Choosing a Cyber Security Framework

Having a framework for security helps organizations identify what is missing and what is needed for their existing security architecture.  A recent article in Dark Reading covered some of the cyber security frameworks that are available and how to make the decision in choosing one to use in your organization.  The article covers three different frameworks available from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the U.S. governmental agency that creates frameworks for use by the federal government.

Picking the Right Security Framework
The article covers three frameworks that are particularly relevant in today’s world of heightened attacks, especially ransomware and supply chain attacks.  Choosing a good cybersecurity framework can help the organization identify risks, protect company assets (including customer data), and put steps in place to detect, respond, and recover from a cybersecurity event.

These are the three frameworks covered by the article:

• NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF Rev 1.1)
• NIST 800-53 (Rev. 5)
• Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification & NIST 800-171 (Rev. 2)

Read the article for more details on each and how to choose between them.

Here at K2 Cyber Security we’ve been focused on NIST SP800-53, known also as the Security and Privacy Framework, because of the recent update on this framework that occurred in September of 2020.

The new NIST SP800-53 update is good indication that application security needed an update and gives us insight as to what the next generation of application security is going to look like.

The latest revision of NIST SP800-53 includes the requirement of RASP (Runtime Application Self-Protection) and IAST (Interactive Application Security Testing). It’s a first in recognizing these two advancements in application security by now requiring them as part of the security framework.

A RASP solution sits on same server as the application, and provides continuous security for the application during runtime. By running on same server as the application, RASP solutions provide continuous security for the application during runtime.  For example, as mentioned earlier, a RASP solution has complete visibility into the application, so a RASP solution can analyze an application’s execution to validate the execution of the code, and can understand the context of the application’s interactions.

IAST is the other new recommendation for application security coming from the NIST revised draft, and if you haven’t heard of IAST, there’s a good definition available from Optiv

“IAST is an emerging application security testing approach which combines elements of both of its more established siblings in SAST (Static Application Security Testing) and DAST (Dynamic Application Security Testing).  IAST instruments the application binary which can enable both DAST-like confirmation of exploit success and SAST-like coverage of the application code. In some cases, IAST allows security testing as part of general application testing process which provides significant benefits to DevOps approaches. IAST holds the potential to drive tests with fewer false positives/negatives and higher speed than SAST and DAST.”

With these two new requirements (RASP and IAST) for application security being added to the NIST framework, it’s really time to rethink how your organization is doing application security.

K2 Cyber Security can help out with your RASP and IAST requirements with a best-of-breed solution.  K2 offers an ideal runtime protection security solution that detects true zero-day attacks, while at the same time generates the least false positives and alerts.  Rather than rely on technologies like signatures, heuristics, fuzzy logic, machine learning or AI, we use a deterministic approach to detect true zero-day attacks, without being limited to detecting attacks based on prior attack knowledge.  Deterministic security uses application execution validation, and verifies the API calls are functioning the way the code intended.  There is no use of any prior knowledge about an attack or the underlying vulnerability, which gives our approach the true ability to detect new zero-day attacks. Our technology has 8 patents granted/pending, and has no false alerts.

We’ve also recently published a video, The Need for Deterministic Security.  The video explains why the technologies used in today’s security tools, including web application firewalls (WAFs) fail to prevent zero day attacks and how deterministic security fills the need for detecting zero day attacks.  The video covers why technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, heuristics, fuzzy logic, pattern and signature matching fail to detect true zero day attacks, giving very specific examples of attacks where these technologies work, and where  they fail to detect an attack.

The video also explains why deterministic security works against true zero day attacks and how K2 uses deterministic security.  Watch the video now.

Change how you protect your applications, include RASP and check out K2’s application workload security.

Find out more about K2 today by requesting a demo, or get your free trial.