The National Institute of Standards and Technology Cybersecurity Framework (NIST CSF) stands as one of the most widely adopted security frameworks today. It serves as a voluntary standard, leveraging business objectives to steer cybersecurity endeavors within an organization’s broader risk management framework.
The NIST CSF is a comprehensive set of guidelines and best practices designed to enhance cybersecurity and risk management, particularly for critical infrastructure in the United States. Launched in 2013, this initiative aims to foster collaboration in sharing cybersecurity threat intelligence and to develop effective strategies for mitigating risks.
Presently, the reach of NIST CSF extends beyond the confines of US critical infrastructure. Its adoption has transcended national boundaries, with translations into numerous languages and utilization by various governments, businesses, and organizations worldwide. Widely regarded as a foundational element in cybersecurity risk management, the framework stands as a crucial asset in proactively addressing threats.
To develop the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, NIST adhered to specific design principles:
● Identifying security standards and guidelines applicable across various sectors of critical infrastructure
● Offering a prioritized, flexible, repeatable, performance-based, and cost-effective approach
● Assisting owners and operators of critical infrastructure in identifying, assessing, and managing cyber risk
● Accommodating technical innovation while considering organizational differences.
● Provide guidance that is technology-neutral, thereby allowing critical infrastructure sectors to leverage a competitive market for products and services
● Including instructions for measuring the performance of the cybersecurity framework implementation
● Highlighting areas for improvement, thus fostering future collaboration with specific sectors and standards-developing organizations
Main Elements of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework
The NIST Cybersecurity Framework comprises three primary components:
Framework Core
This core consists of five functions: identify, protect, detect, respond, and recover. These functions encapsulate what most people associate with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, offering actionable steps for mitigating cyber risks.
Implementation Tiers
Implementation tiers are distinct from maturity levels. They indicate the extent to which cybersecurity risk decisions are incorporated into wider risk management decisions and the organization’s ability to exchange cybersecurity information with external entities. These tiers categorize organizations into four levels based on their adoption of NIST controls. The tiers can be described as follows:
● Partial: Cybersecurity risk management is typically reactive or ad hoc, with activities lacking prioritization to the level of risk they address.
● Risk informed: Although not standardized across the organization, risk management practices directly influence the prioritization of cybersecurity activities, taking into account organizational risk objectives, the threat landscape, and business needs.
● Repeatable: The organization adopts a standardized, organization-wide approach to cybersecurity risk management, with formally approved risk management policies. These practices are regularly updated to align with evolving business requirements and the threat environment.
● Adaptive: Building upon past and present cybersecurity endeavors, the organization continuously adjusts its cybersecurity practices. This involves learning from past experiences, integrating advanced technologies and methodologies, and proactively responding to emerging threats and technological advancements.
Framework Profile
Each organization is unique, and profiles offer guidance on how the cybersecurity framework can be customized to suit specific organizational needs. There’s no definitive “correct” or “incorrect” approach; it’s about customization to fit the organization’s requirements.
This involves aligning cybersecurity needs, mission objectives, and operational methods with the categories and subcategories outlined in the framework core. By comparing requirements and objectives with the organization’s current operational state, it becomes possible to identify gaps and assess the costs involved in addressing them.
5 Functions of the NIST CSF and How to Apply Them in Industrial Settings
Identify
The initial step involves gaining a comprehensive understanding of your environment to effectively manage cybersecurity risks to systems, assets, data, and capabilities. Essentially, it’s about laying the solid groundwork for your cybersecurity program. As the saying goes, you can’t protect what you’re unaware of.
For industrial settings, this entails compiling a thorough inventory of hardware and software. Given the dispersed and intricate nature of industrial infrastructure, obtaining complete information about OT assets can be challenging.
To overcome this hurdle, security teams should employ a combination of collection methods, including agents, agentless techniques, native ICS protocol polling, and passive monitoring, to construct the most exhaustive asset inventory possible.
Protect
This entails creating and implementing suitable measures to reduce or contain the impact of potential cybersecurity incidents. Activities include managing identity and access, providing cybersecurity training for staff, establishing and monitoring baseline configurations for assets, and managing emerging security vulnerabilities.
For industrial teams, this means deploying solutions that secure remote and physical access to control systems, investing in security awareness training, and utilizing configuration management and vulnerability monitoring tools.
Detect
This function focuses on implementing measures to swiftly identify cybersecurity incidents. It involves real-time monitoring of asset and network baselines for anomalous activities. When an anomaly is detected, actionable information should accompany the alert to reduce the mean time to repair (MTTR).
In industrial settings, many organizations are turning to network anomaly detection tools for assistance. When utilizing this technology, ensure that the alerts provided include contextual data explaining why the anomaly occurred and its criticality.
Respond
Organizations must develop and execute appropriate actions in response to detected cybersecurity incidents. This means having a response plan in place to efficiently communicate, contain, and analyze an incident. Lessons learned from incidents should inform improvements to future response plans.
To comprehend the root cause of an incident, access to forensic information about the threat and its entry into the network is essential. In critical infrastructure, this involves archiving historical event logs to provide insights into the threat source and propagation.
Recover
The final function instructs companies to develop and execute effective activities to restore any impaired capabilities or services resulting from a cybersecurity incident. Similar to the respond function, a recovery plan should be in place to restore affected services and communicate with employees and the public about the incident and its resolution.
In industrial environments, this often means bringing an operational process back online quickly. To achieve this, having backups of the last known secure asset configurations is crucial to understanding the restoration requirements.
The Bottom Line
Ensuring compliance with the NIST cybersecurity framework is essential for safeguarding industrial settings against cyber threats. By implementing the framework’s functions—Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover—organizations can enhance their cybersecurity posture and mitigate risks effectively.
To streamline this process and ensure seamless compliance, consider leveraging Sectrio’s expertise and solutions. Take proactive steps today to protect your industrial operations from cyber threats with Sectrio.
