The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) lays out guidelines to help organizations establish and maintain a robust cybersecurity posture. These functions are widely recognized as the gold standard to help organizations develop a robust cybersecurity program that not only protects against threats but also enables them to respond effectively and recover quickly from incidents.
In the coming weeks, we are going to dive deeper into each of the six functions of the NIST CSF 2.0 framework released in February 2024: Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, Recover, and Govern.
The first principle is Identify: “You can’t protect what you don’t know”!
This function stresses the importance of having a clear picture of your assets and resources. Companies grow organically over time with continual changes in tooling, staff, and roles. Additionally, changes in threats, vulnerabilities, contexts, and objectives are never ending. In this constant change scope, the identification tooling (asset manager) has to be live and vigilant. This will not only allow you to know what you’re protecting, but it helps clarify what you are protecting against and why.
One of the three categories in this function is improvement. Constant evaluation and reflection allow you to implement a cycle of self-improvement, keeping your cybersecurity posture vigilant against a threat landscape that is, unfortunately, getting more sophisticated every day.
By starting with Identification, organizations lay a strong foundation for the subsequent functions of the NIST CSF. This comprehensive understanding of your cybersecurity posture enables more effective risk management and resource allocation, ultimately leading to a more robust and resilient cybersecurity program.
Next week we will dive into the Protect principle of the NIST CSF. In the meantime, visit our solutions page to see how CyberZek can improve your cybersecurity posture.