Yesterday, the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) released the final version of the voluntary federal
cybersecurity standards known as the Cybersecurity Framework, along
with a "Roadmap" explaining how the government will work
with the private sector, other countries, and international
organizations to refine and improve the Framework over the next
several years.1 In
conjunction with the issuance of the Framework and the Roadmap, the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched a
program—called the Critical Infrastructure Cyber Community
(C3) Voluntary Program—to assist owners and operators of
critical infrastructure systems in using the Framework to improve
their network security.2
These developments come exactly a year after President Obama issued
the Executive Order on Improving Critical Infrastructure
Cybersecurity that mandated them.3
The NIST Framework is designed for owners and operators of critical
infrastructure systems, but regulators and courts may well look to
the Framework for guidance in assessing the adequacy of the
cybersecurity practices of companies and organizations throughout
the economy. Thus, every organization that maintains important
information on computer systems has an interest in learning about
the Framework and determining how it may assist their network
security.
The Framework issued yesterday (known as version 1.0) is identical
in many respects to the preliminary version issued in October
2013,4 but several
differences are notable:
- In response to industry complaints and counter-proposals, version 1.0 replaces the preliminary version's detailed appendix on privacy protection with a much briefer, less prescriptive set of privacy recommendations;
- A few of the substantive standards in the Framework's Core have been removed, including one on protecting intellectual property, while several have been added, particularly focusing on identification of new risks and on recovery activities;
- The Roadmap provides more specifics than did the equivalent
section in the preliminary version about how NIST envisions
development of the Framework, particularly
- a goal of transitioning governance of the Framework to a non-governmental organization after the release of version 2.0;
- several initiatives, including development of NIST special publications, addressing improved, multi-factor authentication methods;
- several initiatives, including production of NIST special publications, on the application of big data analytic techniques to access controls, continuous monitoring, attack warning and indicators, and security automation;
- a bigger push for international coordination on cybersecurity standards and best practices; and
- a call for the development of more precise technical standards and best practices to gauge privacy impacts, beginning with a workshop to be held by NIST in the second quarter of 2014;
- The C3 Voluntary Program will both provide assistance in using the Framework—through self-assessment materials, on-site evaluations by DHS personnel, and the development of sector-specific implementation guidance—and serve as point of contact for user feedback.
The Cybersecurity Framework is the centerpiece of the efforts
required by the Executive Order on Improving Critical
Infrastructure Cybersecurity, but the Executive Order and its
accompanying Presidential Policy Directive mandate many other
initiatives as well, including ones that may ultimately lead to
mandatory federal cybersecurity rules. That larger array of
initiatives is described systematically in our earlier publication,
available here.
Here is a fuller description of the Framework, Roadmap, and
C3 Voluntary Program:
Framework
Version 1.0 maintains the same basic approach—risk
management—and the same structure as the preliminary version,
with three main components: Core, Implementation Tiers, and
Profiles.
The Core consists of key cybersecurity activities, desired
outcomes, and applicable technical standards. They are grouped
under five basic functions designed to provide company
decision-makers with a strategic view of cybersecurity risk
management:
Identify—This function includes asset management and risk
assessment, which are "foundational for effective
implementation of the Framework."
Protect—This function includes access control, training, and
data security, and is to be implemented consistent with risk
strategies from the "identify" function.
Detect—This function includes monitoring and detection
processes to enable timely response and containment of cyber
incidents.
Respond—This function includes response planning,
communication, and mitigation efforts.
Recover—This function includes recovery planning and
improvements.
For each function, the preliminary Framework identifies existing
technical standards, from NIST and other international standards
bodies, to serve as "informative references" in support
of the technical implementation of the functions.
The Profiles are intended to help organizations "establish a
roadmap" for reducing cybersecurity risks in line with
organizational and sector goals, legal requirements, best
practices, and risk management priorities. Organizations are
encouraged to focus on identifying and eliminating gaps between
their current Profile, which describes cybersecurity outcomes
currently being achieved, and their target Profile, which indicates
the outcomes needed to achieve their cybersecurity risk-management
goals.
