Protect your company from cybersecurity risks with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF)

Developed by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) provides clear and actionable standards, guidelines and best practices that help organizations improve their information security and cybersecurity risk management. A key to NIST CSF’s broad utility is its being structured around a framework which enables disparate parties and internal and external stakeholders to abide by a common set of cybersecurity guidelines to assess, prioritize and mitigate cybersecurity risks.

Key Business Benefits

• Strengtens the trust among business partners, clients and stakeholders; a strong cybersecurity posture is particularly important in B2B transactions.
• Business and technical teams can speak the same language. The risk-based approach of NIST CSF is easy to understand and use, allowing all stakeholders to communicate effectively.
• Ensures a better understanding of your current security risks and allows you to address the most critical ones.
• An excellent starting point to build compliance with other standards (ISO 27000, HIPAA, SOX, PCI-DSS, among others), most of them having the same goal: to improve your cybersecurity posture.
• Enables business growth as it creates a valuable selling point for suppliers and vendors. Most partners are vested in your cybersecurity practices, as they want to be sure they are not exposed to supply chain risk.
• Creates a framework that enables different parties to abide by a common set of cybersecurity guidelines to assess, prioritize and mitigate risks from cyberattacks.
• Provides an opportunity for organizations to establish roadmaps for their journey to managing cybersecurity risks more effectively.

NIST CSF Requirements

NIST CSF guidelines are divided into five specific Functions: Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover, with each Function presenting from three to six Categories of specific actions or elements. HIFENCE can help you comply with NIST CSF Functions and Categories to enhance your company’s cyber resilience and protect your critical infrastructure.

IDENTIFY

Assess which of your business assets are at risk of cyberattacks

While the identify function covers asset management, it also goes further to include the identification of the business environment, governance, and a risk management strategy that includes risk assessment. The Identify function is broken up in the following categories:

Asset Management

All assets are identified and managed consistent with their importance towards business objectives and risk strategy

Determining the business environment

The business objectives are understood and prioritized; this information is further used for defining cybersecurity roles, responsibilities, and risk management decisions.

Governance

The policies, procedures, and processes to manage and monitor the organization’s regulatory, legal, risk, environmental, and operational requirements are understood.

Risk Assessment

Risk management must be conducted with a thorough understanding of the organization’s context, strategies, and objectives.

Risk Management Strategy

The organization’s priorities, constraints, risk tolerances, and assumptions are established and used to support operational risk decisions.

Supply Chain Risk Management

The organization objectives are used to support risk decisions associated with managing supply chain risk. The isto identify, assess and manage supply chain risks.

How we can help

	HIFENCE Security Services	How we can help
Asset Management	Managed SIEM, Vulnerability Management	Identifies the entire flow of traffic among assets, and then shows which external-facing assets are most at risk. HIFENCE provides active scanning, passive monitoring and CMDB integrations to help you identify all of your assets, both known and previously unknown.
Business Environment, Governance, Supply Chain Risk Management, Risk Management Strategy	Architecture Services	We deliver a detailed roadmap showing how HIFENCE Security Architecture enables you to identify the business environment, improve your governance and risk management and manage your supply chain risk.
Risk Assessment	Vulnerability Management, Penetration Testing	We will first determine if vulnerabilities already present in your posture are prime targets for a cyberattack. We then elevate the asset risk to a high-risk threshold.

PROTECT

Implement safeguards to keep your assets secure

The Protect function demands the development and implementation of relevant safeguards to make sure that critical infrastructure services are protected. It is divided into 6 categories:

Identity Management, Authentication and Access Control

Access to physical and logical assets is granted based on the principle of least privilege.

Awareness and Training

Your employees are provided with cybersecurity awareness education.

Data Security

The organization objectives are used to support risk decisions associated with managing supply chain risk. The isto identify, assess and manage supply chain risks.

Information Protection Processes and Procedures

Security policies, processes and procedures are maintained and used to manage your data and assets.

Maintenance

Maintenance and patch management of your IT infrastructure components are performed consistent with your policies and procedures.

Protective Technology

Technical security solutions are managed to ensure the security and resilience of systems and assets.

