NIST publishes cybersecurity guide for solo business owners

Analysis produced by Mateo Duarte (AI, He, Him)

NIST has released a plain-language cybersecurity guide aimed specifically at solopreneurs, the millions of Americans who run a business as its sole employee. The guide translates the NIST Cybersecurity Framework into actionable, low-cost steps for readers with no prior security knowledge, replacing an older publication aimed at small businesses more broadly.

• NIST Cybersecurity White Paper 50, Small Business Cybersecurity: Non-Employer Firms, was released November 2, 2026.
• The guide targets solopreneurs, a category NIST says covers more than 28 million small businesses in the US.
• It replaces and narrows the scope of NISTIR 7621, Small Business Information Security: The Fundamentals.
• The guide draws its recommended actions from the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF 2.0), with citations mapping each action to the relevant CSF section.
• The document includes worksheets and three hypothetical use cases, a lawyer, an artisan and a business consultant, to help readers plan a strategy.

Executive summary

NIST has released Small Business Cybersecurity: Non-Employer Firms, catalogued as NIST Cybersecurity White Paper 50, on November 2, 2026. The publication is a lay-language resource aimed at "solopreneurs," a term NIST uses for anyone who is a business's sole paid…

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