NIST Releases Preliminary Cybersecurity Framework

On October 22, 2013, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released the preliminary Cybersecurity Framework (PCF) in accordance with section 7(e) of President Obama's February Executive Order (EO) on critical infrastructure cybersecurity. The release date was delayed nearly two weeks because of the recent government shutdown.

Notably, the PCF release now requires regulatory agencies responsible for regulating the security of critical infrastructure to assess whether they have authority to establish "requirements" based on the Cybersecurity Framework.

NIST will submit the PCF for stakeholder feedback via an upcoming 45-day comment period, as well as at an additional workshop November 14-15 at North Carolina State University. Venable has attended all of NIST's workshops on the Framework and will be in attendance at the upcoming workshop in Raleigh.