Keeping up with the NIST CyberSecurity Framework

Kickflipping the gaps like no other framework

Keeping up with the CSF — image generated by the author

Introduction

The tech world faces many cybersecurity challenges. Continuously evolving ransomware, cloud service misconfigurations, supply chain attacks, changing compliance, exploding BYOD and IoT — and the list is growing. Best practices, understanding threats, and having a common way of communicating around cybersecurity should empower and unite defenders, not be part of the challenge. Unfortunately, there has been a dearth of standard rules, language, and approaches for dealing with this significant area of business risk.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) CyberSecurity Framework (CSF) is a potential lingua franca that helps bridge this gap. The CSF is a voluntary set of standards, guidelines, best practices, and recommendations that empower organizations to improve their cybersecurity posture. The CSF provides a common language and a structure to ease the governing process of identifying, protecting, detecting, responding, and recovering from cyber threats.

You may be thinking, “How can a NIST security framework keep up with the rapid pace of technology?” But don’t be worried; CSF is the Ryan Sheckler of technology governance vehicles — flexible and adaptable, ollieing and kickflipping its way through the…