While NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology) is not strictly a regulatory body in the likes of the FDA, the SEC, FINRA or the EEOC, maintaining compliance with the security controls and guidance they provide not only helps to meet other regulations, but also protect your business from common and major threats. Matching the standards and best practices included within many of their frameworks will enable you to enforce a greater level of cybersecurity and data privacy, protecting your systems and critical files against attack.
SWK Technologies is well-versed in NIST protocols for managed security practices, and will arm your team with the tools and knowledge you need to navigate compliance and position your business for success in the modern digital landscape – continue reading below to learn how:
NIST Privacy and Cybersecurity Frameworks
Cybersecurity in the digital age is tied up in information controls, data privacy, “trust” levels for users (i.e., permissions and authentication) and many other complex factors that are not easy to streamline. As part of NIST’s mandate, they provide detailed documentation with security standards that address these fundamental challenges by providing structured approaches to risk management. These frameworks serve as comprehensive blueprints that help organizations understand, manage and communicate about risks systematically, and include:
- NIST Privacy Frameworkaddresses privacy risks such as inappropriate data collection, inadequate consent processes, or algorithm bias.
- NIST Cybersecurity Framework provides structured approaches to identifying, protecting against, detecting, responding to, and recovering from cybersecurity threats.
These frameworks focus on outcome-based solutions rather than simply providing prescriptive measures. Instead of dictating specific technologies or procedures, they define what organizations should achieve, allowing flexibility in how you reach the end goal of protecting your business against cyber threats and nonconformance with data regulations.
Assessing Data Security Risk with NIST Controls
The NIST Cybersecurity Framework is designed to help you more accurately assess your risk levels from internal or external dangers, whether from human error, technology gaps or malicious intention. Originally developed in response to Executive Order 13636 for critical infrastructure protection, the framework has evolved into a comprehensive approach applicable to organizations across all sectors. The strength of this approach lies in its technology-neutral design, which allows it to adapt as threats and technologies change while maintaining consistent risk management principles.
Risk Management Needs (and Threats)
To truly understand why NIST compliance is important for your business, you need to look at how the risk assessment approach helps to address potential dangers:
Unstructured Risk Management
Attempting to manage a risk-based approach without a defined structure in place can be almost as harmful as having no cyber defense strategy at all. From gaps forming between silos to wasting energy and resources on items that should be lower priority, without a structured risk-based methodology that defines what you need to defend and why, you will face any (or all) of the following problems:
- Fragmented Protection: You may end up with disconnected security measures that may not address your actual risk profile – a firewall here, an encryption tool there, but no comprehensive understanding of what is protected or why
- Inconsistent Standards: Different departments may implement different approaches to data handling, creating gaps and vulnerabilities that are not visible until a problem occurs
- Resource Misallocation: Without understanding the actual risks, you may end up over-investing in low-priority areas while leaving critical vulnerabilities unaddressed
- Compliance Confusion: Multiple regulatory requirements – HIPAA, SOX, PCI DSS, state privacy laws – can create conflicting demands without a unified approach to meet them systematically
Compliance “Theater”
Too many organizations will approach cybersecurity or data privacy compliance as a checkbox exercise, implementing some of the required controls without understanding their purpose or effectiveness. This approach, often called “compliance theater,” creates the appearance of security without meaningful risk reduction, focusing on passing an audit over actually validating that the controls implemented work in practice. The danger to your business is that you may – and often will – lose sight of what will work or not when risk becomes reality, putting your systems and data in jeopardy and likely violating the regulations you were trying to get ahead of in the first place.
How to Meet NIST Compliance
The latest version of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, released in February 2024 as “2.0,” builds upon real-world implementation practices and changing dynamics, namely the rise of generative AI and its impact on information security. What is notable about the 2.0 version is that it now includes six core functions – adding GOVERN to the original five functions of IDENTIFY, PROTECT, DETECT, RESPOND and RECOVER. This addition reflects the mission-critical importance of maintaining regular IT governance on top of cyber hygiene and infosec procedures, which should also include keeping an eye on integrated controls between different business units, systems and data silos.
NIST Controls
Implementing NIST security controls must depend on your specific organizational realities and technology ecosystem, though you can use these broad guidelines to build out your risk-based methodology:
- Prioritize and Scope: Organizations identify their business objectives and determine which systems and processes are most critical to achieving those objectives. This scoping exercise ensures that initial implementation efforts focus on the highest-priority risks.
- Orient: Organizations assess their current security posture by cataloging assets, identifying regulatory requirements, and understanding their threat environment. This baseline assessment provides the foundation for identifying improvement opportunities.
- Create Current Profile: Organizations document their current cybersecurity activities using the framework’s structure. This profile identifies which framework outcomes are currently being achieved and which require additional attention.
- Conduct Risk Assessment: Organizations systematically evaluate the likelihood and potential impact of cybersecurity events. This assessment considers both technical vulnerabilities and business impacts to prioritize improvement efforts.
- Create Target Profile: Organizations define their desired cybersecurity outcomes based on risk assessment results and business objectives. The target profile provides a roadmap for improvement efforts.
- Identify and Prioritize Gaps: Organizations compare their current and target profiles to identify improvement opportunities. Gap analysis helps prioritize investments based on risk reduction potential and resource requirements.
- Implement Action Plan: Organizations execute their improvement plan while monitoring progress and adjusting based on changing threats and business needs.
Integrated Risk Management
Your risk assessment of your systems, data and workflows must not be siloed to each individual component or section – you need to determine as best as possible how each interacts with each other and secure information that flows between each. Every silo represents a potential gap where a cyber risk can occur, but where each of these integrate or engage with other embodies its own threat where these connections can be overlooked and exploited, potentially culminating into a single point of failure you may have missed if you did not look deep enough.
Measuring Success and Continuous Improvement
Effective NIST implementation also means that you continue to review and validate the success of your applied controls and solutions, and work to improve any potential gaps you may uncover when measuring your success. Measurement approaches should include both technical metrics and business outcomes. Technical metrics might include vulnerability remediation times, incident response effectiveness and security control performance, while business metrics might include risk reduction, regulatory compliance status and stakeholder confidence measures.
Learn More About NIST Compliance with SWK Technologies
SWK Technologies brings extensive experience in NIST framework implementation, from initial risk assessments through ongoing program management, allowing your business to ensure compliance with these and multiple other standards. The SWK team will help you gain peace of mind when it comes to both protecting your business and maintaining compliance with general and industry-specific regulations, letting you get back to what you do best while we take on the heavy lifting for your technology management.
Contact SWK here to learn more about our NIST compliance enablement and managed security services, and discover for yourself how we can help you make your cybersecurity management an integrated part of your existing operations.