As we move into CIS Control 11, Data Recovery, we're shifting from preventing and detecting problems to something every organization eventually has to face: what happens when something goes wrong. Safeguard 11.1 is Establish and Maintain a Data Recovery Process. CIS expects that process to address the scope of recovery activities, recovery priorities, and the security of backup data. The documentation should also be reviewed at least annually or when significant changes occur. That sounds...
CIS IG1 Control 9.1: An Unsupported Application Is One the Vendor Has Stopped Defending
Ensure Use of Only Fully Supported Browsers and Email Clients Your web browser and your email client are the two applications your people use most,...
CIS IG1 Control 8.3: The Log You Need Is Always the One That Already Rolled Off
Ensure Adequate Audit Log Storage Here's a pattern that repeats in incident after incident. The investigation finally pinpoints the moment that...
CIS IG1 Control 8.2: A Log You Can’t Reach Is a Log You Can’t Trust
Collect Audit Logs There's a predictable early move in a lot of intrusions: once an attacker is on a machine, they clear its local logs. If the only...
CIS IG1 Control 8.1: The Question Every Investigation Starts With
Establish and Maintain an Audit Log Management Process Every security investigation starts with the same question: what actually happened? In a lot...
CIS IG1 Control 7.4: Perform Automated Application Patch Management
Updates You're Probably Not Catching Your operating system is probably the best-patched software on your computers. Modern Windows and macOS update...
CIS IG1 Control 7.3: Perform Automated Operating System Patch Management
Why Patching Should Be a System, Not a Habit Almost no one argues against patching. Every leader I talk to already knows that unpatched systems are...
Access Control Management: Access Should Be Granted Intentionally
Access Should Be Granted Intentionally By Tim Marley As we move into CIS Control 6, Access Control Management, we're going to spend the next...
CIS IG1 5.4: How Everyday Admin Access Turned a Phish Into a Crisis
by Heath Gieson CIS IG1 Safeguard 5.4 states that administrator privileges should be restricted to dedicated administrator accounts, and that...
CIS IG1 5.3 Dormant Accounts Are a Process Failure
by Heath Gieson Years ago, I worked with a client to implement multi‑factor authentication across their organization. As part of the project,...
