NIS2 compliance: what it means, who's affected, and how to comply

NIS2 directive: What it means, who's affected, and how to comply

The Network and Information Security Directive 2 (NIS2) is the European Union's most comprehensive cybersecurity legislation and a fundamental shift in how the EU approaches cybersecurity regulation. NIS2 replaces the original NIS directive of 2016, building upon its foundations and addressing problems that the original NIS directive faced inconsistent implementations, limited coverage of different sectors, and gaps in enforcement mechanisms. The NIS2 directive creates a common regulatory baseline across all EU member states and ensures that cybersecurity standards are consistently applied in all critical sectors. NIS2 introduced two main categories based on their importance to economic and societal functions:

• Essential Entities: Energy, transport, banking and financial institutions, healthcare, and digital infrastructure sectors are categorized as critical to the functioning of society.
• Important Entities: Postal services, food production, manufacturing industries, digital service providers, and chemical industries are categorized as important entities.

The primary goal of NIS2 is to establish a high common level of cybersecurity across the European Union by strengthening security requirements and strict reporting obligations on a wider range of essential and important sectors. The NIS2 directive entered into force on January 16, 2023, starting a timeline for EU members to transpose its requirements into their national laws by October 17, 2024.

The NIS2 directive is now in force, with compliance and penalties applying in member states that have adopted the directive. For essential entities, financial penalties can reach up to €10 million or 2% of global annual turnover, whichever is higher. For important entities, financial penalties can reach up to €7 million or 1.4% of global annual turnover.

Why was NIS2 introduced?

The NIS2 directive was introduced to address the evolving cybersecurity landscape and limitations of its predecessor NIS1. Ransomware attacks have evolved from isolated incidents to a systematic, high-impact phenomenon, strategically targeting financial institutions, healthcare facilities, energy providers, and public administration authorities. Phishing attacks became more sophisticated with social engineering techniques, including business email compromise (BEC), spear-phishing campaigns targeting specific individuals, and credential harvesting through convincing fake websites. On top of these threats, integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning into cyberattacks empowered attackers to generate highly convincing phishing content, create polymorphic malware that adapts to evade detection, and automate vulnerability scanning for exploitation at exponential scale.

While NIS1 was an important first step in the EU for unified cybersecurity regulation, member states were given flexibility in how they translated its provisions into national law. This resulted in inconsistent implementation across the EU and created weak links in collective defense. NIS1 covered only a narrow list of Operators of Essential Services (OES) and Digital Service Providers (DSPs) in a limited number of sectors, leaving out many critical sectors such as food production, waste management, and public administration. Reporting obligations under NIS1 were often too vague, lacked clear thresholds for reportable incidents with varied timelines in different states, and there was no effective mechanism for cross-border information sharing when multiple countries were affected.

NIS2 at its core is about a common harmonized cybersecurity baseline across the European Union, shifting from a loose framework to a set of clear rules on risk management, mandatory security measures, and incident reporting. It significantly expands the scope to cover more critical industries, including medium-sized and large companies in sectors like manufacturing, postal services, and food industries.

NIS2 explicitly targets structural weaknesses in NIS1, especially supply chain vulnerabilities and cross-border incident response coordination. Modern cyberattacks often target supply chain vulnerabilities in third-party suppliers to compromise entire sectors. NIS2 mandates that entities implement specific measures to assess and secure their entire supply chain and service providers. NIS2 strengthens cooperation through the European Cyber Crisis Liaison Organization Network (EU-CyCLONe) and the CSIRT network to ensure rapid and coordinated response to large-scale cyberattacks.

Who must comply with NIS2?

The NIS2 compliance requirements apply to medium-sized and large entities that work within specific critical sectors of the EU. It introduces clear definitions of essential and important entities, and both entity types must follow the same cybersecurity risk management and incident reporting requirements.

Essential entities

Essential entities are organizations that provide services critical to the functioning of society and the economy. These entities face a proactive, rigorous supervision regime, including regular audits and potentially higher penalties due to the systemic impact their disruption can cause.

