A new guideline recently released by the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology can help organizations enhance their corporate cyber security position.
The NIST’s Preliminary Cyber security Framework is voluntary for American businesses. However many of the strategies it contains draw from existing best practices that are applicable to a wide-variety of businesses within and outside the U.S. While non-specific in nature, the document references a number of standards from NIS, the International Society of Automation, the International Organization for Standards (ISO) and other organizations.
“We want to turn today’s best practices into common practices, and better equip organizations to understand that good cyber security risk management is good business,” said NIST Director Patrick Gallagher.
The framework can help firms gauge their cyber security maturity and help them improve the “bottom line” as well, he said.
The framework advises businesses to conduct a risk assessment and then provides steps on how organizations can implement or improve their cyber security program.
The document defines four tiers of cyber security readiness. At the lowest tier is a business with risk management practices that are not formalized.