Running Head: CYBERSECURITY 1

Cyber Security

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Cyber Security

The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework (NIST

CSF) was established to offer guidance for organizations wishing to bolster their cybersecurity

defenses. Five steps are outlined to offer guidance. The first step is setting the organizations'

goals and including the tolerance levels and the accepted levels of risks. By setting the target

goals, an organization can create a detailed profile for the framework that covers the risk

management process and the needed tools to support it. The third step is to assess a specific

functional area or the organization in general. The current position is known through

vulnerability scanners and behavior analytics, which provide target scores. The NIST framework

creates a gap analysis that outlines the action plans that can be considered to improve the

organizational scores from the scores. The gap analysis needs to be discussed with relevant

stakeholders who influence the plan. Finally, the NIST framework directs that an implementation

action plan be introduced to include the defenses aligned with the organizational security goals.

A mechanism to build cybersecurity awareness is identifying the risks that provide the

most threats, then changing the organization's behavior in terms of realizing and dealing with

cases of insecurity. The organization can then schedule training activities for security personnel

as well as stakeholders in the organization. After training, it is crucial that testing be done to

highlight the effectiveness of the used training programs. Through testing, the frameworks can

be used continually, and if they are not effective, other frameworks can be used. The mechanism

then tracks the metrics of the health organization in terms of safety and performance.

Reference
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Keller, N. (2013). Cybersecurity Framework. Available from

https://www.nist.gov/cyberframework