NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF)

A well-known set of cybersecurity guidelines published by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), designed to help organizations manage and reduce cybersecurity risk. The Framework is voluntary and organized into five core functions: Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, Recover.

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Think of these as stages or pillars of a good security program. For example, "Identify" is about understanding what assets you have and what risks you face, "Protect" is about putting safeguards in place (like firewalls, training), "Detect" is about monitoring for incidents, "Respond" is having plans to contain and resolve incidents, and "Recover" focuses on restoring operations and learning from the experience.

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NIST CSF is very flexible and scalable; it's been adopted by many big companies, but it's also explicitly meant to help small and medium businesses create a roadmap for improving security. One reason it's popular is that it provides a common language - if someone says "we're weak in Detect - we have no logging," that terminology comes from CSF.

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For an SMB, using the NIST CSF might mean doing a basic self-assessment against its categories (like "do we have an inventory of hardware/software?," "do we have access controls?," "can we detect attacks?" etc.) and then prioritizing what to improve. There's even a NIST quick-start guide for small businesses.

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While it's not a certification, aligning with NIST CSF can help satisfy other compliance requirements and demonstrate a commitment to good security practices.

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In essence, NIST CSF is like a high-level checklist and guide for building a balanced cybersecurity program, ensuring you don't focus on one area (say protection) and neglect others (like detection or response).