Case Study: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) achieves enhanced CUI protection and compliance readiness with Critical Start

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) - Customer Case Study

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published SP 800-171 Revision 2 to define 111 security requirements for protecting Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), creating a challenge for nonfederal organizations and federal contractors that must evaluate protection gaps, demonstrate compliance, and qualify for federal bids. To address this, Critical Start delivered a NIST 800-171 r2 Risk Assessment using its Cyber Risk Dashboard to help organizations assess maturity against the standard and prioritize remediation.

Critical Start’s Cyber Risk Dashboard maps security maturity to the NIST SP 800-171 controls, provides risk-ranked recommendations and customized remediation steps, and helps organizations identify and mitigate gaps that threaten CUI. By using Critical Start, organizations gained measurable benefits—evaluating protection gaps, demonstrating compliance, streamlining benchmarking to related frameworks (ISO, CMMC), increasing data security, and improving readiness to qualify for federal contracts.

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)