The NIST Cybersecurity Framework is widely accepted as a go-to collection of policies and regulations that help businesses maintain online security, identify threats, and protect their networks and data from potential damage. The network is designed in such a way that it helps teams better understand the cybersecurity risks and improve their security management capabilities, which are required for maintaining the optimal level of security.
The framework consists of five core values or steps towards achieving the necessary security, including identifying the threat, protecting systems, detecting suspicious activity, responding to cybersecurity incidents, as well as recovering after a data breach or a cyber-attack.
Right now, we want to focus on the primary function of the NIST Cybersecurity framework, that is, the identification of cybersecurity threats. In order to reduce the risk of your business becoming yet another statistic on the long list of hacked companies, you have to dedicate time to inform yourself and your entire team about potential security risks.
Education regarding the NIST framework and the overall idea of cybersecurity is by far the most effective means of achieving success when it comes to protecting your business. In other words, if you are aiming to improve your company's security infrastructure, your primary aim should be to educate your employees and get all teams working on the same page.
The main idea that you should push forward in team meetings is the definition of cyber threats. A threat is considered any kind of malicious attempt to gain unauthorized access to data or system, or an attempt to in any way damage or compromise the company’s network or intellectual property. However, a threat is characterized as more of a possibility of an attack rather than an actual attack. What this means is that you can prevent a cyber-attack by identifying the possibility in an early stage of development.
The identification function of the NIST framework is all about finding and identifying the possibilities of an attack. Thanks to recent advances in technologies, there are more possibilities than ever. Some of the most common threats include phishing schemes, data manipulation, malware and virus spreading, DDoS attacks, as well as theft of intellectual property. By sticking closely to the regulations of the NIST framework and following its primary function of identification, you have an opportunity to prevent cyber-attacks early on.
As we already mentioned, the first step to improving cybersecurity within your company is to educate your employees and teams. In order to identify the possible threats, take a look at your current security system and analyze its functionality. Use data collected in the past to determine what the strengths and weaknesses are of your current security system. Don’t forget to keep your system up to date in order to keep it strong enough to battle against the new and sophisticated cyber-attack methods and techniques.