Cybersecurity Frameworks — Types, Strategies, Implementation and Benefits

IT teams are always on the lookout for new ransomware and
exploit spreading in the wild, but can all these unforeseen cyber
attacks be prevented proactively?

That’s definitely a ‘NO,’ which is why there’s a reactive
approach in place to save organisations from the aftermath of take
downs, and with proper cybersecurity practices, one can reduce the
chances of becoming a victim.

To do that, organizations should follow specific
cybersecurity frameworks that will assist them in redefining
and reinforcing their IT security and staying vigilant against
cyber attacks.

In this article, we’ll understand what is cybersecurity framework,
why they are mandatory for organizations, and what are their types,
strategies, benefits, and implementation in detail.

What is a Cybersecurity Framework?

Cybersecurity framework is a predefined set of policies and
procedures that are defined by leading cybersecurity organizations
to enhance cybersecurity strategies within an enterprise
environment, and it is documented for theoretical knowledge and
practical implementation procedures.

These frameworks are, at times, designed targeting a specific
industry and are built to reduce the unknown vulnerabilities and
misconfigurations existing within an enterprise network.

To keep this simple, let’s say the cybersecurity framework is a
blueprint to enrich your enterprise IT security.

Why are cybersecurity frameworks important for
organizations?

Cybersecurity frameworks will upgrade your existing security
protocols, and bring in new security layers if there isn’t one
existing already.

These frameworks will also help enterprises understand where
their security standards are and how can they improve it.

Since these frameworks are well designed and tested under
different situations, enterprises can ensure they are reliable.

Cybersecurity Framework Strategies

Let’s understand these processes one-by-one.

1.) Identify: This function helps the organization
identify the existing cyber touch points within a business
environment. Those could be IT assets, resources, information, and
more.

2.) Protect: This one takes care of corporate access
control, data security, and maintenance to take care of
cybersecurity in and around the business environment. Most likely,
it is a proactive phase of enterprise cybersecurity.

3.) Detect: This function is where an organization will
identify any potential breaches by monitoring the logs and taking
care of intrusion detection procedures at the network and device
level.

Security information and event management are all covered under
this procedure.

4.) Respond: Once the breach is detected organizations
need to take care of the respond procedure—understanding the
breach, fixing the vulnerability, and proceeding with the
recovery.

The mitigation, response planning, and improvements will be
handled at this stage.

5.) Recover: Recover planning procedures, like disaster
recovery system and backup plans, will be handled in this stage of
the cybersecurity framework strategy.

Types of Cybersecurity Frameworks

Now, let’s get into the types of cybersecurity frameworks. There
are a number of cybersecurity frameworks existing in the industry;
however, we included the most frequently used ones in this article.

ISO 27001/27002

International Standards Organizations (ISO) was the one who did
develop ISO27000, that covers
all the broad aspects of the cybersecurity framework that can be
applied to businesses of any vertical.

Considered as an equivalent to ISO 9000 standards for
manufacturing, helps organizations define and measure their quality
of cybersecurity existing within their environment.

ISO2700 defines an overview, while ISO27001 takes care of the
requirements, and ISO27002 takes care of the implementation
procedures.

All these frameworks are documented to help enterprises
establish the same around their corporate networks.

Along with the above list of standards, ISO 27799 defines security
pertaining to the healthcare industry.

CIS Security Controls

Center for Internet Security (CIS) has defined a set of critical
security controls that organizations must establish within their
network for effective cybersecurity strategies and framework.

CIS has defined three sets of critical security
controls^[2]—they are basic,
foundational, and organizational—counting 20 controls altogether.
They address various security controls that should be existing
inside an enterprise environment.

Organizations need to deploy all these 20 critical controls to
achieve the best security environment and sustain the same forever.
If businesses can’t establish 20, they can at least try
establishing 10 security controls to reach halfway there.

NIST framework

The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have similar
policies and norms that are documented, targeting government
organizations to build effective information security practices.

This framework can also be applied to other industries as well.
There are Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), which will be
the prime focus of this framework.

PCI DSS

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a
cybersecurity framework designed to improve the security of payment
accounts, which is protecting debit, credit, and cash card
transactions.
All these frameworks are built and documented to make sure
enterprises are practicing the industry standards and keeping their
security clean and safe.

Implementing cybersecurity frameworks

After identifying the right cybersecurity framework for the
enterprise, this has to be practiced as per the document
guidelines. To do that, some steps have to be implemented to get
things started and going.

• Businesses first need to test and identify the current security
  posture inside their environment
• Analyze the existing projects, the process involved in these
  projects and the resources involved with it
• Understand the cybersecurity framework by reading through the
  documents
• Distinguish what security controls exist and doesn’t exist
  within the enterprise network
• Communicate where the security layers are lagging and define a
  plan to establish the same
• Implement the same in a defined time-frame to keep things on
  track and time
• Highlight controls that outperform the controls defined by the
  framework
• Discuss the entire plan with the key players, including
  stakeholders, and proceed with the implementation
• Audit the progress of implementation continuously
• Generate reports and conduct meetings to measure the
  challenges
• Document the entire process for audits and other benefits

Cybersecurity frameworks will play a key role in establishing and
sustaining unforeseen cyber situations, giving organizations an
upper hand over cyber criminals.

Businesses need to understand the demands that they need to keep
up to, analyze the entire implementation procedures, and do the
same only after discussing the same with stakeholders and IT
departments.

Advantages

• Cybersecurity frameworks and its policies can overlap with each
  other allowing organizations to become compliant to multiple
  frameworks with minimum efforts
• Enhanced cybersecurity
• Better data protection
• Easy compliance and audit management

Disadvantages

• Implementation can take days, thus affecting productivity
• An improper implementation may lead to security loopholes
• Financial limitations may apply

With cyber attacks becoming more sophisticated lately,
organizations should follow the right cybersecurity frameworks and
build better defenses to keep the hackers at bay.

Establishing the frameworks can take you halfway through
compliance but sustaining the same always will yield great results
towards cybersecurity of your organisation, keeping it as well as
its customers safe and secure.

^[1][3][4]