NIST Risk Management Framework (RMF)

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the United States Department of Defense (DoD) worked together to establish a unified cybersecurity framework for the Federal Government. This is called the Risk Management Framework (RMF). The RMF was designed to help federal agencies meet the strict demands of policies like The Privacy Act of 1974 and the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA), although its broad application and comprehensive security foundation have since made it popular among private enterprises as well.  

The RMF is not a product but rather a six-step process created to “improve information security, strengthen risk management processes, and encourage reciprocity among federal agencies, as stated by NIST. Notably, it mixes risk management and IT security into the systems development lifecycle, requiring firms to implement data governance systems and threat modeling to reduce risk.

Every federal agency is required to comply with the NIST Risk Management Framework. Originally developed in partnership with the Department of Defense, it was adopted by all federal information systems of the U.S. government in 2010 and remains in use today.

While not a requirement beyond federal agencies, it should be noted that private sector and non-profit organizations have found NIST RMF to be useful in improving their security posture and achieving compliance. Using RMF bolsters compliance with standards like GDPR and the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) and helps companies more quickly identify and respond to new threats and vulnerabilities.