Financial Services Roundtable: NIST cybersecurity framework is “rosetta stone” of cyber defense for companies

The Financial Services Roundtable (FSR), part of the Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council (FSSCC), hailed the substance of the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework on Wednesday, calling its standards “rosetta stone-like.”

The framework successfully created common standards for U.S. companies to assess their ability to prevent cyberattacks. FSR called for government regulators to use its taxonomy and similar processes when developing any subsequent cybersecurity requirements for the financial services industry.

A recent survey by PriceWaterhouseCooper found that 91 percent of companies use either the NIST framework or a related set of guidelines to help assess and thwart cybersecurity threats. Some companies, however, are choosing to develop non-aligned frameworks, forcing businesses to comply with multiple set of regimes that overlap and conflict with other businesses.

“Focusing on identifying and protecting against cyber threats remains critical,” Chris Feeney, president of the asset management and leasing company BITS, said. “If regulators, the government and the industry can all work from a more common cybersecurity playbook, it ensures companies can more readily assess and manage cyber risk while still ensuring consumers are protected.”