How Identity and Access Management Supports NIST CSF 2.0

Identities and credentials for authorized users, services, and hardware are managed by the organization

In practice: HR is the authoritative source for people, and accounts are created, matched and removed from it. Service and device credentials are inventoried and kept in a vault.

Identities are proofed and bound to credentials based on the context of interactions

In practice: At onboarding, the person's identity is verified, often remotely, and strong sign-in methods such as a security key are issued only to that verified person.

Users, services, and hardware are authenticated

In practice: People sign in with MFA through single sign-on, and applications and devices identify themselves with workload identities or certificates instead of shared passwords.

Identity assertions are protected, conveyed, and verified

In practice: Sign-in tokens between systems are digitally signed with keys that are renewed on a schedule, and the receiving application checks the signature and lifetime before it trusts them.

Access permissions, entitlements, and authorizations are defined in a policy, managed, enforced, and reviewed, and incorporate the principles of least privilege and separation of duties

In practice: Roles define what each job may do, managers confirm access in periodic reviews, conflicting duties are flagged, and elevated access is switched on only when needed.

Potentially adverse events are analyzed to better understand associated activities

In practice: Analysts investigate flagged events. Identity detections and sign-in context, such as location and device, help them understand what an account did around the event.

Information is correlated from multiple sources

In practice: The central log platform joins data from many tools. Identity context such as user, device and role helps analysts connect events from different sources to one person.

Personnel activity and technology usage are monitored to find potentially adverse events

In practice: The security team watches for adverse events. Identity supplies sign-in risk alerts, sign-in analytics and logs of administrator activity as inputs to that monitoring.

External service provider activities and services are monitored to find potentially adverse events

In practice: The security team monitors service providers. Identity logs show when guest, partner and delegated administrator accounts sign in and what they touch.

Policy for managing cybersecurity risks is established based on organizational context, cybersecurity strategy, and priorities and is communicated and enforced

In practice: Leadership owns the policy. An identity assessment feeds it with findings about how sign-in, access and administrator rights work today, which helps in writing the standards.

Roles, responsibilities, and authorities related to cybersecurity risk management are established, communicated, understood, and enforced

In practice: Leadership assigns cybersecurity responsibilities, and identity records them as named owners for each application and entitlement and as the approvers in the access request workflow.

Cybersecurity is included in human resources practices

In practice: HR practices such as onboarding checks, job changes and exit steps connect to identity lifecycle workflows, so an HR event triggers the matching access change.

The risks posed by a supplier, their products and services, and other third parties are understood, recorded, prioritized, assessed, responded to, and monitored over the course of the relationship

In practice: Each supplier account has a sponsor inside the company and an end date, and the sponsor reviews that third-party access periodically, often every quarter.

Cybersecurity supply chain risk management plans include provisions for activities that occur after the conclusion of a partnership or service agreement

In practice: When a supplier contract ends, the sponsor triggers removal of that supplier's accounts and access, and the identity process confirms they are gone.

Inventories of hardware managed by the organization are maintained

In practice: The asset team keeps the hardware inventory. Identity contributes by giving each managed device its own registered identity, which links the inventory to access decisions.

Inventories of software, services, and systems managed by the organization are maintained

In practice: The inventory of applications and systems lines up with identity records, such as registered apps, single sign-on connections and service accounts, each with a named owner.

Systems, hardware, software, services, and data are managed throughout their life cycles

In practice: When a system or application is retired, its app registration, service accounts and workload identities are removed as well, which keeps stale access from piling up.

Improvements are identified from evaluations

In practice: An identity assessment or recurring control check produces a list of improvement items, such as unowned accounts or missing MFA, each assigned to a team to fix.

Changes and exceptions are managed, assessed for risk impact, recorded, and tracked

In practice: When someone needs an exception to an access rule, the request records who approved it, the reason and an end date, and the exception is revisited in the next access review.

Physical access to assets is managed, monitored, and enforced commensurate with risk

In practice: The facilities team runs badge systems. Where a connection exists, joiner, mover and leaver events update physical access, so a departing employee's badge is switched off with their accounts.

Networks and environments are protected from unauthorized logical access and usage

In practice: The network team owns network protection. Identity adds access rules that weigh who the user is, whether the device is managed and how risky the sign-in looks.

Log records are generated and made available for continuous monitoring

In practice: The security team runs continuous monitoring. Sign-in, access governance and privileged access logs are onboarded to it and kept for the retention period the organization has defined.

Installation and execution of unauthorized software are prevented

In practice: Endpoint teams control software installation. Identity helps by removing standing local administrator rights, so installing software needs an approved, time-limited elevation.

Incidents are contained

In practice: The security team leads containment. Identity provides quick actions such as disabling an account, revoking active sessions and resetting credentials for the affected users.