Sectors: Energy, transport, finance, health, public administration, space, water, digital infrastructure.

• Energy sector: Industries including electricity, oil, gas, and district heating providers.
• Transport sector: Operators covering air, water, rail, and road transportation.
• Finance sector: Banks, credit institutions, and financial market infrastructures.
• Health: Hospitals, private clinics, laboratories, and pharmaceutical manufacturers.
• Public administration: Central and regional government agencies.
• Digital infrastructure: Cloud computing services, DNS providers, data centers, and electronic communication networks.
• Water: Potable water suppliers, waste treatment organizations.
• Space: Operators of ground-based infrastructure such as satellite communication centers.

Size threshold: Large organizations with ≥250 employees or €50M+ turnover.

Important entities

Important entities operate in sectors that have significant importance to economic stability and public well-being, but they present a lower risk profile than essential entities. Important entities face proportionate cybersecurity regulation; however, their compliance is mostly subject to a reactive supervision regime, meaning authorities only act after an incident or evidence of non-compliance is reported.

Sectors: Waste management, food, chemicals, digital providers, manufacturing, research, postal services.

• Waste management: Operators responsible for garbage disposal and recycling.
• Food: Organizations managing production, processing, and distribution of food products.
• Chemicals: Manufacturers and distributors of chemical products.
• Manufacturing: Producers of critical products including medical devices, electronics, machinery, and motor vehicles.
• Digital providers: Online marketplaces, search engines, and social networking platforms.
• Postal and courier services: Organizations providing cross-border or large-scale delivery services.
• Research: Institutes conducting critical research and development.

Size threshold: Medium-sized organizations with ≥50 employees or €10M+ turnover.

Non-EU businesses

NIS2 extends beyond EU borders. Non-EU based businesses that provide services to EU customers must also follow regulations applied to their industry sector. This means companies with operational facilities outside of Europe that provide services in the EU, such as cloud computing platforms, must also follow NIS2 cybersecurity rules and incident reporting obligations.

Key differences between NIS1 and NIS2

Scope: From 7 to 15+ sectors

NIS1 was introduced in 2016 as the European Union's first comprehensive cybersecurity law. It mainly applied to Operators of Essential Services (OES) and Digital Service Providers (DSPs), covering 7 sectors such as energy, transport, banking, financial markets infrastructure, health, water, and digital infrastructure. NIS2 expands coverage from 7 to 15+ sectors, removes the OES and DSP distinction, and instead categorizes entities as Essential Entities and Important Entities based on size and impact, with a clear set of security rules and reporting obligations.

Governance: Management accountability mandated

NIS1 focused mostly on technical and operational measures, with limited emphasis on board-level accountability. NIS2 introduces explicit management responsibilities for implementing risk management, security policies, and incident response. It requires mandatory cybersecurity training for leadership, makes incident reporting a management responsibility, and holds executives liable in some cases of non-compliance.

Enforcement: Uniform penalties and expanded audit powers

NIS1 allowed member states flexibility in framework enforcement, which led to fragmented penalties and inconsistent oversight. NIS2 establishes harmonized enforcement mechanisms with strict penalties that are consistently applicable in all member states. It expands audit powers for national authorities to conduct inspections, request documented evidence, and verify compliance status with audit trails.

Collaboration: Stronger information sharing mechanisms

NIS1 had limited cross-border coordination mechanisms in incident reporting and a coordinated effort to investigate large-scale security incidents. NIS2 reinforces EU-wide collaboration by enhancing the role of CSIRTs and establishing EU-CyCLONe to support coordinated response and regular information exchange among member states during large-scale cyber incidents.

NIS2 mandates heavy fines for cybersecurity non-compliance and sends a clear message that cybersecurity incidents carry similar weight to data protection failures under GDPR.

Core NIS2 cybersecurity requirements

Article 21 of the NIS2 directive establishes 10 mandatory cybersecurity measures that all essential and important entities must implement. These requirements create a comprehensive, risk-based NIS2 framework that covers the entire security posture lifecycle, from incident prevention to response and recovery.

