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Cybersecurity and cryptography

Cybersecurity and cryptography protect information systems and data from unauthorised access, disruption and manipulation. They address threats that can spread rapidly across interconnected digital and physical systems. Cybersecurity and Digital Resilience stewards this page for the Nexus Consortium.

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01Register

Cybersecurity and cryptography on the record.

The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation
  1. 01InstitutionThe Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)
  2. 02The methodWhat cybersecurity and cryptography covers
  3. 03Reference practiceCybersecurity practice is codified in management standards and shared threat knowledge
  4. 04In systemic risk workAccumulation across organisations
  5. 05Applied inPlatforms that apply this method
  6. 06StewardshipWho maintains this page
  7. 07SourcesWhere this page’s references lead
02The method

What cybersecurity and cryptography covers.

  1. 01

    Core methods

    threat modelling; vulnerability assessment; penetration testing; intrusion detection; cryptographic protocol design; incident response.

  2. 02

    Data and instruments

    security event logs; vulnerability databases; threat intelligence feeds; network traffic captures; incident reports.

  3. 03

    Validation

    Controls are tested through red-team exercises, audits and formal analysis of cryptographic schemes. Incident data are used to check whether defences performed as intended.

  4. 04

    Limits

    Adversaries adapt, so historical data may not reflect future attacks. Software supply chains and legacy systems introduce weaknesses that are hard to inventory.

  5. 05

    Use in risk decisions

    Cybersecurity analysis identifies how a single compromise can propagate across sectors that share software, vendors or networks. It informs resilience requirements and cyber insurance.

03Reference practice

Cybersecurity practice is codified in management standards and shared threat knowledge.

ReferenceWhat it sets
NIST CSF 2.0Govern, identify, protect, detect, respond, recover
ISO/IEC 27001Information security management
MITRE ATT&CKAdversary tactics and techniques
NIST post-quantum standardsMigration of public-key cryptography
04Process

How the process runs.

Process

Cybersecurity and cryptography: Incident handling, CSF 2.0

CSF 2.0 has six Functions to address concurrently, in no implied order; this walk-through picks outcomes from Detect, Respond, Recover, Identify and Govern.

  1. 01 Detect

    1. 01Detect: adverse event analysis (DE.AE)DatasetPotentially adverse events are analysed to detect cybersecurity incidents. Information is correlated from multiple sources.
    2. 02Declare and triage (DE.AE-08, RS.MA-02)GateIncidents are declared when adverse events meet the defined incident criteria. Incident reports are triaged and validated.

  2. 02 Respond

    1. 03Respond: incident analysis (RS.AN)ModelInvestigations establish what has taken place and the root cause. Records of the investigation keep their integrity and provenance.
    2. 04Respond: incident mitigation (RS.MI)Step · Independent reviewerActivities prevent expansion of an event and mitigate its effects. Incidents are contained and eradicated.
    3. 05Respond: reporting and communication (RS.CO)StepResponse is coordinated with internal and external stakeholders as laws, regulations or policies require. Stakeholders are notified.

  3. 03 Recover

    1. 06Recover: incident recovery plan execution (RC.RP)StepRestoration is performed to restore availability. The integrity of backups and other restoration assets is verified before use.

  4. 04 Improve and govern

    1. 07Identify: improvement (ID.IM)StepImprovements come from evaluations, tests, exercises and operations. Incident response plans are set, shared, maintained and improved.
    2. 08Govern: oversight (GV.OV)Decision · Independent reviewerRisk management results inform and adjust the risk strategy. Leadership is responsible and accountable for cybersecurity risk.

Neutral outline of a published external standard or method, from its issuing body. Not a record of operation. Nexus does not perform, certify or approve any step shown. A gate or decision belongs to the party the source names. The six Functions are Govern, Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond and Recover.

05In systemic risk work

Accumulation across organisations.

Organisations manage their own cyber risk; systemic cyber risk comes from shared software, providers and protocols. Accumulation scenarios (a cloud outage, a widely exploited vulnerability) estimate how many organisations fail together, which is what insurers, supervisors and operators of critical services need to know.

  • Map shared dependencies across organisations.
  • Model correlated outage scenarios, not independent incidents.
  • Plan cryptographic migration ahead of need.
  • Applications on Cyber and Digital Resilience and Quantum.
06Applied in

Platforms that apply this method.

07Stewardship

Who maintains this page.

Cybersecurity and Digital Resilience stewards cybersecurity and cryptography: it keeps this description current and reviews how the method is applied across the platforms.

08Sources

Where this page’s references lead.

The bodies and documents this page is read against. Status and editions change; each link goes to the issuing body.

09Questions

Questions and answers.

Why does one institution host every method page?
GCRI hosts the STEM Commons so that each method has one canonical description. Platforms link to it rather than repeat it, which keeps definitions consistent.
How do I suggest a correction to a method page?
Write to the integrity concern form with the passage and the reason.
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