The estimated impact and scope of adverse events are understood

Information on adverse events is provided to authorized staff and tools

Cyber threat intelligence and other contextual information are integrated into the analysis

Incidents are declared when adverse events meet the defined incident criteria

Networks and network services are monitored to find potentially adverse events

The physical environment is monitored to find potentially adverse events

Computing hardware and software, runtime environments, and their data are monitored to find potentially adverse events

The organizational mission is understood and informs cybersecurity risk management

Internal and external stakeholders are understood, and their needs and expectations regarding cybersecurity risk management are understood and considered

Legal, regulatory, and contractual requirements regarding cybersecurity - including privacy and civil liberties obligations - are understood and managed

Critical objectives, capabilities, and services that external stakeholders depend on or expect from the organization are understood and communicated

Outcomes, capabilities, and services that the organization depends on are understood and communicated

Cybersecurity risk management strategy outcomes are reviewed to inform and adjust strategy and direction

The cybersecurity risk management strategy is reviewed and adjusted to ensure coverage of organizational requirements and risks

Organizational cybersecurity risk management performance is evaluated and reviewed for adjustments needed

Policy for managing cybersecurity risks is reviewed, updated, communicated, and enforced to reflect changes in requirements, threats, technology, and organizational mission

Risk management objectives are established and agreed to by organizational stakeholders

Risk appetite and risk tolerance statements are established, communicated, and maintained

Cybersecurity risk management activities and outcomes are included in enterprise risk management processes

Strategic direction that describes appropriate risk response options is established and communicated

Lines of communication across the organization are established for cybersecurity risks, including risks from suppliers and other third parties

A standardized method for calculating, documenting, categorizing, and prioritizing cybersecurity risks is established and communicated

Strategic opportunities (i.e., positive risks) are characterized and are included in organizational cybersecurity risk discussions

Organizational leadership is responsible and accountable for cybersecurity risk and fosters a culture that is risk-aware, ethical, and continually improving

Adequate resources are allocated commensurate with the cybersecurity risk strategy, roles, responsibilities, and policies

A cybersecurity supply chain risk management program, strategy, objectives, policies, and processes are established and agreed to by organizational stakeholders

Cybersecurity roles and responsibilities for suppliers, customers, and partners are established, communicated, and coordinated internally and externally

Cybersecurity supply chain risk management is integrated into cybersecurity and enterprise risk management, risk assessment, and improvement processes

Suppliers are known and prioritized by criticality

Requirements to address cybersecurity risks in supply chains are established, prioritized, and integrated into contracts and other types of agreements with suppliers and other relevant third parties

Planning and due diligence are performed to reduce risks before entering into formal supplier or other third-party relationships

Relevant suppliers and other third parties are included in incident planning, response, and recovery activities

Supply chain security practices are integrated into cybersecurity and enterprise risk management programs, and their performance is monitored throughout the technology product and service life cycle

Representations of the organization's authorized network communication and internal and external network data flows are maintained

Inventories of services provided by suppliers are maintained

Assets are prioritized based on classification, criticality, resources, and impact on the mission

Inventories of data and corresponding metadata for designated data types are maintained

Improvements are identified from security tests and exercises, including those done in coordination with suppliers and relevant third parties

Improvements are identified from execution of operational processes, procedures, and activities

Incident response plans and other cybersecurity plans that affect operations are established, communicated, maintained, and improved

Vulnerabilities in assets are identified, validated, and recorded

Cyber threat intelligence is received from information sharing forums and sources

Internal and external threats to the organization are identified and recorded

Potential impacts and likelihoods of threats exploiting vulnerabilities are identified and recorded

Threats, vulnerabilities, likelihoods, and impacts are used to understand inherent risk and inform risk response prioritization

Risk responses are chosen, prioritized, planned, tracked, and communicated

Processes for receiving, analyzing, and responding to vulnerability disclosures are established

The authenticity and integrity of hardware and software are assessed prior to acquisition and use

Critical suppliers are assessed prior to acquisition

Personnel are provided with awareness and training so that they possess the knowledge and skills to perform general tasks with cybersecurity risks in mind

Individuals in specialized roles are provided with awareness and training so that they possess the knowledge and skills to perform relevant tasks with cybersecurity risks in mind

The confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data-at-rest are protected

The confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data-in-transit are protected

The confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data-in-use are protected

Backups of data are created, protected, maintained, and tested

The organization's technology assets are protected from environmental threats

Mechanisms are implemented to achieve resilience requirements in normal and adverse situations

Adequate resource capacity to ensure availability is maintained

Configuration management practices are established and applied

Software is maintained, replaced, and removed commensurate with risk

Hardware is maintained, replaced, and removed commensurate with risk

Secure software development practices are integrated, and their performance is monitored throughout the software development life cycle

Recovery activities and progress in restoring operational capabilities are communicated to designated internal and external stakeholders

Public updates on incident recovery are shared using approved methods and messaging

The recovery portion of the incident response plan is executed once initiated from the incident response process

Recovery actions are selected, scoped, prioritized, and performed

The integrity of backups and other restoration assets is verified before using them for restoration

Critical mission functions and cybersecurity risk management are considered to establish post-incident operational norms

The integrity of restored assets is verified, systems and services are restored, and normal operating status is confirmed

The end of incident recovery is declared based on criteria, and incident-related documentation is completed

Analysis is performed to establish what has taken place during an incident and the root cause of the incident

Actions performed during an investigation are recorded, and the records' integrity and provenance are preserved

Incident data and metadata are collected, and their integrity and provenance are preserved

An incident's magnitude is estimated and validated

Internal and external stakeholders are notified of incidents

Information is shared with designated internal and external stakeholders

The incident response plan is executed in coordination with relevant third parties once an incident is declared

Incident reports are triaged and validated

Incidents are categorized and prioritized

Incidents are escalated or elevated as needed

The criteria for initiating incident recovery are applied

Incidents are eradicated