NIST Cybersecurity Framework

The NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF), published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, organizes cybersecurity activities into five functions: Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover. Version 2.0 (2024) added a sixth function — Govern — reflecting the increasing importance of cybersecurity governance in enterprise risk management. NIST SP 800-53 provides the detailed control catalog that underlies FedRAMP and FISMA compliance.

NIST is not a pass/fail certification — it is a framework for structuring a cybersecurity program. Organizations self-assess against the framework's tiers (Partial, Risk Informed, Repeatable, Adaptive) and use it to communicate cybersecurity risk posture to executives and boards. For federal contractors, NIST SP 800-171 compliance is required for handling Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), and CMMC certification operationalizes this requirement.

The NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF), published in 2023, applies the same structured approach to AI systems — covering AI-specific risks including bias, explainability, and adversarial attacks. As AI systems enter regulated industries, the NIST AI RMF is becoming a compliance reference for enterprise AI governance alongside sectoral regulations like HIPAA and GDPR.

We use NIST as the underlying control framework for all compliance architecture work — aligning SOC 2, HIPAA, FedRAMP, and other frameworks to NIST SP 800-53 controls to reduce redundant compliance effort. For federal clients, we build systems to NIST SP 800-171 requirements from the ground up. For AI systems in regulated industries, we architect against the NIST AI RMF.

Compliance-Native Architecture Guide

Design principles and a structured checklist for building software that is compliant by default — not compliant by retrofit. Covers data architecture, access controls, audit trails, and vendor due diligence.