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NIST Consulting Services

Our NIST consultants offer risk, gap and maturity assessments using the NIST CSF 2.0 to verify your data is protected from security threats.

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Prioritize Your Cybersecurity Investment With NIST CSF Risk Gap and Maturity Assessments

As cyber threats evolve and technology environments become more complex, leadership needs more than a compliance checklist, they need confidence that their cybersecurity program is reducing risk and supporting business objectives.

Cherry Bekaert's NIST CSF Risk, Gap & Maturity Assessments provide an independent, executive-level evaluation of your cybersecurity program. Using the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework 2.0, our seasoned NIST consultants assess current capabilities, identify gaps, measure program maturity, and develop a prioritized roadmap to help organizations reduce risk, optimize security investments and improve cyber resilience.

Built by Leaders Who Have Been in Your Seat

Our assessments are led by former chief information officers (CIOs), chief information security officers (CISOs) and cybersecurity executives — now at Cherry Bekaert — who have been accountable for enterprise risk, board reporting, regulatory scrutiny, and cybersecurity investments, and profit and loss (P&L). We combine deep technical knowledge with real-world executive leadership experience to deliver practical recommendations that align cybersecurity initiatives with business strategy, budget realities and organizational risk tolerance. The result is a roadmap executives can confidently execute and boards can confidently support.

Understand Your Cybersecurity Risk and Maturity

Get an independent view of your cybersecurity program with a NIST CSF 2.0 Risk, Gap and Maturity Assessment. Identify critical gaps, understand where your program stands today and receive a prioritized roadmap for improvement.

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Cherry Bekaert's NIST CSF 2.0 Consulting Services

Our assessments provide executive leadership, boards of directors, and private equity firms with an independent evaluation of their organization's cybersecurity program using NIST CSF 2.0. By evaluating governance, people, processes, technology, and risk management practices, we help organizations understand their current cybersecurity posture, identify areas of elevated risk, and prioritize investments that strengthen cyber resilience and support business objectives.

Cybersecurity Risk, Gap & Maturity Assessment

Gain a comprehensive understanding of your cybersecurity program through an integrated assessment of cyber risk, control effectiveness and organizational maturity. We evaluate your capabilities across the NIST CSF functions, categories, and subcategories to identify control gaps, assess the maturity and consistency of cybersecurity practices, and prioritize findings based on organizational risk.

The result is a clear, objective understanding of your cybersecurity posture, the effectiveness of your existing program, and the initiatives that will have the greatest impact on reducing enterprise risk.

Executive & Industry Cybersecurity Program Benchmarking

Understand how your cybersecurity program compares with industry peers, leading practices and regulatory expectations. Our benchmarking provides executives and boards with meaningful insight into organizational strengths, opportunities for improvement, and investment priorities that can most effectively advance cybersecurity maturity and reduce enterprise risk.

Customized Executive Cybersecurity Roadmap

Our NIST CSF consulting services transform assessment results into a practical, prioritized, and achievable roadmap tailored to your organization's objectives, risk tolerance and available resources.

Our recommendations help leadership determine what should be addressed immediately, what can be phased over time, and how to build a realistic, multi-year cybersecurity improvement strategy aligned with business priorities, operational objectives and available budget.

Cybersecurity Risk, Gap & Maturity Assessment

Gain a comprehensive understanding of your cybersecurity program through an integrated assessment of cyber risk, control effectiveness and organizational maturity. We evaluate your capabilities across the NIST CSF functions, categories, and subcategories to identify control gaps, assess the maturity and consistency of cybersecurity practices, and prioritize findings based on organizational risk.

The result is a clear, objective understanding of your cybersecurity posture, the effectiveness of your existing program, and the initiatives that will have the greatest impact on reducing enterprise risk.

Executive & Industry Cybersecurity Program Benchmarking

Understand how your cybersecurity program compares with industry peers, leading practices and regulatory expectations. Our benchmarking provides executives and boards with meaningful insight into organizational strengths, opportunities for improvement, and investment priorities that can most effectively advance cybersecurity maturity and reduce enterprise risk.

