{"id":60275,"date":"2025-05-27T17:31:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T13:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/?p=60275"},"modified":"2025-05-28T12:31:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T08:31:18","slug":"nist-compliance-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/nist-compliance-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"NIST Compliance Explained: A Guide for MSPs and Businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Virtually all IT professionals know that cybersecurity is important. The question, though, is which practices and procedures they should follow to help protect against threats.<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NIST compliance is one way to gain clarity surrounding that question. By complying with NIST\u2019s cybersecurity recommendations, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/what-is-an-msp\/\">managed service providers (MSPs)<\/a> and other professionals can enhance IT security.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition, NIST compliance may in some cases be necessary for working with certain types of organizations, since most U.S. federal government agencies require their vendors to be NIST-compliant.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This article explains what NIST compliance means, who must or should comply with NIST and which key security controls and practices organizations must implement for NIST compliance purposes.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What Is NIST Compliance?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NIST compliance is the practice of following the cybersecurity recommendations established by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NIST is an organization within the U.S. government that develops standards related to science and technology. These include a set of cybersecurity standards, known as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF). NIST 2.0, the most recent major version of the framework, appeared in 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who Should Comply with NIST?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NIST compliance is relevant for two distinct groups:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>U.S. government contractors and vendors<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Organizations that do business with U.S. federal agencies must comply with NIST in most cases. This is because the U.S. government requires its contractors and vendors to demonstrate NIST compliance as a means of helping to mitigate cyber risks that may impact government resources. Note that this requirement applies not just to direct government contractors but also to subcontractors \u2013 so a business that contracts with another business, which is itself a federal contractor, must be NIST-compliant if it carries out activities that impact the federal agency.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Other organizations<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: NIST compliance is not a strict requirement for businesses that don\u2019t contract (directly or indirectly) with U.S. government agencies. Nonetheless, many organizations voluntarily choose to comply with the NIST CSF as a way of enhancing their cyber hygiene. This is especially true of U.S.-based companies, since NIST tends to be viewed as the de facto cybersecurity standard for all U.S. organizations to meet. (In other parts of the world, ISO 27001, a separate cybersecurity standard, is a more commonly used framework.) However, the NIST requirements aren\u2019t linked to the U.S. in any specific way, and any organization, in any location, may choose to become NIST-compliant if it wishes.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thus, although NIST CSF compliance is technically only required for businesses that operate in the U.S. federal government sector, voluntarily complying with NIST can be a best practice from a cybersecurity and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/a-guide-to-compliance-management-for-msps\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">compliance readiness<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> perspective. Proactively becoming NIST-compliant also makes it easier for businesses to pursue opportunities as federal government contractors or subcontractors should they arise in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Importance of NIST Compliance<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now that we\u2019ve covered the basics of NIST compliance, let\u2019s look a little more closely at why NIST is important for two specific groups \u2013 MSPs and businesses at large<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why NIST Matters for MSPs<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For MSPs, operating in ways that align with the NIST CSF can help to set a high standard for cybersecurity that clients will appreciate. The ability to say \u2013 and demonstrate \u2013 that a business is NIST-compliant shows a strong commitment to cybersecurity, and it can help MSPs stand out in a competitive market.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition, NIST compliance is a requirement for any MSPs seeking to work in the government sector, since their prospective clients will typically require NIST compliance. MSPs will fail <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/vendor-risk-assessment\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">vendor risk assessments<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> if they seek to offer managed services to a U.S. federal government agency or contractor without being NIST-compliant.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why NIST Matters for Businesses and IT Teams<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For businesses in general, choosing to comply with NIST is a good step toward overall compliance readiness. No matter which industry a company operates in, NIST compliance helps establish a strong security posture that will also prime the organization for compliance with other cybersecurity or data privacy frameworks, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NIST CSF compliance can also help to minimize downtime risks and ensure business continuity. That is because, in addition to defining controls and procedures that help to prevent and identify cyber risks, NIST includes provisions related to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/what-is-backup-software\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">backing up systems<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and preparing for efficient recovery.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Security Controls for NIST Compliance<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The current version of the NIST framework includes over 1,000 security controls, meaning specific procedures or protections that businesses should employ. Not every organization needs to implement every control; the controls are only applicable if they relate to a type of resource or risk that the organization needs to manage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thus, rather than trying to identify individual NIST controls to implement, it often makes more sense to focus on NIST \u201ccontrol families.\u201d The control families are groups of controls, each of which relates to a different category of risk or area of operation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are currently 20 NIST control families:<\/span><b><\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Access Control (AC):<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Controls who can access systems and information and under what conditions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Awareness and Training (AT):<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Ensures personnel are aware of security risks and trained to carry out security responsibilities.