What Is a NIST Assessment? Risk vs. Maturity, Explained
Are you NIST compliant? It's a common question in customer security questionnaires. NIST publishes free, public, voluntary guidance, and a "NIST assessment" measures your organization against it. In practice, that usually means one of two things.
In this explainer:
- Risk assessment: how NIST SP 800-30 walks you through threats, likelihood and impact
- Maturity assessment: how the NIST Cybersecurity Framework scores how mature your controls are
- What you get out of an assessment: a gap list and a plan
- Why a NIST assessment is not a certification, and what its results depend on
- How quantification puts a price on each gap, so the board can weigh the cost
In short: either assess specific risks or score your controls. Decide which one answers your question first.
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