NIST RMF Steps: Getting Started with Compliance
Undertake a “trial run” of the NIST RMF to understand exactly how it will impact your cybersecurity program and make implementation seamless.
The “Prepare” Step of NIST Vulnerability Management
Healthcare organizations struggle with cybersecurity because they are not using the right playbook. That is why a growing number of healthcare organizations are adopting the NIST Risk Management Framework (RMF) – a trusted model that is on its way to becoming the de-facto security and risk management standard. But many struggle to get started with this complex model.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently responded to these concerns by adding an extra step to its risk management framework – the “prepare” step. It is designed to ensure every level of your organization has the information they need to manage security and privacy risks using the NIST RMF.
Three Key Benefits of the “Prepare” Step
Improve Communication
Facilitate better communication surrounding security and risk between leadership, business process levels and system owners.
Assess Cybersecurity Posture
Identify common security controls and baselines in place at the organization to map how NIST will change your cybersecurity program.
Identify and Prioritize Risks
Allocate security resources according to risk appetite and risk level to create a concrete budget for NIST implementation.
Achieve NIST Compliance with Preparation Tasks
The prepare step involves a range of tasks designed to build an overarching picture of your organization’s cybersecurity needs – and ultimately make clear how the NIST framework will support them. These tasks are broken up into two key areas:
- Organizational-level tasks, such establishing protocols and management structures to implement the NIST RMF.
- Systems-level tasks, such as evaluating specific vulnerabilities and assessing your current IT infrastructure.
The ultimate output of these tasks is to:
Create a Shared Language
Your team must normalize organizational roles, responsibilities, risk posture and system definitions currently being managed.
Establish Cybersecurity Context
Your key stakeholders must assess existing IT systems and your cybersecurity management strategy to understand your current risk tolerance.
Prepare Your Monitoring Strategy
Your management team must develop and implement an organization-wide strategy for continuous monitoring.
Accelerate Every Step with Intraprise Health’s NIST Assessment Platform and Expert Consultants
The introduction of a “prepare” step demonstrates how difficult most healthcare entities find it to implement the NIST risk management framework. But with the right technology and support, you can avoid the most complex aspects of the process and improve your cybersecurity risk posture faster.
Intraprise Health offers both: Our NIST Assessment Platform lets you streamline manual tasks, measure your current cybersecurity posture, track progress and create a single scorecard. Meanwhile, our expert consultants provide tailored support to guide you seamlessly through the entire assessment process with confidence.
