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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
Cybersecurity Risk Management In Cybersecurity Risk Management: Mastering the Fundamentals Using the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, veteran technology analyst Cynthia Brumfield, with contributions from cybersecurity expert Brian Haugli, delivers a straightforward and up-to-date exploration of the fundamentals of cybersecurity risk planning and management. The book offers readers easy-to-understand overviews of cybersecurity risk management principles, user, and network infrastructure planning, as well as the tools and techniques for detecting cyberattacks. The book also provides a roadmap to the development of a continuity of operations plan in the event of a cyberattack. With incisive insights into the Framework for Improving Cybersecurity of Critical Infrastructure produced by the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Cybersecurity Risk Management presents the gold standard in practical guidance for the implementation of risk management best practices. Filled with clear and easy-to-follow advice, this book also offers readers: * A concise introduction to the principles of cybersecurity risk management and the steps necessary to manage digital risk to systems, assets, data, and capabilities * A valuable exploration of modern tools that can improve an organization's network infrastructure protection * A practical discussion of the challenges involved in detecting and responding to a cyberattack and the importance of continuous security monitoring * A helpful examination of the recovery from cybersecurity incidents Perfect for undergraduate and graduate students studying cybersecurity, Cybersecurity Risk Management is also an ideal resource for IT professionals working in private sector and government organizations worldwide who are considering implementing, or who may be required to implement, the NIST Framework at their organization.
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Cybersecurity Risk Management
Mastering the Fundamentals Using the NIST Cybersecurity Framework
Cynthia Brumfield
Cybersecurity analyst, writer and President of DCT Associates, Washington, D.C., USA
with
Brian Haugli
Managing Partner, SideChannel, Boston, USA
This edition first published 2022
© 2022 Cynthia Brumfield and Brian Haugli
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by law. Advice on how to obtain permission to reuse material from this title is available at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
The right of Cynthia Brumfield and Brian Haugli to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with law.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Brumfield, Cynthia, author. | Haugli, Brian, author. | John Wiley & Sons, publisher. Title: Cybersecurity risk management : mastering the fundamentals using the NIST cybersecurity framework / Cynthia Brumfield, Brian Haugli. Description: Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2021024435 (print) | LCCN 2021024436 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119816287 (hardback) | ISBN 9781119816294 (pdf) | ISBN 9781119816300 (epub) | ISBN 9781119816348 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Computer security--Risk management. Classification: LCC QA76.9.A25 B82 2022 (print) | LCC QA76.9.A25 (ebook) | DDC 005.8--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021024435LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021024436
Cover image: © Henrik5000/Getty Images
Cover design by Wiley
Set in 11.5/13pt BemboStd by Integra Software Services, Pondicherry, India
This book is dedicated to Lloyd and Delma Brumfield, who gave me everything I needed, and then some.