The Implementation Tiers describe the nature of the
organization's cybersecurity risk management practices, from
partial (lowest tier in term of rigor and sophistication) to
risk-informed, to repeatable, to adaptive (highest tier in terms of
rigor and sophistication). Version 1.0 explicitly notes that, while
organizations identified in lower tiers are "encouraged"
to consider moving to higher ones, "[t]iers do not represent
maturity levels," and "progression to higher Tiers is
encouraged when such a change would reduce cybersecurity risk and
be cost effective." Version 1.0 states that "[s]uccessful
implementation of the Framework is based upon achievement of the
outcomes described in the organization's Target Profile(s) and
not upon Tier determination."
Version 1.0's privacy recommendations allow for considerably
more flexibility than those in the preliminary version's
privacy appendix. Version 1.0 characterizes the privacy
recommendations as "a general set of considerations and
processes" and simply suggests that "organizations may
address these considerations and processes with a range of
technical implementations." Version 1.0 provides specific
examples of possible means to address these implications for only
seven of the 22 categories in the Core: governance, access control,
awareness and training, detection, monitoring, communications, and
mitigation. Even then, the suggestions are less specific and
prescriptive than those in the preliminary version.
Roadmap
The Roadmap, which builds on the "Areas for Improvement"
discussion in the preliminary version, addresses nine subjects: (1)
authentication; (2) automated indicator sharing; (3) conformity
assessment; (4) the cybersecurity workforce; (5) data analytics;
(6) federal agency cybersecurity alignment; (7) international
aspects, impacts, and alignment; (8) supply chain risk management;
and (9) technical privacy standards.5
Describing the Framework as a "living document," the
Roadmap identifies for each of these areas specific initiatives
NIST intends to undertake to extend and improve the Framework. Many
of the most notable of these proposals were noted above, but they
all deserve attention because they reflect the considered judgments
by a group of government experts, informed by extensive
private-sector input, about the most important avenues for
improving cybersecurity practices. They thus are likely to reflect
and influence efforts outside the government as well as inside, as
well as efforts in other countries.
C3 Voluntary Program
The C3 Voluntary Program has two basic functions: to
assist stakeholders in making use of the Framework and to serve as
a venue for ongoing dialogue between the government and
stakeholders about how the Framework can be put into practice and
improved.
Assistance will be provided in several ways, including through the
development by DHS and sector-specific agencies of implementation
guidance for particular sectors; through on-site non-technical
assessments by DHS personnel in regional offices around the
country; and through the provision of materials organizations can
use to undertake self-assessments of cybersecurity
preparedness.
The launch of this program may be of particular importance for
owners and operators of "critical infrastructure at greatest
risk," a category defined in the Executive Order as those
"where a cybersecurity incident could reasonably result in
catastrophic regional or national effects on public health or
safety, economic security, or national security," but
excluding commercial IT products or consumer IT services.6 The government was to have
identified and confidentially notified entities in this category by
July 12 of last year, which were then to have an opportunity to
challenge the determination. Government agencies have to report to
the President annually on the extent of participation by these
entities in the Voluntary Program.7
1The final
Cybersecurity Framework (version 1.0) is available here. The Roadmap is available here.
2About the Critical
Infrastructure Cyber Community C3 Voluntary
Program, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, available here. Information about joining the program is
available at the "C3 Voluntary Program US-CERT Gateway, here.
3 Exec. Order No.
13636, Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity, 78 Fed.
Reg. 11738, §7(e) (Feb. 19, 2013), available here.
4 Our analysis of the
preliminary version is available here. Our analysis of the draft version made
public in August 2013 can be found here.
5 This list is intended
to meet the requirement of Section 7(b) of the Executive Order to
"identify areas for improvement that should be addressed
through future collaboration with particular sectors and
standards-developing organizations."
6 E.O. 13636, §
9.
7 Id. § 8(c).
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.