Cyber Security Framework: Definition and Best Practices

Cyber security frameworks essentially serve as guidelines that companies use to protect themselves from cyber threats. In this post, we will cover their different types and other essentials.

Cyber security frameworks describe the standards and guidelines that organizations must follow to manage different cybersecurity risks, detect vulnerabilities, and improve digital defense. Gaps in attack surface protection reveal that businesses need to work on their cyber resilience. Digital footprints are rapidly expanding so companies are being opened up to a wide range of new vulnerabilities. These attacks target tools and people, and once inside networks, they move laterally and reach other attack surfaces. Cyber attacks can occur during business downtimes and there is a lack of comprehensive risk assessments within the industry.

Without a cyber security framework in place, leadership accountability comes into question. There are regulatory and legal concerns as well which means broader implications for businesses.

A good cyber security framework can help a company meet its different security requirements. It provides robust technologies and implements appropriate safeguards to protect critical assets.

Here’s everything you need to know about these frameworks.

Key Components of a Cybersecurity Framework

There are five key components of a cyber security framework, detailed below.

Identification

Identification involves understanding the software, devices, and systems you need to protect, including tablets, smartphones, laptops, and POS devices, and identifying the most vulnerable assets and the internal and external threats they face. This helps organizations understand where they need to focus and the changes they need to make.

Protection

In addition to regularly backing up data and using security software to protect data, protection involves:

• Access control: Ensuring that only authorized users can access critical information and systems, and controlling who can log on to the network.
• Data security: Encrypting sensitive data and implementing safeguards to protect data confidentiality and integrity.
• Training and awareness: Educating employees on cybersecurity risks and security practices to reduce human error.

Detection

Detection involves identifying irregularities and proactively monitoring systems and networks to detect and respond to security incidents like unauthorized personnel access.

Response

Having the right response to cyber threats can help you keep your systems safe. This involves notifying stakeholders, customers, and employees that their data might be at risk and having a plan in place to effectively respond to security incidents and minimize damage.

Recovery

Recovery focuses on how you bounce back after a cybersecurity incident. An important part of recovery is having plans in place to restore services after a security incident to ensure business continuity. It also involves reviewing current strategies, understanding how they can be improved, and updating them to strengthen your cybersecurity.

Cybersecurity Framework Types

Cybersecurity frameworks can be divided into three areas.

1. Control frameworks

Control frameworks provide a basic strategy for an organization’s cybersecurity efforts. They help reduce security risks by prioritizing the implementation of security controls.

2. Program frameworks

Program frameworks evaluate the effectiveness of an organization’s security program and facilitate communication between its cybersecurity team and management.

3. Risk frameworks

Risk frameworks identify and evaluate the organization’s risks and prioritize security measures to help mitigate them to safeguard the system.

Popular Cybersecurity Frameworks

The most popular cybersecurity frameworks are included below.

#1. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework

NIST was developed for federal agencies to protect critical infrastructure, like power plants, from cyberattacks and consists of three components: core, tiers, and profiles.

The core entails six functions (identify, protect, detect, respond, recover, govern), each with its own categories and subcategories. While categories refer to activities that make up the function, subcategories are essentially the outcomes of each category.

Tiers in NIST help organizations understand the maturity and effectiveness of their cybersecurity measures and the steps to take to improve them. There are four tiers:

• Partial: Businesses with no security measures and very limited knowledge of cybersecurity risks
• Risk-informed: Companies that are aware of cybersecurity risks but have no strategies or security plans
• Repeatable: Companies that follow the best practices for cybersecurity and have great risk management strategies in place to deal with threats. risks, and vulnerabilities
• Adaptive: Companies that are cyber-resilient and use predictive indicators to prevent attacks

Profiles essentially describe the organization’s current and target posture. They help companies prioritize cybersecurity activities depending on their unique needs.

#2. International Organization for Standardization (ISO) / International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 27001

ISO 27001 provides a systematic approach to assessing risk and selecting and implementing controls. It includes 114 controls split across 14 categories and provides a framework for managing risks to information security. To become ISO compliant, companies need to fulfill a few prerequisites, including:

Context of the Organization

A prerequisite of implementing the ISMS or Information Security Management is understanding the organization’s context. You need to have an understanding of internal and external issues, interested parties, and regulatory issues. This will help you define the scope of the security system.

Leadership and Governance

The management’s commitment is essential for an ISMS for a number of reasons. It should help establish objectives that meet the needs of the organization, provide the essential resources, and establish policies for information security.