1. Risk analysis and policies for information security

Organizations must establish a formal risk management policy that identifies, evaluates, and mitigates cybersecurity threats. This includes conducting systematic risk assessments of network and information systems, implementing security controls and governance frameworks, and documenting security policies covering data protection, system integrity, and threat prevention procedures. Policies must be continuously reviewed and updated to reflect the evolving threat landscape.

2. Incident handling procedures

Entities must implement a comprehensive incident handling framework, including procedures for detection, response, and management of security incidents. Clear roles and responsibilities with proper escalation procedures should be documented along with incident classification criteria (severity, impact, scope). The goal is to ensure swift and effective remediation of incidents to minimize their impact and follow strict incident reporting timelines.

3. Business continuity and crisis management

Organizations must develop a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) to ensure that critical services continue during and after disruptive events. Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) must be defined, regularly reviewed, and evaluated with a trained crisis management team that knows their roles and responsibilities during a cyberattack or any natural disaster event.

4. Supply chain risk management

Supply chain risk management is a significant focus of NIS2. Entities must implement security measures to assess cybersecurity risk from suppliers, service providers, and third-party vendors. Organizations must have security protocols such as data encryption at rest and in transit for cloud storage providers, vulnerability scanning in hardware, software, and endpoint security configuration to secure data integrity throughout the supply chain.

5. Network and system security in development/maintenance

Entities must integrate security into the design, development, and lifecycle of network and information systems. This includes implementing secure coding practices and vulnerability scanning in source code, regular patching of servers and endpoints, and deploying vulnerability management and security configuration management tools to prevent cyberattacks from outdated or poorly maintained systems.

6. Policies to evaluate cybersecurity effectiveness

Organizations must establish metrics and KPIs to measure and monitor the effectiveness of security controls. This includes conducting regular audits, assessments, penetration testing, and compliance reviews to ensure that policies and security controls are not outdated and are effective against evolving threats.

7. Cybersecurity awareness and training

Employees at all levels must receive cybersecurity training that covers phishing, social engineering, password hygiene, safe handling of sensitive data, and acceptable usage of corporate resources. These training courses must be mandatory and tailored to separate role requirements to ensure employees are aware of risks, security policies, and how to protect sensitive data for regulatory compliance.

8. Use of encryption and cryptography

Sensitive data and communication must be protected through advanced cryptographic techniques, including data at rest, in transit, and in use. Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies and enforced encryption on all endpoints must be implemented to reduce data breach, espionage, and unauthorized access risks.

9. Access control policies

Identity and Access Management (IAM) solutions must be deployed to restrict access based on the principle of least privilege. Rather than providing direct permissions, Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) should be used, with regular access reviews along with automated access provisioning and deprovisioning workflows. Privileged Access Management solutions should be used to provide just-in-time administrative privileges for privileged tasks to reduce the attack surface from standing privileges.

10. MFA, secure communication, and session monitoring

Authentication and session management must be managed with strict measures to resist modern cyberattacks. Multi-factor authentication is necessary to prove user identity with multiple factors to eliminate impersonation. Use of secure communication protocols (TLS and VPN) is mandated to encrypt data in transmission; session monitoring must be implemented to detect suspicious activities.

How Netwrix solutions map to NIS2 requirements

Netwrix portfolio for NIS2 compliance

The Netwrix portfolio explicitly targets cybersecurity compliance with products providing capabilities for data protection, risk management, and identity and access management.

