1. Overview of EBIOS Risk Manager
EBIOS (Expression of Needs and Identification of Security Objectives) is a French cyber risk analysis and management methodology developed by ANSSI (the French National Cybersecurity Agency).
It is based on a business-oriented, strategic, and scenario-driven approach. The main objective of EBIOS is to help organizations understand their cyber risks in relation to their business stakes, in order to make appropriate, realistic, and well-justified security decisions.
Fundamental principle:
EBIOS starts from business needs, not from technology.
The first objective is to answer the question:
Only then are threats, attack scenarios, and necessary protection measures identified.
Overall operation:
The EBIOS Risk Manager method is structured around five successive workshops:
– Scoping and security baseline
Definition of scope, critical assets, dependencies, and existing measures.
– Risk sources and strategic scenarios
Identification of threat actors, their objectives, and high-level attack scenarios.
– Operational scenarios
Detailed description of concrete attack paths that could lead to impact.
– Risk treatment
Definition of technical, organizational, and human security measures.
– Governance and continuous improvement
Ongoing risk monitoring and strategic adaptation.
General philosophy
EBIOS adopts a strategic and decision-oriented vision of cybersecurity.
It enables organizations to:
– Align security with business objectives
– Use a language understandable by top management
– Prioritize security investments
– Structure clear cyber governance
It is particularly well suited to the European context, especially with NIS2, DORA, GDPR, and ISO 27001.
2. Overview of NIST RMF 2.0
The NIST RMF (Risk Management Framework) is an American methodology developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The current version (2.0) is mainly defined in NIST SP 800-37 Revision 2, along with NIST SP 800-30 for risk assessment.
Unlike EBIOS, NIST adopts a technical, standards-based, and compliance-driven approach.
Fundamental principle
NIST RMF primarily answers the question:
The approach therefore consists of classifying systems and then applying a set of standard security controls.
Overall operation
The RMF framework is organized around seven steps:
– Organizational preparation
– System categorization
– Selection of security controls
– Implementation of controls
– Assessment of control effectiveness
– Authorization to operate
– Continuous monitoring
General philosophy
NIST RMF follows a logic of security engineering and regulatory compliance.
It is particularly well suited to environments that are:
– Governmental
– Military
– Complex industrial
– Highly regulated
– Highly technical (cloud, critical infrastructures, data centers, OT)
It provides an extremely precise framework for deploying, verifying, and auditing security measures.
3. Reasoned Comparison
Conceptual approach
EBIOS adopts a business-oriented and strategic logic, whereas NIST relies on a technical and normative logic.
EBIOS primarily seeks to understand business stakes and impacts, then build a coherent protection strategy.
NIST seeks to ensure compliance with a security framework by applying a structured set of controls.
Risk perspective
EBIOS views risk as a credible threat scenario directly affecting business operations.
Risk is therefore contextualized, concrete, and decision-oriented.
NIST considers risk as a combination of likelihood and impact, evaluated through the presence or absence of security controls.
Risk is therefore quantified, standardized, and auditable.
Readability for decision-makers
EBIOS is particularly effective for communication with top management.
Attack scenarios, business impacts, and budget trade-offs are clearly understandable.
NIST is more difficult for non-technical audiences to grasp, as it relies on highly technical frameworks.
Flexibility and adaptability
NIST is more rigid, as it is strongly structured around standard controls, which can sometimes make governance heavier.
4. Strategic Conclusion
In the current European context, EBIOS is often more relevant as the primary method for cyber risk governance.
However, NIST remains extremely valuable as a technical framework for implementing security measures.
Optimal approach in large organizations
– EBIOS to understand, decide, and govern
– NIST to implement, control, and audit
This combination makes it possible to benefit from:
– A clear strategic vision
– Robust technical execution