President Barack Obama’s administration on Wednesday released its much-anticipated voluntary cybersecurity framework, giving U.S. companies a common handbook on how they can try to fend off hackers.
The Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity, put out by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is intended to help banks, utilities, technology companies and other businesses that work with critical infrastructure better appraise their risks from hackers and fortify themselves from cyberattacks. The guidelines, which NIST said it will update as warranted, came one year after Obama signed an executive order to provide companies with best practices to mitigate cyberrisk.