• Netwrix DSPM automates discovery and classification of sensitive data across cloud, on-prem, and hybrid environments with real-time risk scoring based on data sensitivity, third-party access patterns, and data security exposure.
• Netwrix ITDR & Identity Management solutions focus on automating digital identity lifecycle, user provisioning, access management with multi-factor authentication, and behavioral analytics to establish normal behavior and detect deviations, with monitoring capabilities to identify compromised accounts and endpoints.
• Netwrix Privileged Access Management solutions manage sensitive administrator and service accounts with just-in-time and just-enough-privilege principles to remove standing permissions. Elevated permissions are requested and approved for a specific time with session monitoring and enhanced logging capabilities for comprehensive audit trails.
• Netwrix Endpoint Management solutions establish secure configuration baselines for endpoints with continuous scanning for vulnerabilities, security patch updates, and application whitelisting to prevent unauthorized use of software. Security policies and configurations are enforced for endpoint hardening and continuously monitored for configuration drift.
• Netwrix Auditor & Access Analyzer provide comprehensive evidence that security controls are working as intended by collecting logs, tracking changes across Active Directory, file servers, databases, and cloud services, and delivering clear visualizations of effective permissions of users and groups.

Incident reporting obligations

NIS2 introduces strict, time-bound reporting requirements to ensure prompt threat awareness and coordinated response across the EU. These obligations apply to both essential and important entities whenever a cyber incident has a significant impact on service provisioning or poses a risk to users, other businesses, or national security.

• Early warning within 24 hours: Entities must submit an initial notification within 24 hours of becoming aware of a significant incident. This report should include basic details such as incident type, suspected cause, affected systems, preliminary impact assessment, and any cross-border impact.
• Full report within 72 hours: A more comprehensive incident notification must be generated within 72 hours of first detection, including detailed incident description and timeline, mitigation measures taken and planned, affected services/systems/data, and technical indicators of compromise (IoCs).
• Final report within 1 month: A final, in-depth incident report must be delivered within one month, including root cause analysis (exploited vulnerabilities, process failures, insider activity), full details of impact and damage, and detailed remediation measures.

Incident reports must be submitted to the national competent authority (NCA) or CSIRT team appointed in each member state. Only significant incidents that cause severe operational disruption, financial loss, data breaches, or public safety risks require reporting. Reported information is protected under strict confidentiality rules. Reporting does not automatically trigger penalties, but failure to report or deliberate delays can trigger penalties.

Business continuity and disaster recovery

One of the core components of the NIS2 directive is ensuring business continuity and disaster recovery so organizations can maintain operations and recover from cyber incidents or natural disasters. The NIS2 framework treats BCDR not just as an operational safeguard but as a legal compliance requirement.

Key requirements include: incident response plans must be established, evaluated, and regularly updated; recovery procedures must enable systems and operations to be restored within acceptable timeframes; communication protocols must ensure coordination with internal and external authorities.

The NIS2 directive encourages data protection and recovery mechanisms, with particular emphasis on cloud-based backups. Backups of all essential data must be maintained and kept up to date to minimize the Recovery Point Objective (RPO). Data backups must be encrypted both in transit and at rest, and periodic restoration tests must be conducted to verify that backups restore and function correctly.

Netwrix Recovery for Active Directory enables organizations to roll back and recover both accidental and malicious changes to Active Directory. Whether it's a wrong Group Policy setting, unintentional addition of a user to critical AD groups, or deletion of critical objects, Netwrix Recovery restores critical settings, deleted objects, or even domain controllers to a specific state in time.

Governance and management responsibility

The NIS2 directive significantly enhances cybersecurity importance by shifting it from a technical issue to a governance priority, placing accountability directly on organizational leadership. It clearly mandates that management bodies are ultimately responsible for approving cybersecurity risk management measures and must actively monitor the implementation and effectiveness of security controls.

Management executives must take regular training sessions that cover cybersecurity governance, threat trends, regulatory updates, and incident response protocols. Training should be tailored for separate roles, CEOs on strategic risk, CISOs on technical controls, CFOs on financial implications of cyber incidents.

The most impactful change in NIS2 toward governance is the introduction of personal liability for executives who grossly neglect their cybersecurity duties. Financial penalties can be imposed on both organizations and, in severe cases, responsible management personnel. Depending on national transposition laws, managers may face personal legal consequences for negligence or misconduct. Additionally, NIS2 enables competent authorities to impose temporary or permanent bans on individuals from holding management positions if they've demonstrated serious or repeated negligence of cybersecurity obligations.

