The Center for Internet Security (CIS) is a US-based community-driven, non-profit organization. It was established in October 2000 to help people, businesses, and governments protect themselves against cyber threats.
CIS compliance refers to adherence to guidelines and recommendations of the Center for Internet Security (CIS). It is widely recognized and adopted by organizations as a valuable framework for improving cybersecurity.
How does CIS compliance help prevent cyber threats?
The CIS develops and maintains globally recognized best practices for securing IT systems and data through its CIS Controls and CIS Benchmarks. Developed by the CIS community of cybersecurity experts, these best practices and benchmarks are continuously updated to address emerging threats and vulnerabilities. In this way, CIS compliance helps companies minimize their risk from cyber-attack vectors and maximize their data protection with the latest cybersecurity guidelines.
CIS Controls are general guidelines for securing entire systems and networks that map to most of the major standards and regulatory frameworks, including the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) and NIST SP 800-53, the ISO 27000 series of standards, PCI DSS, HIPAA, and others.
The CIS Benchmarks are specific recommendations for baseline secure system configurations to elevate security defenses for more than 25 vendor product families. These include leading SaaS applications such as Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Snowflake, MongoDB, and Zoom.
What role does CIS Compliance play in SaaS security?
In the SaaS environment, where data is hosted externally in cloud-based platforms, following CIS controls and benchmarks can play a significant role in enhancing enterprise SaaS security for enterprises. Here are some of the ways CIS compliance benefits enterprise SaaS security:
Risk Mitigation: Compliance with CIS standards helps organizations identify and mitigate security risks associated with SaaS applications. By following CIS guidelines, companies can address vulnerabilities and weaknesses in SaaS platforms and implement necessary controls to protect their data.
Enhanced Data Protection: SaaS environments today handle the bulk of corporate data, including sensitive information. CIS compliance helps in strengthening data protection measures by outlining specific security configurations and controls that need to be in place and harden security measures in SaaS environments.
Regulatory Compliance: Many industries have specific regulatory requirements for data security. Following CIS compliance can aid enterprises in meeting these regulatory standards with regards to data stored in SaaS applications, ensuring that companies remain compliant with industry regulations and laws.
Improved SaaS Security Posture: CIS benchmarks are regularly updated to address emerging threats and vulnerabilities. By adhering to CIS compliance, enterprises can stay abreast of the latest security practices and new threats on the SaaS attack surface. Following those guidelines will harden security settings and improve their SaaS security posture.
What actions does the CIS recommend to secure the SaaS security ecosystem?
The CIS Controls are a recommended series of actions for organizations to protect their data from cyber-attack vectors. The latest version (v8) covers actions necessary for maintaining a strong SaaS security posture, including in the following areas:
Inventory and Control of Enterprise Assets: The CIS recommends enterprises actively manage and track all enterprise assets through an inventory including end-user devices. In the SaaS environment, this requires identifying devices used to access SaaS applications that need to be managed for their device hygiene. When users access SaaS applications with high-risk devices, an enterprise SaaS environment can be compromised.
Inventory and control of software assets: Actively manage through an inventory and tracking of software. This should include all SaaS applications used in the enterprise, as well as all SaaS-to-SaaS third-party apps that have been connected by employees.
Data Protection: Develop processes and technical controls to identify, classify, securely handle, retain, and dispose of data. A Data Inventory as part of SaaS security posture management helps prevent data leakage, identifying all publicly shared data from SaaS apps such as Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive and more, and can determine which data assets need to be further protected.
Access Control Management: Use processes and tools to assign and manage authorization to credentials for user accounts, including administrator accounts and service accounts, to enterprise assets and software. Every user identity is a potential entrance into a SaaS application. To maintain a strong Identity Security Posture in a SaaS environment, security teams should have full visibility into identity-based access to apps. To ensure that users have only the level of permissions needed and to keep unauthorized users or threat actors out.
Achieving CIS Compliance using an SSPM
With the frequency of SaaS attacks growing and SaaS incidents continuously exposing organizations to data leaks, breaches, and other potential disruptions in business operations, SaaS security is a top priority in organizations. Complying with CIS guidelines and recommendations can help play a crucial role in boosting SaaS security.
A SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) solution can assist organizations in achieving CIS compliance. A robust SSPM can automate the monitoring of the entire SaaS stack, providing visibility into configurations, user accounts, devices, and company data resources, and detect and monitor third-party applications.
An SSPM can continuously assess security risks and manage SaaS applications’ security posture through security controls such as automated security checks to ensure configurations and access control permissions are correct and up to date. These efforts can detect and prevent the next SaaS security incident.
How do SSPMs use CIS Compliance?
CIS compliance standards are widely used to align application configurations with industry and regulatory benchmarks. Within Adaptive Shield’s platform, users can ensure their configurations for applications like Zoom, GitHub, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Snowflake, and more are aligned with CIS recommendations.