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It’s been a year since the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released version 2.0 of its Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) – NIST CSF 2.0. Many organizations are transitioning to this framework as a way of understanding their cyber risk and communicating their cyber maturity.
Perhaps the most beneficial evolution of NIST CSF 2.0 is the introduction of the governance function, which underscores the importance of alignment between cybersecurity and business objectives and supports CISOs and business leaders in communicating effectively about the business impact of their cyber risk condition.
In this article, we explore the pros and cons of NIST CSF 2.0 for enterprise organizations and how X-Analytics supercharges the business impact of NIST CSF 2.0 for cybersecurity success.
While the original iteration of the NIST CSF focused exclusively on supporting critical infrastructure organizations, NIST CSF 2.0 has a significantly expanded scope, making it a beneficial framework for every business. This update recognizes the importance of effective cyber risk management for organizations, from not-for-profits to global enterprises.
Furthermore, NIST CSF 2.0 offers a more structured approach to cyber risk management, incorporating everything from risk identification to incident response and recovery.
X-Analytics has been a pioneer in advocating the importance of effective cyber governance, and this is being recognized in the latest iteration of the NIST CSF. By including the ‘govern’ function, the framework supports organizations in enhancing communication between CISOs and the boardroom, ensuring compliance with industry-specific regulatory requirements (e.g., HIPAA, where effective cyber governance is paramount), and making better cybersecurity decisions that align with broader business objectives.
As with any cybersecurity framework, one of the biggest barriers to effective implementation is a lack of resources, support, and expertise. Since the release of their Cybersecurity Framework 2.0, NIST has consciously provided significant resources to support CISOs and organizations in breaking down any adoption barriers.
Despite NIST’s efforts to provide helpful resources to assist organizations in implementing the framework more efficiently, the reality remains that this isn’t an overnight transition. The time it takes to successfully implement the framework depends on various factors, such as company size, technical complexity, and current cyber maturity. For larger enterprises, it could easily take 12 and 24 months to map and transition to the new framework.
The broader scope and new governance function bring new areas for analysis and understanding. The new areas will require updated application, asset, and process inventories, as well as new organizational interactions. Further, formalizing cyber governance across an organization introduces the need for a deeper understanding of corporation governance and communications. These are all accomplishable, but introduce new elements within the cybersecurity program.
As with most Cybersecurity Frameworks, the work doesn’t stop after initial implementation. To use NIST CSF 2.0 as an effective cyber risk management tool, organizations must continually update it. This means investing significant time to conduct ongoing security assessments, reflect evolving threats and business changes, and ensure consistent alignment with shifting business priorities.
Implementing NIST CSF 2.0 is no small feat, so CISOs must ensure that they make the effort worthwhile. X-Analytics natively incorporates NIST CSF 2.0 to help organizations efficiently manage and mitigate cyber risks while aligning with broader business objectives.
X-Analytics streamlines NIST CSF 2.0 by allowing CISOs to create and manage profiles within a single platform. By managing their CSF profile in X-Analytics, businesses can track their progress, understand the business benefits of implementation, identify and prioritize opportunities for risk reduction, and view their CSF within the context of a complete set of GRC principles.
Supply chain attacks have increased by over 400% since 2021, driving NIST to include dedicated guidance on mitigating risks from third-party vendors and suppliers in their CSF 2.0. The supply chain module in X-Analytics further amplifies an organization’s ability to manage third-party cyber risks by identifying and quantifying their unique supply chain threats in financial terms and recommending mechanisms to reduce their risk level in this area.
Enabling effective cyber risk governance and business-wide communication has always been a critical role of X-Analytics. For organizations using NIST CSF 2.0, X-Analytics helps unlock the business value of the ‘govern’ function. X-Analytics helps businesses develop governance charters that define the executive roles in cybersecurity decision-making — ensuring that cybersecurity is seen as a business issue, not a tech issue.
Additionally, it translates technical cybersecurity metrics into financial risk metrics. This facilitates more meaningful conversations between CISOs, executives, and the board of directors, where each party is on the same page and able to ask the questions that truly matter to protect the business.
X-Analytics monitors changes in the cybersecurity landscape on an ongoing basis, removing the need for extensive manual research and intervention to ensure businesses remain informed of their cyber risk condition. By bringing together NIST CSF adherence alongside a business’s unique threat profile and 15 years of historical loss data across 21 industry verticals, X-Analytics provides complete clarity within a single platform.
In 2024, X-Analytics announced Maestro, an innovative cyber risk management platform approach that harmonizes cybersecurity and business success. With X-Analytics Maestro, CISOs can invite the wider team to collaborate, assign tasks to different stakeholders, and manage their program end-to-end. This supercharges NIST CSF 2.0 by removing convoluted, out-of-date spreadsheets and legacy point-in-time approaches, delivering next-level cyber risk governance.
NIST CSF 2.0 offers an expanded scope for cyber risk management. Its wide-scale applicability, increased focus on cyber risk governance, and inclusion of supply chain security make it a robust approach for organizations.
The decision businesses need to address is determining whether the expanded scope investment balances when they weigh the business value they're getting from implementing NIST CSF 2.0.
For many, it will be an improvement from where they were, but there are still unanswered questions. That’s where X-Analytics comes in. It provides the answers to those questions in a way the whole business can understand and care about.
For organizations looking to supercharge their cybersecurity efforts, combining NIST CSF 2.0 and X-Analytics offers a pathway to achieving robust, scalable, and business-aligned cyber resilience.
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