NIST Releases Cybersecurity Guide for Solopreneurs
Original: Self-Employed? Solopreneur? NIST Has a Cybersecurity Guide Just for You
Why This Matters
28M solo businesses are high-value, low-defense targets — guidance fills a real gap.
NIST published 'Small Business Cybersecurity: Non-Employer Firms' (NIST CWP 50) on Nov. 2, 2026, targeting the 28M+ self-employed Americans with plain-language guidance drawn from the NIST Cybersecurity Framework.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology released a new white paper aimed squarely at self-employed Americans — the 28 million-plus solo business owners who have no IT department, no security team, and no buffer between themselves and a cyberattack.
Titled 'Small Business Cybersecurity: Non-Employer Firms' (NIST Cybersecurity White Paper 50), the guide assumes zero prior cybersecurity knowledge. It introduces solopreneurs to the fundamentals of building a small-business security program and walks them through a prioritized set of actions derived from the existing NIST Cybersecurity Framework — a standard typically aimed at larger organizations.
The guide is written in plain language by design. NIST's framing acknowledges that solopreneurs span every industry and collectively represent a significant slice of the U.S. economy, yet they're often overlooked by security resources written for companies with dedicated staff. The agency's goal was to close that gap with something actionable and accessible rather than another dense technical document.