The NIST CSF (URL: https://www.nist.gov/cyberframework) was developed to provide “a common language to address and manage cybersecurity risk in a cost-effective way based on business needs without placing additional regulatory requirements on businesses.” Do businesses and government agencies need to utilize such a framework to maintain a proper cybersecurity posture?  Can an organization mitigate cybersecurity risks without incorporating such a framework? Cite resources and references that back up your assertions.

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The NIST CSF was designed to make it easier to communicate the needs of a cybersecurity system the more business oriented personnel of a company. From the cost and budget, to where their framework needs to be improved, it can streamline and simplify the more complex terms and concepts into a way that can be more easily understood. This enables companies to be able to design a path ahead to bolster their cybersecurity infrastructure wherever it needs improvement, as well as quantify the budgetary, personnel, and technological needs to do that. While I think a company can still have a successful cybersecurity program without utilizing NIST, I think they needlessly complicate the process by failing to use it, unless the organization in question uses another framework besides NIST. Other frameworks might include Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology or COBIT, which helps to assess risks in a cybersecurity system, or ISO 27001, which is still closely related to NIST.

Source:

Magnusson, A. (2022, November 8). NIST compliance: 2022 complete guide. StrongDM. Retrieved November 17, 2022, from https://www.strongdm.com/nist-compliance