NIST CSF supporting concepts

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of NIST CSF supporting concepts

    The NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) supporting concepts in ServiceNow provide a structured approach to managing cybersecurity risks through integration with ServiceNow GRC products and Use Case Accelerators. These concepts help organizations understand and implement cybersecurity activities aligned with the NIST CSF guidance to strengthen security compliance and risk management.

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    Key Concepts

    • Target: A foundational element shared across ServiceNow GRC and Use Case Accelerators, representing entities with attributes specific to cybersecurity efforts.
    • Critical Infrastructure: Vital physical or virtual systems that significantly impact cybersecurity, national economic security, or public health and safety.
    • Implementation Tiers: Levels that help organizations assess and prioritize their cybersecurity risk management processes using the Tier attribute on Targets.
    • Cybersecurity Activity: Combines Target, Function, and Category to evaluate cybersecurity requirements, identify gaps, non-compliant controls, risks, issues, failed indicators, and action plans.
    • Functions: High-level categories organizing cybersecurity activities—Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, Recover, and Govern—facilitating risk management and decision-making.
    • Categories and Subcategories: Further divisions of Functions into groups and specific outcomes that detail technical and management activities to meet cybersecurity objectives.
    • Implementation State: Tracks whether cybersecurity activities are implemented or planned.
    • Gaps, Non-compliant Controls, Risks, Issues, and Failed Indicators: These elements provide insight into areas where controls are missing, inadequate, or failing within the target’s cybersecurity profile.
    • Action Plans: Defined responses to address issues identified within the cybersecurity activities for targets.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    By leveraging these concepts, ServiceNow customers can:

    • Assess cybersecurity risks comprehensively across their critical systems and infrastructure.
    • Organize and evaluate cybersecurity activities aligned with established NIST CSF functions and categories.
    • Identify compliance gaps and non-compliant controls to prioritize remediation efforts effectively.
    • Track the state of cybersecurity implementations and manage risks, issues, and action plans systematically.
    • Enhance security compliance and improve risk management decisions through detailed insights provided by integrated GRC applications.

    Familiarize yourself with these concepts, developed from the NIST CSF guidance.

    Concept Description
    Target The target is the foundation of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) Use Case Accelerator and all related concepts.

    The target is a shared table between the ServiceNow® GRC products and several Use Case Accelerators. They are similar to the concept of entities in the core GRC applications. They are optionally linked to profiles, but are used for any attributes that are specific to the Use Case Accelerators.
    Critical infrastructure (or critical in NIST CSF application usage) Vital physical or virtual systems and assets that have a serious impact on cybersecurity, national economic security, and national public health or safety.
    Implementation tiers Helps an organization view cybersecurity risks and the processes they use to manage those risks.

    Tiers are prioritized for achieving cybereecurity objectives. With the NIST CSF applications, organizations can evaluate targets from the implementation tier view, which uses the Tier attribute on Target table.
    Cybersecurity activity Cybersecurity policies and requirements are found in the ServiceNow® GRC Policy and Compliance Management application. The application provides guidelines for understanding cybersecurity outcomes that need to be achieved to strengthen cybersecurity practices and enhance security compliance.

    These activities in the NIST CSF application as are a combination of a Target, Function, and Category. NIST CSF activities evaluate cybersecurity requirements for Targets, which provides detailed insights into gaps, non-compliant controls, risks, issues, failed indicators, and action plans and when they are addressed. Also, they help organizations strengthen their security compliance position.
    Functions Functions organize basic cybersecurity activities at their highest level. These Functions are Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, Recover, and Govern. They help an organization by organizing information, enabling risk management decisions, addressing threats, and learning from previous activities to improve its management of cybersecurity risk.

    In NIST CSF, functions select relevant cybersecurity outcomes for activities and organize them.
    Category Categories are the subdivisions of functions that are broken into groups of cybersecurity outcomes. Examples of categories include: Asset Management, Identity Management and Access Control, and Detection Processes.

    Subcategories are used to divide a category into specific outcomes of technical and management activities. They provide a set of results that can help support achievement of the outcomes in each category. Examples of subcategories include: External information systems are cataloged, Data-at-rest is protected, and Notifications from detection systems are investigated.

    The Framework Core identifies underlying categories and subcategories for each function as cybersecurity policies and their details as policy statements. The NIST CSF categories define the cybersecurity activities for targets and uses the associated subcategories to evaluate cybersecurity requirements to provide additional insight.
    Implementation state State of the cybersecurity activity, whether implemented or planned for the future. It is possible to document the implementation state of a cybersecurity activity.
    Gaps Control objectives of the cybersecurity policy that do not have any controls in-place for the target's profile identified in the cybersecurity activity.
    Non-compliant controls Cybersecurity controls that are considered non-compliant because of implementation issues and have been found for the target's entity, which is identified in the cybersecurity activity.
    Risks Risks associated with the controls implemented for the target's entity, which is identified in the cybersecurity activity.
    Issues Issues with controls and risks for the target's entity, which are identified in the cybersecurity activity.
    Failed indicators Failed indicators of controls and risks implemented for the target's entity, which is identified in the cybersecurity activity.
    Action plans Action plans for issues for the target's entity, which are identified in the cybersecurity activity.