How we can help

	HIFENCE Security Services	How we can help
Identity management, Authentication and Access Control	Managed Firewall	The firewall hardens your most basic and first level of defense to protect your environment, and it provides authentication, network segmentation and access control.
Awareness and Training, Data Security	Architecture Services	We develop a holistic Cybersecurity strategy to assure that your users have proper awareness and training and that your data is securely stored, to maintain its confidentiality, availability and integrity.
Information Protection Processes and Procedures, Maintenance	Vulnerability Management	Critical in helping you prioritize the hierarchy of controls for your assets.
Protective Technology	Managed Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR)	Helps to protect your assets from breaches and attacks in your endpoints by providing detection and response services.

DETECT

Actions to determine if a data breach or a cyber attack has occurred

The Detect function specifies the need to develop and implement a good cybersecurity program to be able to detect any cybersecurity events and incidents. It is divided into 3 categories:

Anomalies and Events

Anomalous activity is detected and the potential impact of events is understood.

Security Continuous Monitoring

Your IT environment and assets are continuously monitored to identify cybersecurity events and to verify the effectiveness of protective measures.

Detection Processes

Your business must have in place a way to detect cyber threats, and those detection processes must be constantly maintained and tested.

How we can help

	HIFENCE Security Services	How we can help
Anomalies and Events	Managed SIEM	Helps identify the entire flow of traffic among assets, and enables you to pinpoint the original entry point of that attack.
Security Continuous Monitoring	Managed Detection & Response (MDR)	Helps to protect assets in your entire environment from attacks with detection and response services.
Detection Processes	Managed Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR)	Helps to protect your assets from breaches and attacks in your endpoints by providing detection and response services.

RESPOND

Taking the most effective actions once a cyberattack is detected

The Respond function supports the ability to contain the impact of a potential cybersecurity incident. You need to develop and implement appropriate activities to take action regarding a detected cybersecurity incident. It is further divided into 5 categories:

Response Planning

Response processes and procedures are executed and maintained to ensure response to detected cybersecurity incidents.

Communications

Response activities are coordinated with internal and external stakeholders.

Analysis

Analysis is conducted to ensure effective response and support recovery activities.

Mitigation

Activities are performed to prevent expansion of an event, mitigate its effects and resolve the incident.

Improvement

Organizational response activities are improved by incorporating lessons learned from current and previous detection/response activities.

How we can help

	HIFENCE Security Services	How we can help
Response Planning, Communications	Architecture Services	We deliver a detailed roadmap showing how HIFENCE ecurity Architecture will strengthen both your response to incidents and your communication to internal and external stakeholders.
Analysis Mitigation Improvement	Managed Firewall, Managed Detection & Response (MDR), Managed Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR)	The firewall correlates with our SOAR platform to rapidly respond by immediately blocking the connection before the attack reaches your internal network. Detects threats, such as phishing and ransomware attacks, and conducts forensics for a rapid and highly effective response. Provides detection and response services to help protect your endpoints from breaches and attacks.

RECOVER

Actions to maintain or restore services and capabilities affected by a cybersecurity attack

The key aspects of this function are business continuity and continual improvement. After a response to an incident and stabilization of the situation, it is the time to recover and return to business as usual and not to the minimally accepted functionality. With continual improvement, you take actions to prevent the incident from recurring. The Recover function is further divided into the following categories:

Response Planning

Response processes and procedures are executed and maintained to ensure response to detected cybersecurity incidents.

Communications

Response activities are coordinated with internal and external stakeholders.

Analysis

Analysis is conducted to ensure effective response and support recovery activities.

How we can help

	HIFENCE Security Services	How we can help
Recovery Planning Improvements Communication	Architecture Services, Managed Detection & Response (MDR), Managed Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR)	Serves your company’s specific recovery needs and is built around policies, standards and overall capabilities. It can then better serve as a roadmap for recovery planning, improvements and communication. Limits an attack vector and isolates compromised hosts, enabling the recovery from a data breach. Restores an affected endpoint back to its previous backup prior to the malware attack, thereby providing recovery.