Contents
Cover
Title page
Copyright
Dedication
Academic Foreword
Acknowledgments
Preface – Overview of the NIST Framework
Background on the Framework
Framework Based on Risk Management
The Framework Core
Framework Implementation Tiers
Framework Profile
Other Aspects of the Framework Document
Recent Developments At Nist
CHAPTER 1 Cybersecurity Risk Planning and Management
Introduction
I. What Is Cybersecurity Risk Management?
A. Risk Management Is a Process
II. Asset Management
A. Inventory Every Physical Device and System You Have and Keep the Inventory Updated
B. Inventory Every Software Platform and Application You Use and Keep the Inventory Updated
C. Prioritize Every Device, Software Platform, and Application Based on Importance
D. Establish Personnel Security Requirements Including Third-Party Stakeholders
III. Governance
A. Make Sure You Educate Management about Risks
IV. Risk Assessment and Management
A. Know Where You’re Vulnerable
B. Identify the Threats You Face, Both Internally and Externally
C. Focus on the Vulnerabilities and Threats That Are Most Likely AND Pose the Highest Risk to Assets
D. Develop Plans for Dealing with the Highest Risks
Summary
Chapter Quiz
Essential Reading on Cybersecurity Risk Management
CHAPTER 2 User and Network Infrastructure Planning and Management
I. Introduction
II. Infrastructure Planning and Management Is All about Protection, Where the Rubber Meets the Road
A. Identity Management, Authentication, and Access Control
1. Always Be Aware of Who Has Access to Which System, for Which Period of Time, and from Where the Access Is Granted
2. Establish, Maintain, and Audit an Active Control List and Process for Who Can Physically Gain Access to Systems
3. Establish Policies, Procedures, and Controls for Who Has Remote Access to Systems
4. Make Sure That Users Have the Least Authority Possible to Perform Their Jobs and Ensure That at Least Two Individuals Are Responsible for a Task
5. Implement Network Security Controls on All Internal Communications, Denying Communications among Various Segments Where Necessary
A Word about Firewalls
6. Associate Activities with a Real Person or a Single Specific Entity
7. Use Single– or Multi–Factor Authentication Based on the Risk Involved in the Interaction
III. Awareness and Training
A. Make Sure That Privileged Users and Security Personnel Understand Their Roles and Responsibilities
IV. Data Security
A. Protect the Integrity of Active and Archived Databases
B. Protect the Confidentiality and Integrity of Corporate Data Once It Leaves Internal Networks
C. Assure That Information Can Only Be Accessed by Those Authorized to Do So and Protect Hardware and Storage Media
D. Keep Your Development and Testing Environments Separate from Your Production Environment
E. Implement Checking Mechanisms to Verify Hardware Integrity
V. Information Protection Processes and Procedures
A. Create a Baseline of IT and OT Systems
B. Manage System Configuration Changes in a Careful, Methodical Way
A Word about Patch Management
C. Perform Frequent Backups and Test Your Backup Systems Often
D. Create a Plan That Focuses on Ensuring That Assets and Personnel Will Be Able to Continue to Function in the Event of a Crippling Attack or Disaster
VI. Maintenance
A. Perform Maintenance and Repair of Assets and Log Activities Promptly
B. Develop Criteria for Authorizing, Monitoring, and Controlling All Maintenance and Diagnostic Activities for Third Parties
VII. Protective Technology
A. Restrict the Use of Certain Types of Media On Your Systems
B. Wherever Possible, Limit Functionality to a Single Function Per Device (Least Functionality)
C. Implement Mechanisms to Achieve Resilience on Shared Infrastructure
Summary
Chapter Quiz
Essential Reading on Network Management
CHAPTER 3 Tools and Techniques for Detecting Cyber Incidents
Introduction
What Is an Incident?
I. Detect
A. Anomalies and Events
1. Establish Baseline Data for Normal, Regular Traffic Activity and Standard Configuration for Network Devices
2. Monitor Systems with Intrusion Detection Systems and Establish a Way of Sending and Receiving Notifications of Detected Events; Establish a Means of Verifying, Assessing, and Tracking the Source of Anomalies
A Word about Antivirus Software
3. Deploy One or More Centralized Log File Monitors and Configure Logging Devices throughout the Organization to Send Data Back to the Centralized Log Monitor
4. Determine the Impact of Events Both Before and After they Occur
5. Develop a Threshold for How Many Times an Event Can Occur Before You Take Action
B. Continuous Monitoring
1. Develop Strategies for Detecting Breaches as Soon as Possible, Emphasizing Continuous Surveillance of Systems through Network Monitoring
