Data breaches can be costly. According to the cost of a data breach report, the average cost of a data breach is $4.35 million. In fact, most businesses that experience data breaches fail to recover from them and end up closing their doors after a few years. If you want to mitigate the risk of data breaches and cybersecurity attacks, you should adopt a cybersecurity framework. One of the most popular cybersecurity frameworks is the NIST cybersecurity framework.
The NIST cybersecurity framework is basically a set of cybersecurity best practices and guidelines to keep your data safe. What makes the NIST cybersecurity framework stand out is its cost-effectiveness and scalability. This means that whether you are a small business or a large enterprise, you can implement the NIST cybersecurity framework, and it won’t cost you much either.
You might be wondering how I can implement the NIST cybersecurity framework. That is exactly what we will discuss in this article. In this article, Anti-Dos will shed light on steps you can take to implement the NIST cybersecurity framework.
Table of Contents
What are the key functions of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework?
How to Implement the NIST Cybersecurity Framework in Your Business
1. Set clear objectives.
2. Assess your current cybersecurity standing.
3. Focus on Tiers
4. Identify Gaps in Your Cybersecurity System
5. Determine the actions needed to plug those gaps.
6. Implementation
What are the key functions of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework?
Before we look at the step-by-step process of implementing the NIST cybersecurity framework, it is important to understand the key functions of the framework. There are five key functions of the NIST cybersecurity frameworks.
1. Identify
Create an inventory of all the assets you have. Conduct an in-depth risk assessment and create a risk management strategy to mitigate the cybersecurity risk.
2. Protect
This function encompasses identity management and access control, enforcing data security and information protection processes, as well as maintenance and proactive technologies.
3. Detect
In this function, the focus is on the detection of suspicious and malicious behaviours and events. Moreover, it also covers continuous security monitoring and outlines the detection processes as well.
4. Respond
Respond caters to everything from planning to analysis to responding to threats. Additionally, it also includes the mitigation of threats and improvements to your cybersecurity response mechanisms.
5. Recover
The last function of the NIST cybersecurity framework is recovery. It deals with how you plan to recover from cybersecurity incidents and what improvements you can make to speed up the recovery process in the future, as well as communicating all the findings to key stakeholders.
How to Implement the NIST Cybersecurity Framework in Your Business
Here are six steps you can take to implement the NIST cybersecurity framework in your business.
1. Set clear objectives.
The first question you need to ask when implementing the NIST cybersecurity framework is: what objectives do you want to achieve with the implementation? Without clarity on goals and objectives, your NIST cybersecurity framework implementation would fail.
In addition to this, you need to decide which business areas are most vulnerable and which ones need to be protected first. With clearly defined objectives, it will be much easier for you to create an action plan. Moreover, it will also assist you in creating a scope for the implementation.
Everything starts to fall into place if you have a clearly defined goal. Your cybersecurity team is also less likely to lose its way midway through the implementation project because they know exactly what is expected of them. This makes it much easier for even team members to follow a path that leads to success.
2. Assess your current cybersecurity standing.
Let’s say you have set a goal and laid out all the objectives. What’s next? Now, you need to conduct a risk assessment. Risk assessment gives you a clear idea of your current cybersecurity standings. You can also take advantage of cybersecurity tools that will tell you how effective your systems are. These tools can also give suggestions on what you need to do to improve your cybersecurity systems.
3. Focus on Tiers
Another great way to get a better idea of your current cybersecurity standing is to use the NIST tier model. NIST’s cybersecurity framework uses four different tiers to categorize the cybersecurity effectiveness of businesses.
Tier 1: Partial
If your business takes a reactive approach to cybersecurity, it will fall into this tier.
Tier 2: Risk-Informed
Businesses that are aware of the cybersecurity risk they face and are planning to save themselves from it fall under this tier.
Tier 3: Repeatable
Organizations that have clearly defined processes that are easily repeatable fall under this tier.
Tier 4: Adaptive
If your business takes a proactive approach to cybersecurity instead of a reactive one, it falls under this tier. This includes cybersecurity measures enforced to protect the data and respond to cybersecurity threats. You can also invest in DDoS-protected dedicated servers for additional protection.
4. Identify Gaps in Your Cybersecurity System
Once you have identified which tier your business falls under, it is time to identify gaps in your cybersecurity infrastructure. After identifying the gaps, you need to create a cybersecurity strategy with steps to plug all these cybersecurity loopholes.
Any unpatched vulnerability can easily be exploited by threat actors, who are actively looking for such openings to strike. Your job is to identify and fix those vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by cyber attackers. Knowing what to look for is crucial to identifying vulnerabilities, and once you do identify one, you should not waste any time patching it. The more time you give an unpatched vulnerability, the more likely it is to be exploited.
5. Determine the actions needed to plug those gaps.
Let’s say you have identified outdated software, older operating systems, or legacy systems that have vulnerabilities. What course of action would you take to overcome those shortcomings? Update the software and install all the patches released by the software vendor, and upgrade to more advanced hardware that doesn’t contain the security loopholes of previous legacy systems.
This could also be weak passwords, a lack of encryption, or two-factor authentication. You can overcome that by following password best practices or adopting a safer user authentication method. Yes, this might take some time and might annoy some users, but it is the right step, especially when it comes to cybersecurity.
What steps do you take to implement the NIST cybersecurity framework and its guidelines? Share it with us in the comments section below.