Planning

Planning should involve taking into account opportunities and risks, conducting a risk assessment, and creating a risk treatment plan that aligns with the company’s objectives.

#3. Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (COBIT)

COBIT involves six principles and seven enablers that help align business decisions with IT goals and provide a framework for IT management and governance. The six principles include:

1. Meet stakeholder needs: This focuses on the importance of understanding stakeholder needs to develop solutions that satisfy their needs.
2. Enable a holistic approach: This encourages organizations to consider all different aspects of the company, including information, people, technology, and processes, to be able to make the best decisions.
3. Dynamic governance: By encouraging organizations to adapt their practices to keep up with technological advancements, this principle helps them stay flexible in the face of continuously evolving challenges.
4. Tailored to enterprises: This principle encourages organizations to tailor their governance practices according to their specific needs so that they’re effective.
5. Separate governance and management: According to this principle, there should be a clear distinction between management and governance functions for effective decision-making.
6. End-to-end governance system: This focuses on having a comprehensive methodology that encompasses the whole IT ecosystem to ensure that the organization operates as a single entity.

Meanwhile, the seven enablers include:

• People (skills and competencies)
• People (policies and frameworks)
• Processes
• Information
• Services, infrastructure, and applications
• Organizational structures
• Culture, ethics, and behavior

#4. CIS Security Controls

This framework (version 8) comprises 18 security controls that guide implementation activities. These include data protection, penetration testing, account management, data recovery, malware defenses, and audit log management.

The CIS has three implementation groups, each with its own subset of controls. Each group is more complex than the previous one and scales depending on the organization’s function, size, and type.

• Implementation group 1 includes organizations with limited cybersecurity knowledge whose primary focus is to maintain operations.
• Implementation group 2 includes organizations that have dedicated cybersecurity teams.
• Implementation group 3 includes data and systems subject to oversight and requires cybersecurity experts with specialization in different areas.

#5. Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS)

PCI-DSS was designed to help companies secure their systems to protect payment card data and prevent unauthorized access to customer data. The framework includes 12 requirements broken into 277 sub-requirements and covers data storage, network security, and access control specific to payment processing. It also includes measures like tokenization and encryption to protect customer card data.

PCI-DSS applies to all organizations that accept, process, transmit, or store cardholder data and has four compliance levels.

#6. Service Organization Control (SOC)

SOC is an auditing standard used to assess the system’s privacy, confidentiality, processing integrity, availability, and security. One of the most common standards in SOC is the SOC2, which is designed to ensure that third-party providers securely store and process data.

There are two types of SOC2 compliance. Type 1 guarantees the use of compliant processes and systems at a certain point in time, while type 2 guarantees compliance over a specific period.

#7. Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) Common Security Framework

As the name suggests, HITRUST is a framework designed specifically for the healthcare industry and includes the best practices for securing patient data. This includes areas like incident response, audit logging, encryption, and access management and control. It also includes HIPAA and provides a rigorous approach to dealing with cybersecurity risks in healthcare.

The framework includes 75 control objectives and 156 controls, each with various requirements to ensure robust security.

#8. Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC)

CMMC 2.0 was developed by the US Department of Defense to protect cybersecurity information and assess the strength, capacity, and security of its contractors. It includes a set of standards for any company working with the Department of Defense.

The framework has three levels based on the organizational processes and sensitivity of data, and each level has a certain number of practices and assessments. Level 1 has 17 practices with self-assessment once a year, while level 3 has more than 110 practices and government-led assessments three times a year.

CMMC helps eliminate risks within the supply chain and improves online security while protecting systems from potential breaches.

#9. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

The HIPAA framework requires healthcare companies to implement controls that can secure and protect confidential consumer and patient data. It protects electronic healthcare data and is essential for insurers and healthcare providers.

In addition to following the best practices for cybersecurity such as training employees, HIPAA also demands healthcare organizations to conduct risk assessments to identify potential risks.

#10. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

GDPR was introduced to improve data protection for EU citizens and affects all companies established in the EU as well as businesses that store the data of EU citizens. The framework includes 99 articles on companies’ compliance responsibilities, including data protection policies and data access rights.

The framework emphasizes data minimization, rights of data subjects, and transparency, and it enforces significant penalties in the case of non-compliance.

Implementing a Cybersecurity Framework

Implementing a cybersecurity framework involves the following steps.