2. Ensure That Appropriate Access to the Physical Environment Is Monitored, Most Likely through Electronic Monitoring or Alarm Systems
3. Monitor Employee Behavior in Terms of Both Physical and Electronic Access to Detect Unauthorized Access
4. Develop a System for Ensuring That Software Is Free of Malicious Code through Software Code Inspection and Vulnerability Assessments
5. Monitor Mobile Code Applications (e.g., Java Applets) for Malicious Activity by Authenticating the Codes’ Origins, Verifying their Integrity, and Limiting the Actions they Can Perform
6. Evaluate a Provider’ s Internal and External Controls’ Adequacy and Ensure they Develop and Adhere to Appropriate Policies, Procedures, and Standards; Consider the Results of Internal and External Audits
7. Monitor Employee Activity for Security Purposes and Assess When Unauthorized Access Occurs
8. Use Vulnerability Scanning Tools to Find Your Organization’ s Weaknesses
C. Detection Processes
1. Establish a Clear Delineation between Network and Security Detection, with the Networking Group and the Security Group Having Distinct and Different Responsibilities
2. Create a Formal Detection Oversight and Control Management Function; Define Leadership for a Security Review, Operational Roles, and a Formal Organizational Plan; Train Reviewers to Perform Their Duties Correctly and Implement the Review Process
3. Test Detection Processes Either Manually or in an Automated Fashion in Conformance with the Organization’ s Risk Assessment
4. Inform Relevant Personnel Who Must Use Data or Network Security Information about What Is Happening and Otherwise Facilitate Organizational Communication
5. Document the Process for Event Detection to Improve the Organization’ s Detection Systems
Summary
Chapter Quiz
Essential Reading for Tools and Techniques for Detecting a Cyberattack
CHAPTER 4 Developing a Continuity of Operations Plan
Introduction
A. One Size Does Not Fit All
I. Response
A. Develop an Executable Response Plan
B. Understand the Importance of Communications in Incident Response
C. Prepare for Corporate–Wide Involvement During Some Cybersecurity Attacks
II. Analysis
A. Examine Your Intrusion Detection System in Analyzing an Incident
B. Understand the Impact of the Event
C. Gather and Preserve Evidence
D. Prioritize the Treatment of the Incident Consistent with Your Response Plan
E. Establish Processes for Handling Vulnerability Disclosures
III. Mitigation
A. Take Steps to Contain the Incident
B. Decrease the Threat Level by Eliminating or Intercepting the Adversary as Soon as the Incident Occurs
C. Mitigate Vulnerabilities or Designate Them as Accepted Risk
IV. Recover
A. Recovery Plan Is Executed During or After a Cybersecurity Incident
B. Update Recovery Procedures Based on New Information as Recovery Gets Underway
C. Develop Relationships with Media to Accurately Disseminate Information and Engage in Reputational Damage Limitation
Summary
Chapter Quiz
Essential Reading for Developing a Continuity of Operations Plan
CHAPTER 5 Supply Chain Risk Management
Introduction
I. NIST Special Publication 800–161
II. Software Bill of Materials
III. NIST Revised Framework Incorporates Major Supply Chain Category
A. Identify, Establish, and Assess Cyber Supply Chain Risk Management Processes and Gain Stakeholder Agreement
B. Identify, Prioritize, and Assess Suppliers and Third-Party Partners of Suppliers
C. Develop Contracts with Suppliers and Third-Party Partners to Address Your Organization舗s Supply Chain Risk Management Goals
D. Routinely Assess Suppliers and Third-Party Partners Using Audits, Test Results, and Other Forms of Evaluation
E. Test to Make Sure Your Suppliers and Third-Party Providers Can Respond to and Recover from Service Disruption
Summary
Chapter Quiz
Essential Reading for Supply Chain Risk Management
CHAPTER 6 Manufacturing and Industrial Control Systems Security
Essential Reading on Manufacturing and Industrial Control Security
Appendix A: Helpful Advice for Small Organizations Seeking to Implement Some of the Book’s Recommendations
Appendix B: Critical Security Controls Version 8.0 Mapped to NIST CSF v1.1
Answers to Chapter Quizzes
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Illustrations
Preface – Overview of the NIST Framework
FIGURE 0.1 NIST CORE FRAMEWORK.
FIGURE 0.2 NIST CATEGORIES, SUBCATEGORIES, AND INFORMATIVE REFERENCES.
FIGURE 0.3 NIST FUNCTIONS AND CATEGORIES.
FIGURE 0.4 NIST IMPLEMENTATION TIERS.
FIGURE 0.4 NIST FRAMEWORK RISK MANAGEMENT CYCLE.
Chapter 1
FIGURE 1.1 HARDWARE ASSETS.
FIGURE 1.2 DETERMINING THREAT LIKELIHOOD.
Chapter 6
FIGURE 6.1 FUNCTION AND CATEGORY UNIQUE IDENTIFIERS.
FIGURE 6.2 FUNCTION AND CATEGORY UNIQUE PROTECTION ELEMENTS.
