NIST Publishes Preliminary Federal Cybersecurity "Framework" For Comment

On October 22, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published a preliminary cybersecurity "Framework" that it was directed to develop in Executive Order 13636. The Executive Order requires that NIST develop and publish a cybersecurity Framework to protect national critical infrastructure through a "prioritized, flexible, repeatable, performance-based, and cost-effective approach, including information security measures and controls, to help owners and operators of critical infrastructure identify, assess, and manage cyber risk."

The preliminary Framework is the product of a series of workshops held throughout the U.S. since February and industry comments. Within the next few days, NIST will publish a Federal Register notice formally seeking comments on the preliminary Framework before publishing a final Framework document in February 2014.