You need to adopt the NIST standards to maximise your business’s cybersecurity readiness. The NIST standards are an international set of guidelines that protect your business against potential threats. Adhering to them is the best way to navigate today’s world.
The NIST standards provide you with a systematic way to handle your cybersecurity. By adopting these standards, your business will maximise your credibility in a global economy.
Demystifying NIST Standards
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a U.S. federal agency that helps define international guidelines for IT security. They perform exhaustive research to define industry best practices.
You can use their guidelines to improve your cyber adversaries.
The NIST standards are a set of recommendations and practices to help improve your cybersecurity. These standards give you a systematic approach to managing cybersecurity risks.
Adhering to the NIST standards will ensure your IT infrastructure will have the best defence against cyber threats. The NIST standards are easily accessible and adaptable to businesses in different industries.
Of course, you’ll have to invest the time and effort to implement the NIST standards.
But adhering to these standards will benefit you long-term. You’ll improve your cyber security and minimise the chances of potential attacks.
Adhering to the NIST standards will provide you the following 8 benefits.
Why Should You Adopt the NIST Standards?
You should adopt the NIST standards because they’ll provide you with the following benefits that range from improved cybersecurity to a better reputation.
1. Guarding Against Varied Cyber Threats
A cyberattack costs up to $200,000 per incident to your business. You need to avoid these attacks.
Your business will face diverse cybersecurity threats that can potentially damage your systems over time. For example, you can lose both sensitive data and money from ransomware attacks.
The NIST Standards help you avoid these issues.
These standards give you a detailed framework for how to defend yourself against cyber threats. You can use them to build robust security protocols.
You’ll build a well-defended IT infrastructure that’ll minimise potential damages for your business.
2. Upholding Your Business Reputation
Your business’s reputation is invaluable in today’s world. Stakeholders, including customers and partners, need to trust you. Specifically, they need to trust you with their sensitive data. If you breach that trust, your business will suffer damage.
These damages include your reputation and finances.
You can minimise these damages by adhering to NIST standards. Once you’ve adopted them, you’ll prove to stakeholders that you value their data security.
You’ll especially benefit since today’s newspapers are filled with front-page stories of businesses failing to protect customer data.
You’ll improve your reputation even further by having the best cybersecurity standards. By adhering to the NIST standards, you’ll always have the best security posture. NIST compliance means your business has the best tools and policies to face cyber threats.
So, you’ll uphold your business’s reputation in today’s age by ensuring NIST compliance.
3. A Prudent Financial move
Adhering to the NIST standards is a smart financial move for your business. Although you’ll have to invest in NIST adherence, you’ll financially benefit long-term. Cyber breaches can cause massive financial losses for your business.
These losses range from paying ransoms to potential fines. The financial losses you suffer from these attacks hurt your profitability and affect your operability.
NIST compliance prevents these possible losses. Allocating resources towards the NIST standards proactively prevents financial losses. Following the NIST standards is a manageable and predictable expense.
In contrast, a cyber attack is an unexpected and potentially massive expense.
Once you invest in the NIST standards, you’ll massively reduce the chances of attacks. That way, you’ll minimise the chances of experiencing financial losses from cyber attacks.
NIST compliance also decreases your costs in other ways. For example, you’ll increase your operational efficiency and reduce risks through the NIST standards. So, adopting the NIST standards is a financially sound long-term decision.
Here’s an example of how it works.
Say your small business invests $20,000 on NIST compliance. You then experience an attempted ransomware attack that demands $100,000. You’ll avoid this loss because you proactively invested in the NIST standards.
By investing in the NIST standards, you also prevented potential future losses that could’ve exceeded $500,000.
So your $20,000 investment protected your business against significantly greater losses. That’s especially great, considering IBM estimates cyber attacks cost small businesses more than $25,000 in damages.
4. Promoting Business Continuity
You want to provide uninterrupted service delivery in today’s age. Cyber-attacks can cripple your business’s ability to deliver services. Cyber-attacks can cripple your business’s ability to function.
NIST compliance is the best way to protect your business’s continuity. The standards ensure your IT infrastructure is resilient to cyber threats.
For example, a malware attack could shut down your business for a week if you’re not NIST compliant. The financial losses are up to hundreds of thousands.
Whereas if you were NIST compliant, you’d manage the threat within a few hours at most. You’d also not suffer any financial losses either.
So investing in NIST compliance ensures you minimise the impact, including financial losses, from potential disruptions. You also benefit from having seamless operations and undisrupted service delivery that keeps your business stable.
5. Future-proofing in the Digital Landscape
Your business will always experience ever-evolving cyber threats. So, you have to future-proof your business to deal with these threats. Adhering to the NIST standards is the best way to prepare your business for new threats.
The NIST standards help you address both current threats and future ones potentially.
NIST-compliant businesses follow the best practices and policies to ensure their business can effectively counter threats. Being proactive ensures your business is future-proof in a rapidly changing cyber-landscape.
Adhering to the NIST standards is a strategic investment that will provide long-term benefits to your business. You’ll prepare your business for potential future attacks.
6. Elevating Overall Business Efficacy
Adopting the NIST standards will improve your business’s overall efficiency. The standards include a thorough optimisation approach. You’ll use that to improve your business operations.
For example, one of the NIST standards is to conduct periodic assessments to streamline processes and improve resource allocation.
Another example is using the NIST standards to identify redundant data storage practices. By doing this, you will reduce expenses and improve your operations.
The improvements will positively impact your business productivity and cybersecurity in both examples.
Another benefit is that NIST compliance builds a culture of continuous improvement in your business. Adhering to the NIST standards means your business will always be efficient in adapting to new threats.
So adopting the NIST standards both improves your organisation’s cybersecurity and productivity. So, adopting these standards provides additional benefits to increased cybersecurity.
7. Aligning with Global Expectations
In today’s interconnected world, you need to align with global expectations. Adhering to the NIST standards is the best way to prove your commitment to cybersecurity standards. Depending on your industry, this may be vital for you.
Adopting the NIST standards means your business will have international credibility in terms of cybersecurity.
For example, say your company wants to partner with another firm in a different country. You’ll develop confidence in them by adhering to the NIST standards. You’ll prove that your business is committed to protecting their data.
You may even be required to adhere to the NIST standards for global expansions.
So, aligning with the NIST standards communicates your business’s seriousness regarding cybersecurity to the world. This seriousness lets your business experience smoother international collaborations and expansions.
8. An Assured Peace of Mind
Achieving peace of mind is invaluable for your business. Achieving the NIST standards is the best way to maximise your assurance. Adopting the NIST standards means your business follows the best approach to protect yourselves digitally.
The NIST standards provide your business with the best framework against cyber threats.
As a business owner, you can proactively counter evolving threats by using the NIST approach. Being NIST compliant means your business is best defended against potential cyber threats.
Being NIST compliant means you can prioritise other aspects of your business. The peace of mind you’ll get mentally frees you to grow your business. You can do that without worrying about potential cyber-attacks.
The NIST standards give your business a comprehensive approach to risk management. You can use it to build your business’s confidence and clarity. This way, you’ll maximise confidence in your business among your stakeholders.
Adopting the NIST standards is the best way to safeguard your business’s cybersecurity. These standards provide you with a detailed guide on how to defend your IT infrastructure and improve your business.
You’ll receive benefits ranging from improved productivity to a better reputation. That said, adopting the NIST standards isn’t easy. You may want help. If so, you can contact PowerbITs for a free consultation.
