How to Be NIS2 Compliant Here’s Your Step-By-Step Guide and NIS2 Checklist
- March 7, 2024
The path to NIS2 compliance can seem like quantum mechanics: Complex and overwhelming.
Let’s turn quantum mechanics into a quantum leap – and help you make your path to NIS2 compliance smooth and clear.
When you’ve read this blog post, you’ll have the knowledge and tools you need to be NIS2 compliant, including:
- The 8 steps that’ll lead you to NIS2 compliance
- Our NIS2 compliance checklist to help you keep track of your compliance efforts and progress.
The 8 steps are defined by our in-house lawyers and show you best practice by uniting the law with common sense. This way, you ensure your NIS2 compliance without overdoing it.
So, let’s get to it.
Your path to NIS2 compliance: The 8 steps
From our experience, the compliance process should be based on the business’s security needs. When it’s based on the specific processes and workflows that are known to work, you have the best chance of success and the least risk of overdoing your compliance.
So, it’s about finding a balance between the law and common sense – and we, therefore, recommend you approach the NIS2 compliance process by following these 8 steps.
Step 1: Evaluate security needs
We advise you to start assessing your organization’s actual security requirements in relation to your security threats and vulnerabilities.
This foundational step helps you set a clear baseline for developing or strengthening your cybersecurity measures.
To benchmark your cybersecurity level against industry norms, we recommend using established standards like the ISO 27000 series and CIS18.
Your company might already have benchmarked your security measures against these standards. For instance, if you’ve implemented authentication solutions when recommended in CIS18.
We suggest you check if that’s also the case in your company, so you don’t have to start from scratch or can at least reuse some of the work you’ve done here.
Your company might already have benchmarked your security measures against these standards. For instance, if you’ve implemented authentication solutions when recommended in CIS18.
We suggest you check if that’s also the case in your company, so you don’t have to start from scratch or can at least reuse some of the work you’ve done here.
Step 2: Align security needs with business risks
As the second step, you should start with a practical approach and focus on real-world security risks rather than legal requirements. This involves a deep understanding of how security risks directly impact your business operations and objectives.
Consider factors like customer expectations, the nature of your products or services, and how these elements interact with your overall risk landscape.
An example could be that you operate an e-commerce platform. In this context, a security breach compromising customer payment information could have severe consequences, including reputational damage, loss of customer trust, and legal implications.
To align security measures with this business risk, you might prioritize implementing robust encryption protocols, multifactor authentication for user accounts, and regular security audits on payment processing systems.
Doing this step ensures that your security strategy is not ‘only’ compliant but also aligns with and supports your unique business needs and goals.
Step 3: Ensure management support
It’s critical to have management support to ensure the successful implementation of security initiatives.
Therefore, this step is about engaging with top management to discuss and define the acceptable risk appetite and compliance levels.
More precisely, you should focus on emphasizing the business implications of cybersecurity risks and the importance of investment in robust security measures.
It’s a must to get buy-in from management and key stakeholders, as it both guarantees the resources needed and fosters a culture of security awareness across the organization.
This support will be vital for prioritizing security initiatives, allocating budgets, and driving compliance efforts throughout the company.
Step 4: Integrate legal compliance
Once you have a robust security framework in place, the next crucial step is to align it with specific legal compliance requirements.
For NIS2, this includes requirements such as the 10 minimum requirements in addition to cyber training of the management and other relevant employees.
It’s essential to integrate the legal requirements seamlessly into your overall security strategy to ensure a low overhead.
You obtain this by mixing a thorough understanding of applicable legal requirements with knowledge about your operations.
You should also encourage a collaborative environment between your legal and technical teams.
This collaboration ensures that the implementation of legal requirements in your security strategy is technically feasible and effective – and, by that, paves the way for a balanced approach to compliance and operational efficiency.
Step 5: Engage security experts
Cybersecurity is a rapidly evolving and highly technical field. You should, therefore, consider involving security professionals to validate or strengthen the effectiveness of your security measures.
This is, furthermore, notably beneficial in complex or high-risk situations.
Their expertise could also help fine-tune your security strategy by identifying potential vulnerabilities and suggesting advanced solutions.
Step 6: Consult with legal experts or use legal-based software
We recommend that you consult with legal professionals to ensure compliance, especially given the complex and fast-evolving legal requirements in cybersecurity.
The legal landscape in this area can change unexpectedly. Both because it’s influenced by new regulations, emerging threats and best mitigation practices, and applicable guidance.
The trend towards attorneys specializing in cybersecurity offers rich benefits. These experts are well-versed in the latest legal developments, providing advice that is both relevant and adaptable to future changes. Their specialized knowledge can help you stay informed and adaptable to future legal changes.
Also, engaging with external legal or security experts can be a strategic part of your risk management, including when it comes to transferring specific risks.
This approach comes with several benefits, such as access to specialized expertise, mitigation of certain types of risks, and the ability to focus your internal resources on core business activities.
However, we know that legal expertise can be an expensive cost for a lot of companies – especially because you need to renew this legal advice on an ongoing basis. The obvious alternative for this is to use legal-based software since it’s cheaper and still comes with built-in legal advice and the other benefits mentioned above.
Step 7: Plan for ongoing adaptions
As the seventh step, it’s important that you prepare for ongoing updates to your security and compliance strategies to keep pace with evolving threats and regulations. As mentioned above, cybersecurity and legal landscapes are dynamic – and therefore need regular adaptions, reassessments and adjustments.
This is also a reminder of the fact that these 8 steps are not a one-time effort but an ongoing compliance process.
For that reason, you should have a routine for periodic reviews to ensure that your approach remains effective and current.
Step 8: Implement a sustainable compliance strategy
As the final compliance step, it’s important that you adopt a sustainable and realistic approach to NIS2 compliance.
This means that you should aim for a strategy that is manageable and effective, rather than striving for 100% compliance since it may be impractical.
Develop a compliance governance process that is flexible and can evolve with changes in your business and regulatory environment.
Also, you should focus on key areas that significantly impact your business and prioritize ongoing improvement.
This approach ensures that your organization keeps a high level of compliance in a way that is both achievable and beneficial to your overall business operations.
If you want to make sure that you follow the 8 steps ‘by the book’ and want to keep track of your compliance progress, you’re more than welcome to use our NIS2 compliance checklist.
NIS2 compliance checklist
Want to keep track of your compliance progress with the NIS2 Directive?