Customized Executive Cybersecurity Roadmap

Our NIST CSF consulting services transform assessment results into a practical, prioritized, and achievable roadmap tailored to your organization's objectives, risk tolerance and available resources.

Our recommendations help leadership determine what should be addressed immediately, what can be phased over time, and how to build a realistic, multi-year cybersecurity improvement strategy aligned with business priorities, operational objectives and available budget.

Industries That Should Use NIST CSF 2.0 Assessments

  • Financial Services

    Our team of experienced professionals offers tailored financial services solutions to navigate the rapidly evolving operational, regulatory, and economic landscape of the financial sector.

  • Healthcare

    Our dedicated team assists the healthcare sector in overcoming regulatory, financial, and operational challenges vital to success.

  • Industrial Manufacturing

    We empower manufacturers with customized solutions to navigate complex supply chains, adapt to new regulations, and meet diverse customer demands.

  • Government Contracting

    We provide innovative, tailored solutions to address the complexities of federal contracting.

  • Higher Education

    We offer innovative strategies that enable higher education institutions to enhance performance, achieve growth, and maintain regulatory compliance with industry regulations.

  • Technology

    From startups to established enterprises, we offer strategic guidance, financial planning, and support to help technology companies reach their business goals.

Benefits of NIST CSF 2.0 Assessment Services

The NIST CSF is one of the world's most widely adopted frameworks for evaluating and improving cybersecurity programs. Used by organizations of every size and industry, the framework provides executive leadership and boards with a consistent, business-oriented approach for understanding cyber risk, measuring program maturity and prioritizing cybersecurity investments.

Recommended by organizations such as the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) and the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), the NIST CSF enables leadership to evaluate cybersecurity through six core functions that collectively represent a comprehensive cybersecurity risk management program.

When To Utilize a NIST CSF Assessment:

Following a Cybersecurity Incident

Whether your organization has experienced ransomware, business email compromise (BEC), a privacy breach, or another cybersecurity event, an independent assessment helps leadership understand what failed, evaluate the effectiveness of existing controls, identify underlying program weaknesses, and prioritize improvements to reduce the likelihood and impact of future incidents.

Cybersecurity Leadership or IT Team Turnover

Changes in executive leadership, CIOs, CISOs or key IT personnel often create uncertainty around the effectiveness of the cybersecurity program. A NIST CSF Assessment establishes an objective baseline of current capabilities, identifies gaps and provides incoming leadership with a clear roadmap for future investments and program improvements.

Private Equity Portfolio Company: Cybersecurity Oversight and Understanding

Private equity firms need independent visibility into cybersecurity risk across each of their portfolio companies. A NIST CSF Assessment provides a standardized method for evaluating cybersecurity maturity, identifying material risks, benchmarking portfolio companies, and supporting investment decisions, value creation initiatives and board oversight.

Board, Audit Committee or Stakeholder Requests

Boards of directors, lenders, insurers, regulators, customers and business partners increasingly expect organizations to demonstrate effective cybersecurity governance. A NIST CSF Assessment provides an independent evaluation of cybersecurity risk, executive-level reporting, and a practical roadmap that supports board oversight and stakeholder confidence.

Preparing for a Merger, Acquisition or Divestiture

Cybersecurity has become a critical component of transaction due diligence. Whether acquiring a company, preparing for sale, or integrating newly acquired operations, a NIST CSF Assessment helps identify cybersecurity risks, assess program maturity, validate control effectiveness, estimate remediation costs and reduce post-transaction surprises.

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NIST Assessment Process graphic

Our NIST CSF Assessment Process

Step 1: Discovery and Scoping

Our team works with stakeholders to define assessment objectives, identify key business functions, understand regulatory considerations and establish assessment scope.

Step 2: Documentation and Control Review

We review cybersecurity policies, standards, procedures, risk management activities, governance structures and technical controls relevant to the NIST CSF.

