As businesses and health organizations seek to strengthen cybersecurity, they’re turning frequently to compliance frameworks to help prioritize, guide, and improve decision-making and implementation. Two of the more popular compliance frameworks are the NIST CSF and the ISO 27001. For IT teams seeking to better understand the difference between these frameworks, as well as which is the ideal tool for their business, here’s what to know.

For a variety of reasons, some more obvious than others, it’s unreasonable to expect federal and local governments to develop the software that supports their day-to-day operations. So they turn to solutions provided by private companies. This is really a win-win situation; the government gets access to best-of-breed solutions developed by experienced companies, and the vendor secures funds that help spur innovation that’s available to the public and private sector alike.

For the next interview in our series speaking to technology and IT leaders around the world, we’ve welcomed Co-chair of Cybersecurity, Data Protection & Privacy at Clark Hill, Jeffrey R. Wells to share his views on the state of cybersecurity today.

Our latest analysis of the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) has revealed that 2021 has now officially broken the record for common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) logged by researchers. NIST is the US National Institute of Standards and Technology, and its National Vulnerability Database (NVD) is a repository of Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs).

According to recent research, 92 percent of large organizations use more than one cloud. The report also predicts that by the end of 2021, 55 percent of enterprise workloads will rely on a public cloud. Clearly cloud adoption is expanding, and will continue to do so into the future. Despite its prevalence, cloud computing can be a confusing concept.

NIST is the abbreviated name of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. It’s one of many federal agencies under the U.S. Department of Commerce, and is one of the oldest physical science laboratories in the United States. The agency develops technology and security policies that help drive innovation in science and technology-related industries; and better prepares those industries to meet the requirements of the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA).

At SecurityScorecard, we believe that making the world a safer place means transforming how organizations view cybersecurity. For us, this means that companies must take a holistic approach, protecting systems not just from the inside, but also knowing what an organization’s vulnerabilities look like from the outside-in to see what the hackers are seeing.

NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) is a voluntary security framework created through industry, academic, and US government collaboration that aims at reducing cyber risks to critical infrastructure. The framework is a result of the Presidential Executive Order (EO) 13636 that directed NIST to develop a framework in collaboration with the security stakeholders of the economic and National security of the US.

Ransomware groups have generated so much damage that the United States Federal government has made it a top priority to thwart such efforts including, hosting a major international summit on the topic, setting up a ransomware task force and repeatedly urging organizations to improve their cyber resilience.