NIST 800-171 Compliance Solutions

Monitor insider activity. Detect anomalies. Respond to incidents. ALL-IN-ONE

Access the Demo Portal Get in Touch

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 compliance solutions help organizations protect sensitive data from internal threats and external cyberattacks. In turn, non-compliance with NIST SP 800-171 may result in the loss of contracts with a federal agency in addition to financial losses and reputational damage.

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

Access control

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.

Family of NIST 800-171 requirements

Maintenance

Secure the maintenance process by controlling the use of maintenance tools, establishing a list of authorized personnel, and monitoring external maintenance activities.

Syteca’s offer

Monitor privileged user activity to see how system administrators use specific maintenance tools.
Track sysadmins’ actions with sensitive data, systems, and databases.
Review the activity of third-party vendors who provide maintenance services for your organization.
Grant third-party maintenance service providers secure access to your IT infrastructure via the Syteca Connection Manager.
Require system administrators to enter a ticket number as an additional layer of authentication by linking Syteca with a ticketing system.

Family of NIST 800-171 requirements

Media protection

Securely manage, store, dispose of, and restrict access to system media containing CUI.

Syteca’s offer

Fully manage the use of removable system media with Syteca’s USB device management.
Track and get notified about USB device connections in your IT infrastructure.
Create a list of allowed USB devices and approve their usage on specific endpoints.
Block connected USB devices until administrator approval can be obtained.

Family of NIST 800-171 requirements

Personnel security

Screen individuals prior to granting them access to the system and revoke user access upon termination.

Syteca’s offer

Revoke access permissions and authentication secrets for employees upon termination or transfer to other departments.

Family of NIST 800-171 requirements

Risk assessment

Regularly scan the system for vulnerabilities and conduct risk assessments to detect potential disclosures of CUI during data storage, processing, or transmission.

Syteca’s offer

Enhance visibility and detect potential risks to CUI by monitoring users processing sensitive data.
Leverage Syteca’s reporting capabilities to identify security risks.

Family of NIST 800-171 requirements

System and information integrity

Establish measures to ensure the integrity of systems and information, such as implementing security alerts, developing malicious code protection mechanisms, and detecting indicators of potential attacks.

Syteca’s offer

Detect indicators of potential insider attacks with Syteca’s insider threat management capabilities.
Configure real-time alerts for swift identification of potential human-related security threats.
Monitor and detect commands run in scripts to prevent the potential execution of malicious code on Linux endpoints.
Detect and start monitoring when a user enters a specific keyword (e.g. a command or a parameter) to identify potential execution of malicious code.

Family of NIST 800-171 requirements

Planning

Develop policies, procedures, and system security plans to guide the protection of CUI.

Syteca’s offer

Review and update policies and procedures by analyzing user behavior with a user activity audit trail generated by Syteca.

Family of NIST 800-171 requirements

System and services acquisition

Develop security engineering principles for system modifications and define security requirements for the processing, storing, and transmitting of CUI by external system services.

Syteca’s offer

Monitor how external service providers interact with CUI and comply with your security requirements within the boundaries of your IT infrastructure.

Family of NIST 800-171 requirements

Supply chain risk management

Implement measures for identifying, protecting against, and mitigating supply chain cybersecurity risks.

Syteca’s offer

Monitor the activity of third-party vendors, partners, and other supply chain entities accessing your IT systems.
Verify and manage the user identities of supply chain entities that access your organization’s resources.
Enable secure RDP connections to your IT environment and detect remote user behavior that could indicate an insider threat.
To minimize resource exposure, limit third-party vendors’ session time in your system and provide them with one-time passwords.

Meet other IT security requirements with Syteca

NISPOM Change 2 and H.R. 666

Let’s get the conversation started