Small businesses don't need to reinvent the wheel when implementing cybersecurity policy, as frameworks offer structured guidelines and best practices to manage and mitigate risks. These frameworks provide a comprehensive blueprint for identifying, protecting, detecting, responding to, and recovering from cyber threats, helping businesses align with industry standards and improve their cybersecurity efforts.
The NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 2.0 provides guidance to industry, government agencies, and other organizations to manage cybersecurity risks. It offers a structured set of high-level cybersecurity outcomes that can be used by any organization—regardless of its size, sector, or maturity—to better understand, assess, prioritize, and communicate its cybersecurity efforts.
The CSF 2.0 Core is the nucleus of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. This core serves as a set of high-level cybersecurity outcomes to help organizations manage their cybersecurity risks. It is structured as a hierarchy of Functions, Categories, and Subcategories, each defining a specific cybersecurity goal.
Familiarity with the CSF 2.0 Core is essential, as the templates provided on this site are organized according to the Core Functions and linked to relevant Categories within each Function. Bear in mind that some templates may apply to multiple Categories across different Functions.
These outcomes can be understood by a broad audience, including executives, managers, and practitioners, regardless of their cybersecurity expertise. Because the outcomes are sector-, country-, and technology-neutral, they provide an organization with the flexibility needed to address its unique risks, technologies, and mission considerations.
The CSF Core Functions — Govern, Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover — organize cybersecurity outcomes at their highest level. A more detailed description of each Core Function can be found below.
The Govern Core Function helps ensure the organization’s cybersecurity risk management strategy, expectations, and policy are established, communicated, and monitored. The Govern Function provides outcomes to inform what an organization may do to achieve and prioritize the outcomes of the other five Functions in the context of its mission and stakeholder expectations. Governance activities are critical for incorporating cybersecurity into an organization’s broader enterprise risk management (ERM) strategy. Govern addresses an understanding of organizational context; the establishment of cybersecurity strategy and cybersecurity supply chain risk management; roles, responsibilities, and authorities; policy; and the oversight of cybersecurity strategy.
The Identify Core Function helps ensure the organization’s current cybersecurity risks are understood. Understanding the organization’s assets (e.g., data, hardware, software, systems, facilities, services, people), suppliers, and related cybersecurity risks enables an organization to prioritize its efforts consistent with its risk management strategy and the mission needs identified under Govern. This Function also includes the identification of improvement opportunities for the organization’s policies, plans, processes, procedures, and practices that support cybersecurity risk management to inform efforts under all six Functions.
The Protect Core Function helps safeguard to manage the organization’s cybersecurity risks are used. Once assets and risks are identified and prioritized, Protect supports the ability to secure those assets to prevent or lower the likelihood and impact of adverse cybersecurity events, as well as to increase the likelihood and impact of taking advantage of opportunities. Outcomes covered by this Function include identity management, authentication, and access control; awareness and training; data security; platform security (i.e., securing the hardware, software, and services of physical and virtual platforms); and the resilience of technology infrastructure.
The Detect Core Function helps ensure that possible cybersecurity attacks and compromises are found and analyzed Detect enables the timely discovery and analysis of anomalies, indicators of compromise, and other potentially adverse events that may indicate that cybersecurity attacks and incidents are occurring. This Function supports successful incident response and recovery activities.
The Respond Core Function helps ensure that actions regarding a detected cybersecurity incident are taken. Respond supports the ability to contain the effects of cybersecurity incidents. Outcomes within this Function cover incident management, analysis, mitigation, reporting, and communication.
The Recover Core Function helps ensure that assets and operations affected by a cybersecurity incident are restored. Recover supports the timely restoration of normal operations to reduce the effects of cybersecurity incidents and enable appropriate communication during recovery efforts.
This site provides templates for both cybersecurity policies and standards. These policies and standards outline the procedures necessary to bolster organizational cybersecurity. Together, policies, standards, and procedures form a cohesive framework that helps organizations manage cybersecurity risks and protect critical assets. The differences between these policies, standards, and procedures are outlined below.
Policies are WHY we should be doing something
Policies are high-level statements that define an organization's principles and strategic direction. They are decisions made by the governing body to guide behavior and decision-making in alignment with the organization’s long-term goals. In cybersecurity, policies outline why certain security measures are necessary, such as ensuring compliance with data protection laws or protecting sensitive information. Policies set the foundation for creating a secure and compliant organization.
Standards are WHAT we should be doing.
Standards are detailed rules or criteria that support and implement policies. They define the specific actions and expectations needed to meet policy goals, often relating to technical or operational practices. In cybersecurity, standards could include encryption protocols, password strength requirements, or accepted software configurations. Standards clarify what must be done to achieve security objectives and ensure consistency across the organization.
