NIST Cybersecurity White Paper (CSWP) 50, Small Business Cybersecurity: Non-Employer Firms, is now available.
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, there are 34.8 million small businesses in the United States. Of those, 81.9% have no paid employees other than the owner or owners (i.e., “non-employer firms”). These businesses are part of every industry and sector of the economy and contribute significantly to the Nation’s innovation and industrial competitiveness. They include sole proprietors, freelancers, single-member limited liability companies (LLCs), independent contractors, gig economy workers, and others.
This publication helps small firms with no employees and with minimal IT complexity use the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 2.0 to manage their cybersecurity risks and also includes:
- Considerations for maturing cybersecurity risk management as the business grows, which makes the document useful for entities of varying sizes
- Concepts and resources extracted from other NIST publications beyond CSF 2.0
- A separate appendices file (in.xlsx format) providing notional templates, editable worksheets, and three hypothetical use cases
