In today’s digital age, schools and colleges are increasingly reliant on technology for teaching, learning, and administrative tasks. With this increased reliance comes a heightened risk of cyberattacks. Protecting sensitive student and staff data, as well as maintaining operational continuity, is paramount. But with a myriad of security standards available, how do you decide which is best suited to your institution?
This blog post aims to simplify this decision by comparing three prominent security frameworks: the Essential 8, ISO 27001, and the NIST Cyber Framework.
Essential 8: A Pragmatic Approach to Cybersecurity
Developed by the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), the Essential 8 is a set of eight mitigation strategies designed to make it significantly harder for cyber adversaries to compromise systems. These strategies focus on preventing malware delivery and execution, limiting the extent of cybersecurity incidents, and recovering data and system availability.
Pros:
- Simplicity: The Essential 8 is relatively straightforward to implement and understand, making it a good starting point for organisations with limited cybersecurity resources.
- Effectiveness: The ACSC claims that implementing the Essential 8 can mitigate 85% of targeted cyberattacks.
- Cost-effective: Implementation can be achieved with minimal financial investment.
Cons:
- Scope: The Essential 8 focuses primarily on technical controls and may not address the broader organisational and management aspects of cybersecurity.
- Maturity: While a strong foundation, it might not be sufficient for organisations with complex IT environments or those facing sophisticated threats.
ISO 27001: The Global Gold Standard for Information Security
ISO 27001 is an internationally recognised standard for establishing, implementing, maintaining, and continually improving an information security management system (ISMS). It provides a systematic approach to managing sensitive information, ensuring its confidentiality, integrity, and availability. A key advantage is the ability to achieve certification, demonstrating to the world your commitment to best-practice security. ISO 27001 is often seen as the leading global standard for preventing cyberattacks and is comparable in sise and scope to the NIST framework, only slightly more extensive than the Essential 8. Its risk-based approach makes it adaptable to the unique needs of any school or college, ensuring that security efforts are focused where they matter most.
Pros:
- Comprehensiveness: ISO 27001 covers all aspects of information security, including people, processes, and technology.
- Scalability: It can be adapted to organisations of all sizes and industries.
- Credibility: Certification to ISO 27001 can enhance an organisation’s reputation and demonstrate its commitment to information security.
Cons:
- Complexity: Implementing ISO 27001 can be complex and time-consuming, requiring significant resources and expertise.
- Cost: Acquiring the standard from ISO itself can cost hundreds of dollars, and certification involves additional expenses.
NIST Cyber Framework: A Flexible and Accessible Approach to Risk Management
Developed by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Cyber Framework provides a voluntary, risk-based approach to managing cybersecurity risk. It consists of five core functions: Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover.
Pros:
- Flexibility: The framework can be customised to suit the specific needs and risk profile of an organisation.
- Industry Agnostic: It is applicable to organisations of all sizes and across all sectors.
- Alignment: It aligns with other cybersecurity standards and best practices.
- Accessibility: The framework itself is freely available, and organisations can assess their implementation using the NIST Cybersecurity Framework Score.
Cons:
- Implementation: Implementing the framework can be challenging without clear guidance and expertise.
- Maturity: It assumes a certain level of cybersecurity maturity, which may not be present in all organisations.
- Certification: While there’s a scoring mechanism, there is no globally recognised certification process for the NIST Cyber Framework
Conclusion
While there’s no single perfect security standard for every institution, ISO 27001 often proves to be the ideal starting point. Its comprehensive coverage of information security allows you to strategically pick and choose controls that align with your budget and immediate needs. Certification can be pursued later as your security posture matures. Although the Essential 8 offers a quick and accessible entry into cybersecurity, its narrow focus on just 8 out of 35+ controls might not be the most efficient or effective long-term strategy. Dedicating excessive resources to these 8 areas could leave other vulnerabilities exposed, potentially increasing your overall risk of a successful cyber attack.
The most important takeaway is this: applying any of these frameworks is significantly better than applying no framework at all. If your institution’s policies, budget, or approvals limit you to a single option, embrace it and make progress. Don’t let the pursuit of the “perfect” framework become an obstacle to enhancing your cybersecurity. Remember, in the face of ever-evolving cyber threats, even incremental improvements can make a substantial difference in safeguarding your institution’s valuable data and ensuring its continued success.
Vertex Cyber Security provides consulting to help many companies implement cyber protections aligned to cyber frameworks including products to make it easier and simpler to achieve. Vertex also provides audit and certification (ISO27001) services for Cyber frameworks. Reach out to Vertex to have a chat to see how we can help.
