NIST CSF core functions: Identify
Introduction
The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework, or NIST CSF, was first published in 2014 to provide guidance for organizational cybersecurity defenses and risk management. This framework is renowned for its inherent flexibility and open-endedness to account for different organizational needs.
At its center, NIST CSF comprises five core functions. This article will detail the first of these functions, Identify, and explore the Framework’s five core functions, what the Identify function is, what a successfully implemented Identify function allows an organization to do, and the outcome categories and subcategory activities of this function.
What is the NIST CSF framework core?
The framework core is a set of recommended activities designed to achieve certain cybersecurity outcomes and serves as guidance. It is not intended to serve as a checklist. The framework core is composed of five functions that work together to achieve the outcomes mentioned above. These elements are:
- Identify
- Protect
- Detect
- Respond
- Recover
What is the Identify function?
The Identify function is the first of the five Framework functions. As such, it provides the foundation for the rest of the functions to be built upon. This function centers around pinpointing all organization systems and platforms included in its infrastructure. Proper execution of the Identify function will ensure that no vital IT assets will fall through the cracks and will help combat shadow IT.
This function also entails identifying potential risks that could adversely impact organization systems necessary for daily operations (such as production servers) and other critical organization activities. This will help cybersecurity executives better prioritize organization cybersecurity efforts.
According to the NIST CSF, the Identify function is defined as “Develop an organizational understanding to manage cybersecurity risk to systems, people, assets, data, and capabilities”. As you can see, this is a high-level definition that (Read more...)
*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Infosec Resources authored by Greg Belding. Read the original post at: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/infosecResources/~3/R9qLNSGMMGA/
