The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) established a set of voluntary information security standards and guidelines aimed at operators of critical infrastructure as defined within Executive Order 13636 from the President of the United States.
NIST-CSF guides critical infrastructure organizations in documenting and implementing controls for information technology systems that support their operations and assets, including access control, audit and accountability, incident response, and system and information integrity. These published guidelines are organized into five core functions:
- Identify: Develop the organizational understanding to manage cybersecurity risk to systems, assets, data, and capabilities
- Protect: Develop and implement the appropriate safeguards to ensure delivery of critical infrastructure services
- Detect: Develop and implement the appropriate activities to identify the occurrence of a cybersecurity event
- Respond: Develop and implement the appropriate playbooks to take action regarding a detected cybersecurity event
- Recover: Develop and implement the appropriate activities to maintain plans for resilience and to restore any capabilities or services that were impaired due to a cybersecurity event
Although the NIST framework is widely considered a best practice for security, it can require significant investment. Fortunately, LogRhythm can help.