Penalties for non-compliance

NIS2 introduces tiered financial penalties based on entity classification:

• Essential entities: Maximum fine of €10 million or 2% of total worldwide annual turnover. These penalties apply to major incidents such as failure to implement security measures, delay in reporting incidents, or neglect of management responsibilities under Article 21.
• Important entities: Maximum fine of €7 million or 1.4% of total worldwide annual turnover.

Apart from financial fines, the NIS2 directive empowers national supervisory authorities to impose enforcement actions and sanctions: compliance orders requiring entities to implement specific technical measures, mandatory security audits by independent bodies, and public naming of non-compliant organizations.

Supply chain and third-party risk management

The NIS2 cybersecurity directive significantly extends the scope of cybersecurity obligations beyond internal systems and networks, incorporating accountability throughout the supply chain. NIS2 emphasizes that organizations are only as secure as their weakest vendor, service provider, or supplier, as cybercriminals target weak links to reach larger entities.

Vendor assessments

Organizations must assess all third parties supplying products, software, hardware, or components essential for the functioning of network or information systems. Essential and important entities must perform thorough risk assessments of their vendors, evaluating product/service quality and resilience, how vendors maintain their cybersecurity risk management, and including specific clauses in contracts covering incident notification, security standards compliance, and audit report sharing.

IT service providers

IT service providers including Managed Service Providers (MSPs), cloud providers, and SaaS vendors face dual obligations, as an entity themselves and as suppliers to NIS2-compliant organizations. Service providers must provide cybersecurity performance metrics, incident response timelines, service availability guarantees, detailed documentation on data processing and storage locations, proof of data segregation for different clients, and disaster recovery/business continuity plans.

Critical suppliers

Critical suppliers are those whose failure or compromise would significantly affect the organization's ability to deliver essential services. Under NIS2, organizations must identify critical suppliers (including subcontractors further down the supply chain), maintain comprehensive lists, establish security governance frameworks with board-level oversight, and develop contingency plans with alternative suppliers where possible.

NIS2 vs. other EU cybersecurity regulations

Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA)

DORA is a specialized cybersecurity and operational resilience framework for the financial sector that takes precedence over NIS2 in certain overlapping areas. It focuses on digital operational resilience standards for managing ICT-related risks, incident response, and third-party risk management in financial operations. While NIS2 provides a broad cybersecurity governance framework across multiple sectors, DORA provides specific cybersecurity requirements for financial entities such as banks, insurance companies, investment firms, and payment providers.

Critical Entities Resilience Directive (CER)

CER addresses the physical security and operational resilience of critical infrastructure across the EU, applying to critical sectors including energy, transport, health, water, waste management, and public administration. Unlike NIS2, which addresses cybersecurity threats, CER focuses on non-cyber risks including natural disasters, sabotage, terrorism, pandemics, and supply chain disruption. NIS2 and CER complement each other, one protects critical entities from cyber threats, the other ensures resilience against physical and operational disruptions.

Cyber Resilience Act (CRA)

The Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) is a product-focused regulation that ensures cybersecurity standards are built into digital products and IoT devices placed on the EU market. CRA mandates that products must meet "security by design" and "security by default" principles throughout their lifecycle. While NIS2 focuses on organizational cybersecurity and risk governance, CRA targets the security of products that organizations use or produce.

Common challenges in NIS2 compliance

• Complex,multifaceted requirements: NIS2 introduces comprehensive obligations spanning multiple operational and governance layers, from technical controls and incident reporting to board-level accountability and supply chain management. Mapping existing controls from different frameworks (ISO 27001, GDPR, DORA) to NIS2 requires careful analysis and extra resources.
• Skills shortages: According to recent studies, 71% of organizations report a shortage of qualified cybersecurity professionals in threat intelligence, SOC engineering, and compliance auditing. Budget limitations often prevent entities from hiring or retaining skilled experts.
• Vendor sprawl and overlapping tools: Organizations often rely on multiple security tools to fulfill specific regulatory requirements, creating integration, visibility, and management challenges that can undermine compliance efficiency.
• Supply chain visibility: NIS2 strongly emphasizes supply chain and third-party risk management, but visibility across complex, multi-tiered supply chains remains a major challenge due to limited transparency and assessment complexities.
• Endpoint security management: Remote work models, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies, and lack of unified endpoint management systems create complexities in achieving continuous monitoring, detection, and prevention of security incidents.

