NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) and CTEM – Better Together

NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) and CTEM – Better Together

September 5, 2024 at 06:03AM

The NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF), introduced in 2013, provides a voluntary framework to manage cyber risk by organizing and prioritizing security measures into five core functions. The latest version, CSF 2.0, emphasizes continuous improvement, broader enterprise risk management, and proactive cybersecurity. The CSF and Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) program work together to defend organizations against cyberthreats by providing a comprehensive roadmap for managing cybersecurity risks and a dynamic approach to threat detection and mitigation.

From the meeting notes provided, the key takeaways are:

– The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) introduced the Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 1.0 in response to a 2013 Executive Order, aimed at helping organizations manage cyber risk through voluntary guidelines based on established standards and best practices.

– CSF 1.1, designed for any organization looking to address cybersecurity risk management, comprises five core functions: Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover, each with several categories and subcategories.

– In February 2024, NIST released CSF 2.0 with the goal of making CSF more adaptable and widely adopted, bringing changes that emphasize governance, expanded scope, clear user-friendliness, and a focus on continuous improvement and proactive cybersecurity approaches.

– Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM), released in 2022 by Gartner, complements CSF by focusing on the continuous monitoring and assessment of threats to an organization’s security posture.

– CTEM aligns with CSF’s core functions, demanding rigorous asset identification and inventory, proactive vulnerability and misconfiguration identification, continuous monitoring of the external attack surface, risk prioritization stipulations, and continuous insights to the organizational attack surface to proactively identify and mitigate vulnerabilities and exposures.

– The CSF-CTEM alignment offers a comprehensive roadmap for managing cybersecurity risks and a data-driven approach to threat detection and mitigation.

These takeaways outline the significance of the CSF and CTEM and their alignment in enhancing organizations’ cybersecurity posture and compliance.

Let me know if you need more details or further information.

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