NIST 800-171 Compliance Solutions
Monitor insider activity. Detect anomalies. Respond to incidents. ALL-IN-ONE
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) issued NIST Special Publication 800-171 to standardize how government contractors should manage and protect Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI).
NIST 800-171 often serves as a foundation for meeting the requirements of the Defense Acquisition Federal Regulation Supplement (DFARS).
Who should comply with NIST 800-171?
Organizations working with US federal agencies or those with access to Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) must comply with NIST Special Publication 800-171. Even if you don’t have a direct federal contract but work with organizations that do, NIST 800-171 still applies to you.
01
Department of Defense (DoD) contractors
02
General Services Administration (GSA) contractors
03
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) contractors
04
Universities and research institutions receiving federal grants or processing federal data
05
Manufacturers supplying goods to federal agencies
06
Entities providing financial, consulting, and other services to federal agencies
Why comply with NIST 800-171?
NIST 800-171 is often used as a companion document to the NIST SP 800-53 standard and many of their requirements overlap. Hence, it’s important to understand the main differences between them. So what is the difference between NIST 800-53 and NIST 800-171?
The benefits of using Syteca for NIST 800-171 compliance
Secure organizational assets
Detect insider threats
Maintain business continuity
Respond to threats in real time
Prevent data breaches
Build trust with partners and customers
NIST 800-171 vs NIST 800-53
NIST 800-171 is often used as a companion document to the NIST SP 800-53 standard and many of their requirements overlap. Hence, it’s important to understand the main differences between them. So what is the difference between NIST 800-53 and NIST 800-171?
NIST SP 800-171
NIST SP 800-53
Applies to
Contractors of federal agencies
Federal agencies
Covers protection of
Controlled unclassified information (CUI)
Information systems of government institutions
Liability
Contract-dependent for non-federal entities that must comply
Mandatory for all federal agencies
Consequences for non-compliance
Loss of government contracts and possible legal action
Penalties
Level of detail
High-level security requirements
Detailed set of controls and security measures
Required for compliance with
DFARS
FISMA
Comply with NIST 800-171 using Syteca
How to become NIST 800-171 compliant? Syteca includes a wide range of cybersecurity features to help you comply with the cybersecurity requirements in NIST 800-171, Revision 3 and pass the NIST 800-171 compliance audit. Leveraging Syteca as NIST 800-171 compliance software allows you to implement the proper security controls required to protect CUI.
Family of NIST 800-171 requirements
Syteca’s offer
Family of NIST 800-171 requirements
Limit access to data and information systems for users, processes, devices, and remote connections. Ensure that only personnel with the necessary permissions can access sensitive information.
Syteca’s offer
- Сontrol access to sensitive endpoints and implement the principle of least privilege with privileged access management (PAM).
- Monitor how regular and privileged users operate system accounts.
- Enable time-based access restrictions and provide users with one-time passwords (OTP).
- Automatically or manually discontinue access to endpoints by blocking users that pose security threats.
- Secure and monitor remote access to your organization’s IT infrastructure.
Family of NIST 800-171 requirements
Awareness and training
Increase user awareness of security risks, help employees understand their roles in protecting CUI, and teach them to recognize threats.
Syteca’s offer
- Track users’ actions to analyze employees’ security behavior and find gaps in their cyber hygiene practices and security policy awareness.
- Use recorded user sessions as case studies during cybersecurity training for employees.
- Inform employees about violations of important security policies by displaying warning messages.
- See how users behave during simulated cyberattacks (e.g. phishing attacks) to provide them with feedback on how to improve their cybersecurity habits.
Family of NIST 800-171 requirements
Audit and accountability
Maintain and review system records and event logs to ensure accountability, detect unauthorized access, and prevent data misuse.
Syteca’s offer
- Monitor user activity to see how employees interact with CUI and critical systems.
- Extract context by generating reports on user activity and reviewing screen captures of user actions along with detailed metadata.
- Record and export user sessions for a comprehensive user activity analysis and incident investigation.
- Create a thorough audit trail and support compliance submission with Syteca’s reporting capabilities.
- Protect audit logs from being modified or deleted and secure them with encryption.
- Prevent unauthorized access to audit records by managing administrative permissions.
Family of NIST 800-171 requirements
Configuration management
Properly configure information systems and control software installation.
Syteca’s offer
- Track and review administrator activity related to critical system configurations and changes.
- Limit system administrators’ access to only the configuration of endpoints they’re responsible for.
- Receive alerts on users installing software and detect usage of unauthorized applications.
- Enable Multi-Tenant mode to isolate data between separate tenants.
Family of NIST 800-171 requirements
Identification and authentication
Ensure that only identified, authenticated, and verified users can be granted access to systems and data. Take measures to secure password management.
Syteca’s offer
- Securely authenticate users with Syteca’s identity management capabilities.
- Verify user identities with two-factor authentication (2FA) prior to granting access to privileged and non-privileged accounts.
- Centralize and secure the management of user passwords with Syteca’s workforce password management.
- Protect employees’ passwords and secrets with SHA-256 and AES-256 military-grade encryption.
- Leverage Syteca’s secondary authentication to identify users and distinguish their activity under shared accounts.
- Implement just-in-time (JIT) access management principles with time-based access restrictions, one-time passwords, and access approval.
Family of NIST 800-171 requirements
Incident response
Establish procedures for detecting, reporting, and responding to cybersecurity incidents, as well as create an incident response plan.
Syteca’s offer
- Detect suspicious user activity and potential threats with real-time user activity alerts.
- Manually block users performing potentially harmful activity or configure automatic incident response settings to promptly terminate user sessions, kill suspicious processes, and warn users about policy violations.
- Create custom alert rules to detect potential threats described in your incident response plan.
- Review user session recordings to understand the context of security events and make informed decisions during incident response.
- Block unauthorized USB devices used in your IT infrastructure.