Comparing the MITRE ATT&CK and NIST Cybersecurity Frameworks

Organizations are increasingly confronted with a wide range of strategic and opportunistic cyberthreats that pose significant challenges in the digital landscape.¹

Adopting an integrated approach leveraging both the MITRE Adversarial Tactics, Techniques, and Common Knowledge (ATT&CK)² and the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cyber Security Framework (CSF)³ allows enterprises to craft an adaptive, reactive, and proactive defense infrastructure. This integrated strategy minimizes long-term risk exposure, reduces the severity of cyberattacks, and hardens an organization’s incumbent security posture through continuous improvement.

Naturally, this is much easier said than done, but by integrating these comprehensive and well-established cybersecurity frameworks, cyberprofessionals can craft their defense infrastructure to minimize risk. It is worth exploring the key aspects of these two scalable frameworks to highlight their unique approaches and the benefits they can offer organizations.

The NIST Cybersecurity Framework

In 2014, NIST pioneered the CSF, a harmonious fusion of the guiding principles from industry standards such as the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)⁴ and the US Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA).⁵ This set a new benchmark in the field, with the NIST CSF serving as a widely recognized standard that provides a structured approach to managing and reducing cybersecurity risk.

The updated CSF version 2.0 was released in early 2024 and provided additional guidance on organizations across industries regardless of the sophistication and robustness of their security defenses. CSF 2.0 provides audiences with tailored resources and pathways to making the framework easier to adopt as their cybersecurity needs change and as their risk exposure increases. The widespread adoption of this framework has resulted in CSF becoming intertwined in everyday cybersecurity vernacular.⁶

At its core, the NIST CSF aims to help organizations achieve greater cyberresilience in 5 key steps:

• Identify critical assets and processes that need protecting and the potential threats that could compromise or affect them.
• Protect identified assets with appropriate and stable safeguards.
• Detect evolving and possible security incidents and anomalies using a range of enterprise-grade solutions.
• Respond effectively with procedures that can contain and mitigate the impact of incidents.
• Recover from successful attacks and restore normal business operations.

The NIST CSF can be segregated into 3 primary components: the framework core, framework implementation tiers, and framework profile.

The framework core refers to the 5 key steps above, outlining a set of cybersecurity instructions, activities, desired outcomes, and best practices. Framework implementation tiers define and help organizations assess their cybersecurity maturity level based on factors such as the risk management process, integrated risk management, and external participation. The framework profile component helps organizations align their specific cybersecurity requirements with their outcomes, their risk tolerance, and their security maturity. Organizations adopt findings from both the core and implementation tier stages to arrive at their current profile classification.

By adhering to the NIST CSF, organizations can develop a comprehensive understanding of their current security posture, identify gaps, and implement appropriate controls to mitigate risk.

The MITRE ATT&CK Framework

The MITRE ATT&CK framework takes a more adversarial approach to enterprise cybersecurity.

Developed in 2013, MITRE ATT&CK provides a comprehensive, multidimensional blueprint of cyberthreat actors' tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs).⁷ The framework was established based on open-source research regarding cyberattack techniques, threat intelligence, and real-world security incidents, along with the ways that organizations can contain and mitigate these attacks.

The framework is structured as a matrix that maps TTPs to specific phases of the attack life cycle, such as initial access, execution, persistence, and privilege escalation.

By adhering to the NIST CSF, organizations can develop a comprehensive understanding of their current security posture, identify gaps, and implement appropriate controls to mitigate risk.

The key components of the MITRE ATT&CK framework include:

• Tactics—The "why" behind a cyberattack, representing the attacker's primary goal(s)
• Techniques—The "how" of an attack, refers to 14 potential methods and procedures used by threat actors to achieve their objectives
• Mitigations—Recommended actions and controls that organizations can implement to prevent, detect, or respond to the identified techniques

Unlike the NIST CSF, which focuses on establishing a robust cybersecurity program, the MITRE ATT&CK framework is primarily designed to help organizations:

• Understand the tactics and techniques used by various threat actors
• Assess their vulnerability and risk exposure to these methods
• Develop and test their ability to detect and respond to these attack methods

By leveraging the MITRE ATT&CK framework, security teams can effectively identify gaps in their defenses, test their networks for vulnerabilities, and set up appropriate threat detection and response measures.