FIGURE 6.3 FUNCTION AND CATEGORY UNIQUE DETECTION ELEMENTS.
FIGURE 6.4 FUNCTION AND CATEGORY UNIQUE109 RESTORE ELEMENTS.
FIGURE 6.5 FUNCTION AND CATEGORY UNIQUE RECOVERY ELEMENTS.
Guide
Cover
Title page
Copyright
Dedication
Table of Contents
Academic Foreword
Acknowledgments
Preface – Overview of the NIST Framework
Begin Reading
Appendix A: Helpful Advice for Small Organizations Seeking to Implement Some of the Book’s Recommendations
Appendix B: Critical Security Controls Version 8.0 Mapped to NIST CSF v1.1
Answers to Chapter Quizzes
Index
End User License Agreement
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Academic Foreword
As a professor who has developed cybersecurity education programs for industry, academia, and the government, I know first-hand how difficult it can be for even advanced IT professionals to grasp the complex concepts in cybersecurity. In my role as Executive Director of the Center for Information Assurance and Cybersecurity at the University of Washington in Seattle, among other positions I hold, I have seen even the best and brightest of the nation’s high-tech sector struggle when it comes to this still-new discipline. The difficulty is compounded by the varied missions that public, private, and academic organizations pursue.
My center at the University of Washington is a Center of Academic Excellence in both Cybersecurity Education and Research, so designated by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security. This honor means that we are well placed to help bridge the cybersecurity communications gaps that exist across crucial sectors of society: government, industry, and academia.
At the University of Washington, we take a pragmatic approach to equipping our students with the skills they need to enter the cybersecurity workforce. We emphasize critical thinking along with information management and technical skills so that we graduate ‘breach-ready’ students. Since there is no system that is 100% secure, we ingrain in our students the importance of having risk management tools in their toolkit, so they are equipped to make rational choices about what to protect and where to spend scarce cybersecurity dollars. We’ve found that the NIST Cybersecurity Framework is highly useful in conveying concepts in risk management.
The Framework does not offer step-by-step instruction on installing a firewall, for example, nor does it recommend any specific technology for, say, managing patch updates. Instead, it offers a way to comprehensively manage cybersecurity risks by drawing on the best-of-breed conceptual thinking from other risk management frameworks, informed by prevailing standards. It teaches our students how to think about solving a cybersecurity problem and that there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution.
More importantly, NIST designed the Framework as a cybersecurity management tool to foster better communications among internal and external stakeholders. As a result, it bridges the communication gaps among silos, helping to create a common language to solve the growing number of cybersecurity problems. This book, with its practical approach to applying the Framework, should help students at all levels – undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education—become more Work-ready.
By walking the fine line between nitty-gritty technical discussions and high-level conceptual models, Cybersecurity Risk Management: Mastering the Fundamentals using the NIST Cybersecurity Framework should leave its readers with a new way of thinking about cybersecurity risk management. I hope that it also gives them the confidence to dive deeper into the growing number of cybersecurity disciplines that make up the cybersecurity field.
Barbara Endicott-Popovsky, Ph.D., CRISC
Executive Director, Center for Information Assurance and Cybersecurity
Professor, University of Washington
November 2021
Acknowledgments
This book is the culmination of at least eight years of research on how organizations can better position themselves to manage cybersecurity risk. My work on the material in this book began in 2013 when CSO Online commissioned me to document the development of what is now known as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework.
To accomplish this documentation, I attended all six of the workshops that led to the Framework’s release in 2014, flying to universities around the country and talking to the world’s leading cybersecurity experts for my CSO reports. A trade association also hired me to help industry executives understand cybersecurity. This client subsequently hired me to develop a series of courses to help train their workforce, particularly their non-cybersecurity technical personnel, in the best risk management practices using the NIST Cybersecurity Framework as a guide. (And I’m grateful that I was able to retain the rights to most of my work for this client.)