Step 3: Stakeholder Interviews

Discussions with business and technology leaders provide insight into how cybersecurity processes are executed, governed and monitored across the organization.

Step 4: Gap and Maturity Analysis

We evaluate current capabilities against the NIST CSF and assess maturity levels across cybersecurity functions, categories and subcategories.

Step 5: Risk Prioritization

Identified gaps are evaluated based on business impact, likelihood and organizational risk priorities to help focus remediation efforts.

Step 6: Reporting and Strategic Roadmap

We deliver a detailed assessment report, maturity scoring, executive summary and prioritized roadmap to support cybersecurity program advancement.

Build a Stronger NIST Cybersecurity Strategy

Talk with a NIST consultant about your cybersecurity priorities, assessment needs or approach to aligning your program with the NIST CSF 2.0. Our experienced team can help you determine the right next step for your organization.

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Why Organizations Choose Cherry Bekaert

Cherry Bekaert's NIST CSF Assessments are led by former CIOs, CISOs, and cybersecurity executives who have built, operated and transformed cybersecurity programs.

Our experience enables us to go beyond identifying technical deficiencies. We help executive leadership understand business risk, prioritize investments, communicate effectively with boards, and develop practical cybersecurity strategies that support organizational growth.

  • Independent Executive Perspective

    Assessments are led by former CIOs, CISOs, and cybersecurity leaders who understand cybersecurity from both a technical and business perspective.

  • Risk-based Prioritization

    Focus remediation efforts on the issues that present the greatest business risk rather than treating every finding equally.

  • Industry Benchmarking

    Understand how your cybersecurity program compares with industry peers, leading practices and regulatory expectations.

  • Framework Flexibility

    Built on NIST CSF 2.0 with the ability to map findings to CMMC, CIS Controls, ISO 27001, FFIEC, SOC 2 and other frameworks.

  • Board-ready Reporting

    Executive summaries, dashboards, and roadmaps designed to support board reporting, budgeting and strategic planning.

  • Actionable Roadmap

    A practical, phased improvement plan that helps leadership know what to address now, next and over the long term.

Our Professionals

Connect With Us

Kurt Manske headshot

Kurt Manske

Cybersecurity Leader

Partner, Cherry Bekaert Advisory LLC

NIST Consulting Services FAQs

A NIST CSF Risk, Gap & Maturity Assessment provides an independent evaluation of your organization's cybersecurity program using the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 2.0. The assessment identifies cybersecurity risks, measures program maturity, uncovers control gaps, and delivers a prioritized roadmap to strengthen cyber resilience and support informed business decisions.

Organizations of all sizes can benefit from a NIST CSF Assessment, particularly those looking to improve cybersecurity governance, support board oversight, prepare for regulatory or customer requirements, strengthen cyber resilience, or establish a strategic cybersecurity improvement plan. Assessments are especially valuable for organizations undergoing rapid growth, digital transformation, mergers and acquisitions, leadership changes, or increasing regulatory scrutiny.

Each assessment is tailored to your organization but typically includes stakeholder interviews, documentation reviews, evaluation of cybersecurity capabilities across the NIST CSF functions, categories, and subcategories, maturity scoring, executive benchmarking, detailed findings, and a customized cybersecurity roadmap with prioritized recommendations.

The duration depends on the size and complexity of your organization and the scope of the assessment. Most engagements are completed within several weeks, with timing tailored to organizational size, regulatory requirements and assessment objectives.

Yes. While our assessments are built on the NIST CSF 2.0, findings can also be mapped to other leading frameworks and regulatory requirements, including CIS Controls, CMMC, FFIEC guidance, ISO/IEC 27001, SOC 2, NIST SP 800-171, HIPAA, PCI DSS and other industry-specific standards.

Many organizations perform an assessment annually or following significant changes such as mergers or acquisitions, major technology implementations, cybersecurity incidents, leadership transitions, evolving regulatory requirements or changes to business strategy.

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