Best practices for NIS2 compliance

• Conduct a gap assessment: Evaluate current security control maturity, identify where existing policies, processes, and technical controls are weak in the context of NIS2 obligations. Map NIS2 requirements in Article 21 to analyze security gaps and prioritize remediation plans.
• Define and implement a risk management framework: Under NIS2, cybersecurity oversight is a board-level responsibility. Establish clear policies and procedures for identifying, analyzing, treating, and continuously monitoring risk. Regularly update risk registers and mitigation plans based on threat intelligence.
• Train executives and staff: Human error remains one of the top causes of security incidents. Executives must receive training focused on strategic implications of cybersecurity and legal obligations. All employees should be educated on phishing, social engineering, password hygiene, and incident reporting procedures.
• Use encryption, strong access control, and MFA: Encryption for sensitive data both in transit and at rest should be mandatory. User access should follow the principle of least privilege with regular access review campaigns. Multi-factor authentication must be enforced for all privileged and remote accounts.
• Centralize identity security: Deploy Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) tools to automate access management from onboarding to offboarding. Use PAM tools to manage privileged accounts and maintain audit trails of all access and attribute changes.
• Implement real-time monitoring and logging: Invest in SIEM tools for centralized log management and continuous monitoring of abnormal activities. Ensure detailed logging of system access, configuration changes, and privileged activities for security audits.
• Include business continuity and DR plans: Develop and document BCPs and DRPs. Ensure critical data backups are taken regularly, stored securely with proper encryption, and define reasonable RTOs and RPOs.

Roadmap to NIS2 readiness

Step 1: Determine your entity classification. Identify whether your organization falls under "essential" or "important" category, as this defines the scope of requirements. Essential entities work in critical sectors (energy, transport, healthcare, financial services, public administration) with ≥250 employees and €50M+ turnover. Important entities include manufacturers, food producers, waste management, postal services, digital providers with ≥50 employees and €10M+ turnover.

Step 2: Map systems, data, and third-party relationships. Create a detailed inventory of IT systems, data assets, and third-party dependencies. Classify data based on sensitivity and identify storage locations, access controls, and data flows. Catalog all vendors, service providers, and partners with access to information systems.

Step 3: Conduct risk assessments and threat modeling. Evaluate potential internal and external threats by finding vulnerabilities and calculating likelihood and impact of security incidents. Threat modeling helps in mapping attack surfaces for critical systems and implementing defensive controls.

Step 4: Update or create incident response procedures. Establish clear roles, responsibilities, technical measures, and communication protocols to detect and notify significant incidents to relevant national authorities within NIS2's strict reporting timelines.

Step 5: Train management and workforce. Conduct regular training programs on phishing techniques, password hygiene, sensitive data handling, and incident reporting procedures. Run incident response exercises to verify effectiveness.

Step 6: Engage legal, compliance, and IT for continuous monitoring. NIS2 compliance isn't a one-time project, it's a continuous commitment. Conduct periodic compliance reviews, penetration testing, and update security policies and procedures based on findings.

How Netwrix helps achieve NIS2 compliance

Netwrix provides an integrated suite of cybersecurity solutions designed to help organizations meet the technical, operational, and governance requirements of the NIS2 directive. Netwrix products focus on critical areas: data security, identity and access control, incident response and threat prevention, endpoint security management, and privileged access management.

Data Security Posture Management

Netwrix Data Classification and Access Analyzer focus on discovering, classifying, and protecting sensitive and regulated data across hybrid environments. By knowing where sensitive data lives, organizations can define and enforce security policies that minimize exposure risks, identify vulnerabilities, and flag misconfigurations that could lead to data breaches. Netwrix 1Secure automatically identifies sensitive data, generates alerts on activities around it, and prevents exfiltration through continuous monitoring with intuitive dashboards and unified visibility across all attack surfaces.

Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)

Netwrix ITDR is a suite of products that continuously monitors identity infrastructure for suspicious activities, providing real-time detection and response capabilities critical for NIS2 compliance. Netwrix Threat Manager offers real-time threat detection with automated alerts and pre-configured response actions. With Netwrix PingCastle, organizations get a comprehensive view of risks across Active Directory and Entra ID, including visual maps of domain relationships, trust configurations, and attack paths. ITDR solutions generate detailed audit evidence and compliance reports demonstrating proactive identity security monitoring, essential for NIS2 executive accountability.

Identity Management

Netwrix Directory Manager and Netwrix Identity Manager automate access provisioning and deprovisioning, group management, and role-based workflows that reduce human error, enforce consistent access policies, and support access attestation processes. Criteria-based smart groups automate group membership, and synchronization between AD, HR databases, and Entra ID streamlines user provisioning. Multi-factor authentication enforcement on self-service portals adds extra layers of security.

Privileged Access Management

Netwrix Privilege Secure is a comprehensive PAM solution focused on controlling, securing, and monitoring access to critical systems and data, particularly for administrative and service accounts. Privilege Secure eliminates standing privileges, implements just-in-time privilege, credential vaults, and offers real-time session monitoring and recording capabilities. With keystroke analysis, security teams can quickly discover unauthorized activities and terminate privileged sessions, with comprehensive audit trails kept for regulatory compliance.

Endpoint Security

Netwrix Endpoint Protector supports multi-OS comprehensive Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies to protect sensitive data on endpoints. It enforces full-disk encryption and encrypts data on removable devices (USB and external storage) to ensure data protection at rest and in transit. It implements policies to restrict unauthorized device usage, block unapproved USB devices, and prevent and log unauthorized data transfer attempts for incident handling and forensic analysis.

Netwrix Auditor and Access Analyzer

Netwrix Auditor and Access Analyzer capture detailed audit trails on all system activities, user actions, and configuration changes crucial for forensic investigation to determine incident scope, root cause, and affected assets for NIS2 incident reporting timelines. Access Analyzer provides scheduled and on-demand reports serving as audit evidence showing access controls function effectively. Netwrix Auditor produces compliance reports and forensic evidence of who changed what, when, and from where.

Netwrix Recovery for Active Directory

Netwrix Recovery for Active Directory ensures business continuity by providing rapid restoration of Active Directory following a cyberattack, disaster, or misconfiguration. Rapid rollback and forest recovery reduce RTO and RPO for identity services during disaster recovery operations. Simply search for a full history of changes made to an AD object and restore it to a pre-recorded desired state. Track ACL changes and quickly roll back modifications that could give users excessive permissions.

Conclusion: NIS2 as a catalyst for cyber resilience

The NIS2 directive isn't just a compliance requirement, it is a fundamental shift from viewing cybersecurity as a technical checkbox to recognizing it as a core business function. NIS2 adopts a clear and comprehensive framework by identifying which entities are in scope, which security controls must be implemented, and emphasizing that failure to comply can result in heavy fines for critical sectors and society.

NIS2 requires leadership accountability and ensures that executives are directly involved in cybersecurity governance and enterprise risk management. It emphasizes systematic implementation of security measures including supply chain risk management, vulnerability scanning, access control, and MFA. NIS2 enhances operational resilience by integrating cybersecurity with business continuity and disaster recovery planning, which directly translates into reduced downtime, data protection, and service availability during disruptive events.

NIS2 compliance provides strong assurance to customers, partners, and investors that an organization takes cybersecurity seriously, manages risk effectively, and maintains strong governance structures. Successful organizations view NIS2 not as a burden but as a framework for building cyber resilience that supports business goals for digital transformation, customer trust, and operational excellence.

Explore Netwrix solutions to see how you can achieve NIS2 compliance with comprehensive data security, identity management, privileged access control, and automated audit reporting.