I’ve based the content of this book on the many discussions I have had with experts who have graciously given me their time over the years to explain how they manage risks in their organizations. Thanks to the following individuals in particular, whose skill and guidance helped bring many of the NIST concepts, so often abstract and high-level, down to earth and understandable to non-cybersecurity tech workers:
Paul Anderson, Director of Corporate Information Services, Hubbard Broadcasting,
Howard Price, formerly CBCP/MBCI, Senior Manager, Business Continuity Planning Corporate Risk Management, The Walt Disney Company,
Dan Ryan, formerly Vice President, Information Technology, Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc.; now Head of Information Technology at Standard Media Group LLC,
Eric Winter, Vice President of Investigations and Technical Risk, Cox Enterprises,
Mike Kelley, Vice President, Chief Information Security Officer, The E.W. Scripps Company,
Jim Davis, formerly Director, Infrastructure & Service Delivery, Cox Media Group,
Michael Funk, Director of Information Technology, Quincy Media, Inc., and
Eric Neel, Director Information Technology Infrastructure, Hubbard Broadcasting
I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Wayne Pecena of Texas A&M University for his expert review of most of the written material in this book. Thanks, Wayne, for your kind, wise and knowledgeable input into the book, particularly your sage advice to small organizations.
I’m incredibly grateful to the other cybersecurity experts who lent their experience to the Voices of Experience commentary throughout the book, including Patrick Miller, Lesley Carhart, Jason Boswell, and Casey Ellis. Your generosity will help your peers and other IT professionals to make their organizations more secure.
Finally, thanks to the countless other cybersecurity experts who I have interviewed over the years. Your contributions to helping people understand how to apply complex risk management concepts in the real world are invaluable contributions to the field. Without you, this book would not be possible.
Cynthia Brumfield
May 2021
I would first thank Cynthia for bringing me into this project. My hope has always been to see the NIST Cybersecurity Framework adopted by any organization looking to better their security posture on a well-established national standard. This book will allow that to happen. I would also like to thank those CISOs that lent their Voices of Experience to bring out their practitioners’ views: Omer Singer, Bill Roberts, Joe Klein, Helen Patton, Sounil Yu, Gary Hayslip, Mike Waters, and Eric Hussey. Lastly, thank you to my wife Kim and daughter Juli for all your support with everything we do.
Brian Haugli
May 2021
Preface – Overview of the NIST Framework
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), located in Gaithersburg, MD, is a US Department of Commerce division. It is assigned the job of promoting innovation and industrial competitiveness. It is a research organization filled with some of the world’s leading scientists and has produced many Nobel Prize winners.
NIST has a wide-ranging mandate: develop federal patents, oversee over 1,300 Standard Reference Materials, run a scientific laboratory in Boulder, CO, and pursue innovation in encryption technologies, among other significant efforts. NIST is primarily a scientific and engineering organization and, as such, produces patents, technical breakthroughs, documentation, and recommendations through extensive consultation with experts in various areas. This scientific consensus approach often has impressive results that can be difficult for non-specialists to understand or apply.
The NIST Cybersecurity Framework resulted from an intensive one-year effort to synthesize cybersecurity experts’ best thinking into a single “framework of frameworks” that can assure superior risk management. It’s well-understood in the cybersecurity field that risks are constant and that the best approach to organizational cybersecurity is to manage those risks because no one can eliminate them.
The NIST Framework attempts to incorporate all the best various risk management and remediation practices into one coherent whole, an ambitious goal in the complex cybersecurity field. It is a multi-layered, spoke-and-wheel collection of ideas grouped along logical lines.
The Framework is conceptual and not technical, making it a challenge for many organizations to apply in the real world. It doesn’t help that NIST specifically avoided any technical recommendations when developing the Framework. NIST instead chose to map its recommendations to a host of standards, or informative references, designed in-house and at other standards-setting bodies.
Despite its growing use among leading corporations, government offices, and non-profit organizations in the United States and worldwide, many non-cybersecurity professionals, and even some cybersecurity specialists, struggle with the practical application of the NIST Framework.
The following summary provides a broad overview of what the Framework is and how it’s structured. Keep in mind that the rest of the book focuses on the much-needed practical guidance on applying the NIST Framework, which we hope even non-cybersecurity professionals will grasp and find useful.