Comparing the NIST CSF and MITRE ATT&CK

While the NIST CSF and the MITRE ATT&CK framework both strive toward bolstering organizational cybersecurity, they differ in their approaches:

• Target audience
  • The NIST CSF is more accessible to executive management, as it provides a high-level, risk-based approach to cybersecurity and features less technical jargon.
  • MITRE ATT&CK is primarily aimed at technical security professionals, such as chief information security officers (CISOs) and security analysts, who require a deeper understanding of attack methods and mitigation strategies.⁸
• Scope and focus
  • The NIST CSF focuses on establishing a comprehensive cybersecurity program, covering the entire risk management life cycle.
  • MITRE ATT&CK concentrates on understanding and defending against specific cyberattack tactics and techniques.
• Implementation
  • The NIST CSF can be implemented as a checklist-based assessment, allowing organizations to evaluate their current security posture and identify improvement opportunities.
  • MITRE ATT&CK requires a more hands-on, iterative approach, involving activities such as threat hunting, penetration (pen) testing, red team exercises, and continuous validation of security controls.⁹
• Adaptability
  • The NIST CSF undergoes periodic updates but may not keep pace with the rapidly evolving threat landscape.
  • MITRE ATT&CK is regularly updated (nearly bi-annually)¹⁰ with the latest threat intelligence, enabling organizations to maintain a proactive stance against cyberthreats.

Leveraging the Strengths of Both Frameworks

The NIST CSF and MITRE ATT&CK frameworks can support an organization’s short- and long-term cybersecurity challenges. As a result, decision makers may be unsure which one will be the best for their organization. The simple answer is that neither framework is inherently better than the other, rather, the most effective solution is to leverage the qualities of both to enhance an organization’s overall security posture and reduce threat exposure.

An example of an integrated approach could be the involvement of the NIST CSF to establish a baseline cybersecurity program on which to build, as a starting point. From this, critical assets, risk, and safeguards can be identified, while the organization assesses its current maturity level using the framework’s core, implementation tiers, and profile.

The MITRE ATT&CK framework can then be used to gain a deeper understanding of evolving attack methods used by threat actors, at which point threat hunting, pen testing, and red team assessments can be engaged to identify vulnerabilities and validate security control effectiveness.

When these initial assessments have been conducted, organizations should get in the habit of regularly reviewing and updating their security profile to ensure that it aligns with both the NIST core functions and the most critical attack vectors outlined in MITRE ATT&CK, along with open-source threat intelligence sources.¹¹ Practically applying an integrated approach where both frameworks are used offers greater long-term value.

Combining the efforts of risk management, threat awareness, vulnerability testing, control validation, and continuous improvement will ensure organizations can maintain a robust security posture while expanding their methods of threat detection and response.

Blending NIST assessments with in-depth MITRE ATT&CK insights ensures that organizations establish a robust, adaptable, and multilayered cybersecurity strategy that safeguards their assets and data for years to come.

Endnotes

¹ Ratiu, R.; “Securing the Future: Enhancing Cybersecurity in 2024 and Beyond,” ISACA Now Blog, 12 February 2024
² MITRE ATT&CK, ATT&CK Matrix for Enterprise
³ National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Cybersecurity Framework
⁴ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “Summary of the HIPAA Privacy Rule,” 2008
⁵ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Federal Information Security Modernization Act
⁶ National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), “NIST’s Journey to CSF 2.0,” 2022
⁷ MITRE ATT&CK, Enterprise Techniques
⁸ McGladrey, K.; “How the Relationship Between CISOs and Legal Teams is Changing,” ISACA Now Blog, 27 April 2023
⁹ Redscan, Penetration Testing Service
¹⁰ Roddie-Fonseca M.; “MITRE’s Updated ATT&CK Framework: What Cloud Defenders Need to Know,” Industrial Cybersecurity Post, 29 February 2024
¹¹ Akasaka, Y.; “9 Open Source Threat Intelligence Sources,” Security Boulevard, 9 May 2023

Chester Avey

Is a freelance writer based in the UK with more than 20 years of experience in IT. He has extensive knowledge of today's evolving tech industry and enjoys writing authoritative articles and up-to-date opinion pieces on a wide range of topics, including digital marketing trends, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, software solutions, and ecommerce.