1. Assessing Current Security Posture

You need to conduct risk assessments, asset inventories, and gap analyses to identify vulnerabilities and evaluate existing security measures. This will help you identify cybersecurity practices that follow standards and things that need improvement.

2. Defining Scope and Objectives

Set clear data security objectives and define the scope, including the regulatory requirements, systems, and departments that the framework will cover.

3. Developing Policies and Procedures

Using the findings from the risk assessment, create security policies, implement an incident response plan, and assess control procedures.

4. Training and Awareness Programs

Conduct regular training for your employees and run awareness campaigns to make sure that staff follows security protocols.

5. Continuous Monitoring and Improvement

Once you implement a security framework, that doesn’t mean you can check it off your list and forget about it. You need to continuously monitor it and update it as security features change.

Challenges in Cybersecurity Frameworks

When it comes to implementing cybersecurity frameworks, the biggest challenges include:

1. Integration with Existing Systems

Incorporating a cybersecurity framework into an outdated or legacy system can be quite complex. Older systems might also lack modern security features and may require costly updates. Integrating the framework with existing systems might even lead to potential downtime.

2. Budget Constraints

Implementing and maintaining robust security measures can be quite expensive, especially for small and mid-sized companies with limited resources.

3. Evolving Threat Landscape

Cyberthreats are continuously evolving, including zero-day exploits, phishing, and ransomware, and require frameworks to be adaptable to defend against these new threats. This requires ongoing monitoring and frequent updates to techniques, tools, and policies.

4. Ensuring Compliance and Audits

Adhering to regulatory requirements and preparing for audits is frequently time-consuming and resource-intensive. Companies often need to document processes, which can strain resources, especially when regulations frequently change.

Best Practices for Cyber Security Frameworks

In order to protect your firm against cyber attacks, a strong cyber security framework must be in place. Here are some best practices to assist you in improving your security stance; these cyber security framework measures will safeguard your sensitive information:

• Make sure you encrypt sensitive data both in transit and at rest to protect it from unauthorized access. Ensure your encryption standards comply with the latest industry regulations.
• Attackers commonly find their way in through vulnerabilities in outdated systems, so keep all software, applications, and operating systems up to date.
• Thoroughly test your disaster recovery plan to make sure you can resume business operations quickly after a security incident.
• Provide staff with adequate cyber security awareness and hygiene training. This will help them handle risks and prevent leaking data when encountering malicious entities. Perform security audits and regular penetration tests on your cyber security infrastructure. Don’t forget to patch frequently.

Cybersecurity Frameworks Are Critical

Cybersecurity frameworks essentially serve as the guidelines that companies should use to ensure security and protect themselves from cyber threats. In this post, we’ve covered the different kinds of security frameworks, along with some of the most popular ones. While different frameworks have different approaches and an organization can choose to comply with different frameworks, they all help improve security and protect organizations from cyberattacks. And combined with SentinelOne’s Singularity Platform, you can protect your company with unparalleled speed and efficiency.

FAQs

What Are Frameworks in Cybersecurity?

Frameworks in cybersecurity are essentially documents that describe the best practices, standards, and guidelines for managing security risks. They help organizations recognize vulnerabilities in their security and outline steps they can take to keep themselves safe from cyberattacks.

What Are the 5 Standards of NIST?

The 5 standards of NIST are:

• Identify: Identifying the devices and systems vulnerable to threats
• Protect: Protecting data with measures like access control and encryption
• Detect: Monitoring systems and devices to detect security incidents
• Respond: Responding to cyber threats in the right way
• Recover: Plan of action you have in place to recover from a cyberattack

What are the 5 Cs of Cybersecurity?

The 5 Cs of cybersecurity are:

• Change: This refers to how adaptable organizations are to change. With cyber threats constantly evolving, businesses should be quick to embrace changes like adopting new solutions to stay ahead of threats.
• Compliance: Organizations should adhere to legal and industry-specific frameworks to build trust with consumers and avoid penalties.
• Cost: This refers to the financial aspect of implementing cybersecurity measures. While investing in security might look like an expensive overhead, the potential loss from a cyberattack can be more devastating.
• Continuity: This focuses on making sure that business operations can continue as normal after a cyberattack. Having a continuity plan in place can also minimize downtime.
• Coverage: This ensures that your cybersecurity measures cover all aspects of business, including third-party vendors and internal devices. Attackers usually target the weakest link in your ecosystem, making comprehensive coverage essential.