BACKGROUND ON THE FRAMEWORK
In the face of growing concerns over the prospect of a devastating cyberattack on US critical infrastructure, President Barack Obama issued on February 12, 2013, Executive Order (EO) 13636 “Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity.”1 The EO aimed to create a “partnership with the owners and operators of critical infrastructure to improve cybersecurity information sharing and collaboratively develop and implement risk-based standards.” To achieve that objective, the EO mandated that NIST develop within one year “a voluntary risk-based Cybersecurity Framework, a set of industry standards and best practices to help organizations manage cybersecurity risks.”
To hammer out the Framework, NIST hosted five workshops at multiple universities involving thousands of domestic and international private- and government-sector participants. Finally, on February 12, 2014, NIST issued the Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity.2 The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) currently considers 16 sectors to be critical infrastructure sectors, encompassing information technology, financial services, energy, communications, manufacturing, and many other central services.3 However, NIST hopes that the Framework will be helpful to all organizations and anticipates that its application will extend beyond critical infrastructure.
Underscoring the “living” nature of the Framework, on April 16, 2018, NIST issued an update, Version 1.1.4 The updated Framework features several additional subcategories, including an expansive new set of subcategories dealing with Supply Chain Risk, a timely addition as the protection of digital supply chains has taken center stage due to some recent damaging and high-profile supply chain attacks.
In developing the Framework, NIST wanted to ensure maximum flexibility of application. The final document is industry- and technology-neutral. It encompasses hundreds of standards. It is also international in scope.
NIST stresses that the Framework is not intended to replace any organization’s existing cybersecurity program but is a tool to strengthen existing practices. Suppose an organization does not have a cybersecurity risk management program or set of cybersecurity practices in place? In that case, the Framework should serve as a good starting point for developing that program or those practices.
FRAMEWORK BASED ON RISK MANAGEMENT
NIST premised the entire Framework on the concept of risk management, which is “the ongoing process of identifying, assessing, and responding to risk,” an approach that provides a dynamic implementation of the Framework’s recommendations. Under a risk management approach, “organizations may choose to handle risk in different ways, including mitigating the risk, transferring the risk, avoiding the risk, or accepting the risk, depending on the potential impact to the delivery of critical services.”5
The Framework consists of three parts: The Framework Core, the Framework Implementation, and the Framework Profile Tiers. The purpose of these three parts is to provide a “common language” that all organizations can use to understand, manage, and communicate their cybersecurity initiatives, both internally and externally, and can scale down or up to various parts of an organization as needed.
THE FRAMEWORK CORE
The Framework Core is a set of activities aimed at organizing cybersecurity initiatives to achieve specific outcomes. The Core has five functions: Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover (Figure 0.1).
Figure 0.1 NIST CORE FRAMEWORK.
Within each of these functions are categories of activities. Within each category of activities are subcategories, and for each subcategory, there are informative references, usually standards, for helping to support the activities (Figure 0.2).
Figure 0.2 NIST CATEGORIES, SUBCATEGORIES, AND INFORMATIVE REFERENCES.
For example, one category under the function Identify is Asset Management (Figure 0.3). A subcategory of Asset Management is “Physical devices and systems within the organization are inventoried.” For that subcategory, the Framework offers informative references that guide physical devices’ inventory, mostly standards established by various technical standards-setting bodies. The complete listing of the Functions, Categories, Subcategories, and Informative References are in Appendix A of the final Framework Document on the NIST website.6
Figure 0.3 NIST FUNCTIONS AND CATEGORIES.
Although some organizations find the Framework Core, Categories, and Subcategories to be daunting, NIST intends them to be resources from which certain elements can be selected or examined, or used depending on the organization’s unique configuration. NIST does not intend it to serve as a checklist of required activities. Nor are the Functions “intended to form a serial path, or lead to a static desired end state.”
FRAMEWORK IMPLEMENTATION TIERS
The Framework Implementation Tiers consist of four levels of “how an organization views cybersecurity risk and the processes in place to manage that risk.” Although the levels are progressive in terms of rigor and sophistication from Tier 1 (partial) to Tier 4 (Adaptive), they are not “maturity” levels in terms of cybersecurity approaches. NIST based successful implementation on the outcomes described in the organization’s Target Profiles (see the next section) rather than a progression from Tier 1 to Tier 4.
