UNPACK SERIES 02.24: NIST CSF 2.0 - A Synopsis

The NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 2.0, released on February 26, 2024, serves as a guideline for organizations across various sectors to manage and mitigate cybersecurity risks effectively. It emphasizes the importance of understanding, assessing, prioritizing, and communicating cybersecurity efforts without prescribing specific outcomes. Here are the key points highlighted from the new framework:

CSF Core: It is the nucleus of the framework, presenting a taxonomy of high-level cybersecurity outcomes organized into Functions, Categories, and Subcategories. This structure is designed to be understandable by a wide audience, from executives to practitioners, irrespective of their cybersecurity expertise. The CSF Core offers the flexibility required to address unique organizational risks, technologies, and missions.

Organizational Profiles: These profiles articulate an organization's current and/or target cybersecurity posture in terms of the CSF Core's outcomes. Profiles are used to tailor, assess, prioritize, and communicate about cybersecurity efforts, reflecting the organization's mission, objectives, stakeholder expectations, threat landscape, and requirements.

CSF Tiers: Tiers characterize an organization’s cybersecurity risk governance and management practices, providing context for risk view and management processes. The framework describes four tiers: Partial (Tier 1), Risk Informed (Tier 2), Repeatable (Tier 3), and Adaptive (Tier 4). These tiers reflect a progression from informal, ad hoc risk management to agile, risk-informed approaches.

Supplemental Online Resources: A suite of online resources, including Informative References, Implementation Examples, and Quick Start Guides. These resources offer additional guidance on practices and controls for achieving the CSF outcomes and are intended to complement the CSF, helping organizations adopt and utilize the framework more effectively.

Integration with Other Risk Management Programs: The CSF is designed to be integrated with an organization's broader enterprise risk management strategies. It provides a common language and systematic approach for managing cybersecurity risks, aligning with other risk management activities and contributing to organizational resilience.

Privacy and Supply Chain Risks: The framework acknowledges the interconnection between cybersecurity and privacy risks, as well as the importance of cybersecurity supply chain risk management (C-SCRM). It emphasizes the need for organizations to understand and manage the cybersecurity risks associated with their suppliers and the products and services they acquire and use.

Key Differences Between Version 1.1 and 2.0:

The transition from Version 1.1 to 2.0 includes several enhancements:

• An additional core function (GOVERN) to emphasize governance.
• Introduction of new categories addressing emerging risks and technology changes.
• Inclusion of detailed guidance on metrics for better effectiveness assessment.
• Streamlined usability features, particularly benefiting SMBs with simplified tiers and profiles.

Source: https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.CSWP.29