Procedures are HOW we should be doing something.
Procedures are the step-by-step instructions that describe how tasks should be performed to comply with policies and standards. In cybersecurity, procedures outline how security measures are implemented in practice, such as how to conduct a security audit or respond to a data breach. Procedures ensure that security actions are carried out consistently and correctly, providing the operational detail necessary for compliance and risk management.
Implementing policies closely aligned NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 2.0 enables organizations to adhere cybersecurity best practices in a flexible matter, which can be especially beneficial for small businesses. Some key advantages include:
- Risk Management
- Flexibility
- Scalability
- Regulatory Readiness
- Communication and Accountability
- Industry Standards
SMBs can use the framework to understand their unique risks and develop security policies without needing a large security team or a complex, resource-intensive risk management process.
SMBs can adopt only the most relevant parts of the framework, optimizing their security posture while keeping costs down.
SMBs benefit from a framework that is easy to adjust as cybersecurity threats evolve, allowing them to stay protected without frequent overhauls of their security strategy. As SMBs adopt new technologies or migrate to the cloud, the framework’s flexibility ensures that their security policies can evolve in parallel.
SMBs often have limited budgets and personnel dedicated to cybersecurity. The framework's flexibility allows them to implement the most critical functions first and scale up gradually as resources permit. By focusing initially on the essential parts of the framework (e.g., Govern, Identify, and Protect), SMBs can lay a foundation for cybersecurity without overwhelming their teams.
SMBs may need to meet basic regulatory requirements, and loosely following NIST CSF helps them prepare for this without going all-in on a more formal (and potentially costly) compliance framework. Demonstrating alignment with recognized frameworks like NIST CSF can help during audits, providing evidence that the business is taking security seriously.
For SMBs where cybersecurity expertise may be limited, the NIST CSF’s clear language fosters better communication between technical staff and management, helping everyone understand the risks and measures. It helps assign roles and responsibilities within the organization, clarifying who is responsible for specific security measures and reducing confusion.
Even with a loose alignment, SMBs benefit from implementing widely accepted best practices that improve credibility with customers, partners, and regulators. Aligning with the NIST CSF allows SMBs to transition to other frameworks like ISO 27001 or comply with sector-specific standards as they grow, without having to start from scratch.
The NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) was first introduced in 2014 in response to Executive Order 13636, aimed at improving cybersecurity for critical infrastructure. It provided a flexible and scalable framework built around five core functions—Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover—and quickly gained widespread adoption due to its simplicity and adaptability. CSF 1.1 was released in 2018 with minor updates, focusing on areas like identity management and supply chain risk, continuing to grow in popularity across sectors.
By 2022, the need for a major update was recognized due to emerging threats from technologies like IoT and cloud computing, leading to the development of NIST CSF 2.0. Released in August 2023, CSF 2.0 introduced significant changes, including the addition of a sixth function, Govern, which focuses on integrating cybersecurity into business decision-making. It also expanded guidance for SMBs, strengthened supply chain risk management, and improved alignment with global cybersecurity frameworks, making it more accessible for a wider range of organizations.
- “Cybersecurity Framework V2.0.” The Cybersecurity Framework V2.0, CSF Tools , 26 Feb. 2024, https://csf.tools/reference/nist-cybersecurity-framework/v2-0/.
- Ekdahl, Hanno. “Policy vs Standards vs Procedures.” Idenhaus Consulting, 2 May 2024, https://idenhaus.com/policy-vs-standards-vs-procedures.
- “NIST Releases Version 2.0 of Landmark Cybersecurity Framework.” NIST, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 26 Feb. 2024, www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2024/02/nist-releases-version-20-landmark-cybersecurity-framework.
- CSF 1.1 Archive, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 26 Feb. 2024, www.nist.gov/cyberframework/csf-11-archive.
- Executive Order. No. 13636, 2013, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/12/executive-order-improving-critical-infrastructure-cybersecurity.
- National Institute of Standards and Technology. The NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 2.0, https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/CSWP/NIST.CSWP.29.pdf.
- NIST Cybersecurity Framework, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 31 Oct. 2024, www.nist.gov/cyberframework.
- “Policy vs Standard VS Control vs Procedure.” ComplianceForge, 15 June 2023, https://complianceforge.com/blog/policy-vs-standard-vs-control-vs-procedure.
- Valentic, Branimir. “What Is NIST Cybersecurity Framework? Who Should Use It & Why?” Advisera, 24 June 2024, https://advisera.com/articles/nist-cyber-security-framework.