The final Framework document describes the implementation tiers in more detail, but the following is a summary of the four tiers, modified from NIST’s description (Figure 0.4):
Tier 1: Partial –
Risk is managed in an ad hoc and sometimes reactive manner. There is limited awareness of cybersecurity risk at the organizational level with no organization-wide approach to cybersecurity. The organization may not have the processes in place to participate in coordination or collaboration with other entities.
Tier 2: Risk-Informed
– Management approves risk management practices, but they may not be an organization-wide policy. There is awareness of cybersecurity risk at the organization level. Still, an organization-wide approach has not been established, and the organization understands the broader ecosystem but has not formalized its participation in it.
Tier 3: Repeatable –
The organization’s risk management practices are approved and formally adopted as policy. There is an organization-wide approach to risk management. The organization collaborates with and receives information from partners in the wider ecosystem.
Tier 4: Adaptive –
The organization adapts its cybersecurity practices from lessons learned. Cybersecurity risk management uses risk-informed policies, procedures, and processes and is part of the organizational culture and the organization actively shares information with partners.
Figure 0.4 NIST IMPLEMENTATION TIERS.
FRAMEWORK PROFILE
The Framework Profile is a blueprint or map that considers the Framework’s functions, categories, and subcategories for a specific purpose tailored to the organization’s needs. Organizations should develop profiles for current or desired cybersecurity objectives, and some organizations can create multiple profiles for different segments or aspects of the organization.
No template for what a profile should look like exists because Framework users should tailor their profiles to their organizations’ specific needs. As NIST points out, there is no right or wrong way to develop a profile. As Figure 0.5 illustrates, the factors that could go into a profile are an organization’s business objectives, threat environment, requirements, and controls, all of which create a cybersecurity profile unique to that organization.
Figure 0.5 NIST FRAMEWORK RISK MANAGEMENT CYCLE.
The profiles’ vital aspect compares where an organization is currently and where an organization wishes to be – its target. As NIST states in the Framework document, “this risk-based approach enables an organization to gauge resource estimates (e.g. staffing, funding) to achieve cybersecurity goals in a cost-effective, prioritized manner.”7
OTHER ASPECTS OF THE FRAMEWORK DOCUMENT
Although the Core, Tiers, and Profiles are the most critical parts of the Framework, the document released in February 2014 and updated in 2018 also contains other useful pieces of information, including tips on using the Framework and advice on communicating the importance of the Framework to stakeholders.
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS AT NIST
In response to a series of damaging and high-profile cyberattacks involving Chinese state-sponsored threat actors and Russian ransomware operators, President Joe Biden released a wide-ranging and ambitious executive order (EO) on May 12, 2021, the President’s Executive Order (EO) on “Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity (14028). The EO assigns NIST several complex tasks that reshape U.S. cybersecurity policy and requirements. They also elevate the foundational importance of the NIST cybersecurity framework’s core functions of identifying, protecting, detecting, responding, and recovering. (See https://www.nist.gov/itl/executive-order-improving-nations-cybersecurity).
As of this book’s publication date, many of these NIST mandates are still in process. In addition, it’s important to note that any requirements coming out of the EO apply only to federal government agencies and their contractors. But, under the theory that most of the world’s leading tech companies are also major suppliers to the federal government, it’s likely that the EO and the NIST requirements would ultimately have spill-over effects for private sector organizations.
The NIST assignments in the EO include:
Developing guidance to help agencies achieve “zero-trust” architecture.
Zero-trust is the latest trend in cybersecurity that “eliminates implicit trust in any one element, node, or service and instead requires continuous verification of the operational picture via real-time information from multiple sources to determine access and other system responses,” according to the EO.
Defining what constitutes “critical software” and publishing guidance outlining security measures for critical software.
These intricate tasks aim to prevent the infiltration of malware into widely used and essential software.
Developing guidelines that result in minimum standards for vendors’ testing of their software source code.
These guidelines aim to put into place processes to ensure that software is sufficiently safe and secure.
Publishing guidance that identifies practices to enhance software supply chain security.
This guidance aims to foreclose, to the extent feasible, malicious software from third parties from sneaking into the various subcomponents that make up modern software.