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Audit and Accountability (AU):<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Tracks system activities and holds users accountable for their actions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Configuration Management (CM):<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Manages system settings and changes to maintain security and integrity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Contingency Planning (CP):<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Prepares for emergency response, backup operations and system recovery.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Identification and Authentication (IA):<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Verifies the identity of users, devices, or processes before granting access.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Incident Response (IR):<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Detects, responds to and recovers from cybersecurity incidents.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Maintenance (MA):<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Ensures that system maintenance is performed securely and by authorized personnel.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Media Protection (MP):<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Protects digital and physical media containing sensitive information.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Physical and Environmental Protection (PE):<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Safeguards physical access to systems and protects against environmental threats.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Personnel Security (PS):<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Ensures individuals are screened and managed appropriately for access to systems.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Planning (PL):<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Establishes policies and plans for implementing and managing security controls.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Program Management (PM):<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Provides organization-wide oversight and governance of the security program.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Risk Assessment (RA):<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/msp-risk-management\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Identifies and evaluates risks<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to organizational operations and systems.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Security Assessment and Authorization (CA):<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Ensures systems are assessed for security risks and authorized for use.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>System and Communications Protection (SC):<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Protects data in transit and at rest and safeguards system boundaries.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>System and Information Integrity (SI):<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Identifies, reports, and corrects flaws and unauthorized changes to systems.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>System and Services Acquisition (SA):<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Ensures security is considered throughout the system development and procurement lifecycle.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The official reference for details on NIST control families and individual controls is <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/csrc.nist.gov\/pubs\/sp\/800\/53\/r5\/upd1\/final\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NIST Special Publication 800-53<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which defines the NIST requirements in detail.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Core Functions within the NIST Cybersecurity Framework<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition to defining security controls, NIST breaks cybersecurity operations into five key \u201cfunctions\u201d: Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond and Recover. Think of the functions as a high-level framework to guide cybersecurity strategy, while the controls are specific steps that can mitigate various risks and threats.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here\u2019s a closer look at each of the NIST functions.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Identify<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Identify function focuses on assessing and evaluating IT assets and associated risks. It includes practices like assessing the access controls that determine who can do what with IT systems. Risk prioritization, and the identification of assets that would pose the greatest danger to the organization if they were compromised by attackers, is also part of the Identify function.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Protect<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The goal of the Protect function is to implement adequate protections for managing the various types of risks that could affect an organization\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/network-security-best-practices\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">network<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/top-security-threats-in-cloud-computing-and-how-to-mitigate-them\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">cloud environment<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and other IT resources. It includes the implementation of effective access controls, as well as practices like employee training.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Detect<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The detect function centers on identifying active risks and threats. Although ideally no cybersecurity events will occur, in practice it is impossible to mitigate all potential risks \u2013 so detecting them before they escalate is another key step in the NIST approach to cybersecurity.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Respond<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Detecting cybersecurity threats is only valuable if the organization can also react effectively \u2013 which is where the Respond function comes in. It covers the practices of developing and carrying out response plans that allow organizations to contain attacks once they are underway, and to remediate threats until a breach is fully contained.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recover<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The final NIST function, Recover, focuses on restoring systems affected by a cyber attack. It includes practices like backing up data and having <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/disaster-recovery-planning\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">recovery plans<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in place so that breached endpoints, databases and other assets can be restored with minimal data loss.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Conclusion: NIST compliance as a cornerstone of cyber hygiene<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although the portion of MSPs and businesses that are strictly required to comply with NIST is small, many organizations can benefit from NIST compliance even if they face no specific mandate to follow the NIST CSF. To that end, it\u2019s a best practice to understand the NIST security controls and functions, then implement procedures that conform with them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Doing so may help your organization win government business \u2013 and even if it doesn\u2019t, it will leave you more secure and compliant, which is never a bad thing.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Virtually all IT professionals know that cybersecurity is important. The question, though, is which practices and procedures they should follow to help protect against threats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":82,"featured_media":60291,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[877],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-articles"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/82"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60275"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60292,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60275\/revisions\/60292"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}