As many organizations begin to mature their cybersecurity program, they are shifting to a risk-based approach to advance their security and privacy controls. In most cases, security leaders are no strangers to leveraging risk management processes to complement the regulations and compliance standards to improve security status. The NIST management framework is a culmination of multiple special publications (SP) produced by the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) - as we’ll see below, the 6 NIST RMF Steps; Step 1: Categorize/ Identify, Step 2: Select, Step 3: Implement, Step 4: Assess, Step 5: Authorize and Step 6: Monitor, uniquely lend themselves to a given NIST special publication (i.e., NIST SP 800-37 instructs on the monitoring of security controls across the system development lifecycle and NIST SP 800-53 guides teams selecting and implementing security controls to mitigate risk).
To begin aligning with business objectives, information security leaders must embrace the language and, to an extent, the business processes that other business units have been practicing for years. Information systems and organizations have operated in a siloed function for years. Yet, with the increased concern from CEOs and Boards, CISOs must now prepare steps to communicate organization-wide cybersecurity risk in the same way that the CFO and COO present financial and operational risk, respectively.
While the RMF 6 Step Process and the supporting NIST publication were designed to secure federal agencies and federal information systems, similar to the NIST CSF, the gold standard that these risk frameworks have set has proven to be of great value to private sector organizations as well to support security control assessments and determining a control baseline to direct system security investments moving forward.
Throughout the information system-based development life cycle, ensuring the risks associated with a given strategy and effectively communicating that information to both technical and business-side stakeholders is critical. Security teams can use the NIST RMF for continuous monitoring, risk identification, risk assessments, and flagging potential security issues. NIST SP 800-37 is a guideline for applying the RMF to federal information systems. The RMF can also quantify and manage your organization's risks so that management understands and empowers your security leadership team.
The CyberStrong platform is built on gold-standard frameworks to enable success for effective risk management activities and to achieve and maintain a continuous monitoring program and compliance using frameworks like the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and Risk Management Framework. If you have questions about the NIST RMF or any other security and risk questions, call us at 1-800-NIST CSF to request a demo.
