a roadmap to help organizations strengthen their defense against cyberthreats. It’s
not compliance–it’s a customizable strategy that can be applied to existing security programs, or used to build
one from the ground up.
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Any cybersecurity strategy is only as good as its incident
Respond response plan. Why? Because this is always a “when, not if”
environment. Organizations need to have the proper procedures
“Develop and implement the
in place to help employees and team members quickly assess a
appropriate activities to take
potential attack, and know immediately how and where to report
action regarding a detected
said attack. Think of it as an emergency plan that establishes
cybersecurity event.”
a set of protocols—a step-by-step policy—to mitigate further
damage and increase the success of recovery.
Recover
Unfortunately, security events happen and they happen often.
“Develop and implement A strong recovery plan at least mitigates the fallout and helps to
the appropriate activities to effectively restore systems and processes in a timely manner.
maintain plans for resilience It’s also a chance to implement any lessons learned from
and to restore any capabilities the incident into awareness training, ultimately lowering the
or services that were impaired
likelihood of similar incidents in the future.
due to a cybersecurity event.”