Proof for Detect, Respond and Recover when ransomware strikes.
NIST compliance gives you a common language for cyber risk, from governance to recovery. Ransomware tests three functions above all, Detect, Respond and Recover, and the record you keep shows whether they worked. Helm detects active encryption in under a second, contains it on rules your team sets, verifies recovery and records every step, mapped to NIST CSF 2.0.
NIST puts it plainly in its ransomware profile, updated for CSF 2.0 in June 2026. “Ransomware attacks can devastate organizations of any size across all sectors”.
The numbers agree. In Sophos’ survey of 3,400 IT and security leaders in 17 countries whose organisations were hit, exploited vulnerabilities were the most common way in, behind 32% of attacks. Recovery cost an average of $1.53 million before any ransom, and almost half of victims needed more than a week to recover.
A framework describes the outcomes you aim for. An attack shows whether you reach them. The functions that shape the outcome of a ransomware attack, Detect, Respond and Recover, are also the ones that have to work in minutes, not in the next audit cycle.
NIST compliance means aligning your security with standards from the US National Institute of Standards and Technology. The best known is the Cybersecurity Framework (CSF). It is voluntary for most organisations, while federal agencies follow NIST SP 800-53 and contractors handling controlled unclassified information follow NIST SP 800-171, now assessed through CMMC.
CSF 2.0, released in February 2024, organises cybersecurity outcomes into six functions, Govern, Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond and Recover, with 22 categories and 106 subcategories. Unlike NIS2, which is EU law, CSF is a framework, and many organisations use it as the map that links their other frameworks, including the CIS Controls.
For ransomware, three functions carry the most weight. Detect asks for continuous monitoring and analysis of adverse events. Respond asks for incident management, analysis, reporting and mitigation. Recover asks you to carry out your recovery plan and communicate as you go.
Each of those outcomes depends on what happens in the first minutes, and on the evidence those minutes leave behind. This is the part Helm takes on.
Helm works where a ransomware attack plays out, across the Detect, Respond and Recover functions, and its record feeds the rest of your NIST programme, from risk assessment to governance reporting.
Detect (DE.CM, DE.AE). Helm monitors file activity and detects active encryption in under a second, by behaviour rather than signature. Alerts go to your SIEM, so they reach the team where it already works.
Respond (RS.MA, RS.AN, RS.CO, RS.MI). Helm isolates the compromised accounts and devices on fixed, readable rules, with no AI in containment. Its forensic record identifies patient zero, the attack path and every affected file, with timestamps, for analysis and reporting. [TBC]
Recover (RC.RP). Helm verifies that systems are clean before recovery, so the plan you carry out starts from a safe point.
Helm can also supply reports mapped to NIST CSF and SP 800-53 for your assessors. [TBC]
NIST CSF tells you what good looks like. Helm gives you the speed to reach it during an attack and the record to show you did, function by function.
Defence suppliers working to NIST SP 800-171 and CMMC will find the same evidence relevant. To see the mapping for your environment, talk to us.
