NIS 2 Compliance Best Practices Checklist for Small Businesses

Unlike the first NIS Directive, the NIS 2 Directive’s scope now includes small and medium–sized enterprises (SMEs) as they play a crucial role in the essential services supply chain. For SMEs that need to demonstrate NIS2 compliance, the following NIS 2 checklist features key best practices tailored to their resources and capacity:

1. Conduct a Risk Assessment: Identify key assets, potential threats, and vulnerabilities. Prioritize risks based on likelihood and potential impact, using methodologies like ISO/IEC 27005 or ENISA guidance.
2. Implement a Cybersecurity Governance Framework: Adopt a simplified version of existing frameworks (ISO/IEC 27001, NIST CSF) to establish roles, responsibilities, and policies around cybersecurity.
3. Train Staff on Cybersecurity Awareness: Regularly educate employees on phishing attacks, social engineering, password management, and safe online practices.
4. Ensure Strong Access Control and Authentication: Enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) across key systems. Limit user privileges through a least-privilege model to reduce insider threats.
5. Develop an Incident Response Plan: Create an incident response plan that outlines procedures for detecting, reporting, and responding to cybersecurity incidents. Test the plan through tabletop exercises to identify gaps and weaknesses.
6. Practice Regular Patching and Vulnerability Management: Implement automated patch management processes to ensure systems and software are updated regularly. Use vulnerability scanning tools to identify security weaknesses.
7. Plan for Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BC/DR): Develop BC/DR plans that cover key systems and data recovery after a security incident. Regularly test backup processes to ensure that critical data can be restored efficiently.
8. Monitor and Log Network Activity: Implement network monitoring tools to detect unusual activity. Analyze audit logs to facilitate incident detection and compliance with reporting requirements under NIS2.

To learn more about NIS 2 compliance for small businesses, check out: Small Business Guide to NIS 2 Compliance.