How can you align your cloud security program with the CIS Controls?

The first step is to understand the applicability of the CIS controls to cloud environments. In fact, not all CIS controls apply to cloud implementations, and those applicable controls vary based on the cloud implementation: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, FaaS, private cloud, public cloud, and hybrid cloud. The recommendation is to start with the "CIS Controls Cloud Companion Guide" by CIS as a reference to controls applicability and considerations for implementing them on the cloud.

Aligning your cloud security program with the CIS Controls involves several key steps. First, thoroughly assess your current cloud environment to identify vulnerabilities and areas for improvement. Next, implement the CIS Controls framework, ensuring that each control is appropriately tailored to your cloud infrastructure. Regularly monitor and update your security measures to stay ahead of emerging threats. Additionally, prioritize training and awareness programs to empower your team in maintaining a robust security posture aligned with CIS best practices. By integrating these strategies, you can effectively safeguard your cloud assets while adhering to industry-standard security protocols.

CIS controls are divided into different parts. Prepare inventory of all assets. Then begin with proper classification, labelling and tagging your asset and do not forget network segmentation. Identify crown jewel application. Avoid any shadow IT practice. Use proper change management for deployment of any resource in a cloud environment. And use automation tools such as terraform for deployment. Now convert CIS control in policies and implement these policies in the cloud environment in Block mode. Resource creation permission must be restricted to specific groups. .

Assessment: Identify cloud risks and understand data, threats, and vulnerabilities. Mapping Controls. IAM Implementation: Data Protection. Patch Management. Logging and Monitoring. Incident Response. Continuous Monitoring. Training and Awareness. Compliance Auditing. Community Engagement. This ensures a robust security posture in the cloud environment. Regularly reassess and adapt to emerging threats and technologies.

Para alinhar a seguran?a na nuvem aos Controles CIS, avalie seu estado atual de seguran?a, identifique lacunas, e priorize a implementa??o de controles críticos. Implemente ferramentas para automatizar controles, monitore eficácia, promova treinamento de seguran?a, e mantenha a melhoria contínua e documenta??o adequada.

Establish and implement comprehensive cloud security policies aligned with the CIS Controls. These policies should address data classification, encryption standards, access controls, and compliance requirements specific to your cloud environment. Clearly communicate these policies to all stakeholders and enforce them consistently. Aligning with CIS Controls ensures that your cloud security policies cover key areas such as incident response, vulnerability management, and secure configuration. Regularly review and update policies to adapt to evolving threats and changes in your cloud landscape.

Policies never work perfectly without safeguards. Materializing cloud security policies to managed configuration and alerts.

CIS Benchmarks aren't meant to be consumed as 'one size fits all'. You should read through the applicable frameworks for your environment, taking into account your unique risk appetite and operational risk register.

To secure your cloud, first assess the threats and figure out what need protection. Choose a cloud provider that offers strong security features. Design policies for data encryption, access controls, and incident response. Use identity management and multi-factor authentication to restrict access. Encrypt data both at rest as well as in transit. Ensure that apps have been developed securely and tested on a regular basis. Using automated technologies, you may monitor for risks and educate your employees on security standard practices. To stay ahead of potential attacks, conduct regular audits and updates to your security measures.

I appreciate the points that has already been made in regards to this subject.Its important to realise that CIS is a franework that should be adapted and tuned to align with an organisations risk apetite. Fortunately, most cloud providers offers a way to curate and modify policies and initiatives to mach each organisations unique risk and security policies.

Alinee los controles y utilice las herramientas propias de la nube pública para monitorear no sólo los activos, las configuraciones, las vulnerabilidades, las amenazas sino también monitoree y analice la eficacia de los controles implementados.

1. Implementar ferramentas: Utilize ferramentas de monitoramento e auditoria para detectar atividades anormais e garantir conformidade com os CIS Controls. 2. Coletar logs: Registre eventos de seguran?a em logs centralizados para análise e investiga??o. 3. Revisar e analisar: Analise logs regularmente para identificar anomalias e potenciais viola??es. 4. Testar e ajustar: Realize testes de penetra??o e simula??es de ataque para avaliar a efetividade das medidas de seguran?a. 5. Aprimorar continuamente: Revise e atualize seu programa de monitoramento e auditoria com base em novas amea?as e melhores práticas. Recursos: CIS Controls Cloud Companion Guide

Monitoring and auditing your cloud environment is key to aligning with CIS Controls. Collect and analyze data from cloud assets, including logs, events, alerts, metrics, and reports. Regular audits and assessments are essential to ensure your cloud security policies and controls are effective and compliant. Utilize tools like cloud logging, monitoring, alerting, auditing, and compliance solutions to automate and enhance this process. This step provides ongoing visibility into cloud operations, enabling timely detection of security issues and ensuring adherence to established security standards.

Continuous monitoring and auditing are critical components of a robust cloud security strategy. As cloud environments become more complex, the importance of leveraging automated tools to manage this complexity cannot be overstated. These tools not only facilitate real-time visibility into the security posture but also enable rapid response to potential threats. Regular audits validate the effectiveness of the security controls in place, ensuring that they not only meet current compliance standards but are also capable of adapting to evolving threats and regulatory requirements.

Continuous monitoring and auditing of your cloud environment are critical for identifying and mitigating security risks. Utilize cloud-native monitoring tools and implement robust logging practices. Regularly review audit logs to detect unusual activities, unauthorized access, or potential security incidents. Automate alerts to promptly respond to suspicious events. This aligns with CIS Controls emphasizing the importance of continuous monitoring, logging, and alerting to enhance the overall security posture of your cloud infrastructure.

Effectively manage cloud identities and access controls to align with CIS Controls. Implement the principle of least privilege, ensuring that users and services have only the necessary permissions required for their roles. Utilize Identity and Access Management (IAM) features provided by cloud service providers to enforce strong authentication mechanisms, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and regular access reviews. Regularly audit user permissions to detect and rectify any over-permissioned accounts. Aligning IAM practices with CIS Controls enhances overall cloud security.

Managing cloud identities and access is crucial for aligning with CIS Controls. This involves controlling access to cloud assets and defining user permissions. Ensure cloud identities and access controls are secure, consistent, and traceable. Employ tools like cloud identity and access management (IAM), single sign-on (SSO), multi-factor authentication (MFA), role-based access control (RBAC), and privilege management solutions. These measures help in preventing unauthorized access and maintaining a secure cloud environment, pivotal for safeguarding sensitive data and systems against cyber threats.

A quarta etapa é o controle de acesso e identidade na nuvem, essencial para determinar quem tem as chaves do reino digital e o que podem fazer com elas. é fundamental garantir que o acesso seja seguro, padronizado e rastreável. Ferramentas de gerenciamento de acesso e identidade, logon único, autentica??o multifator e controle de acesso baseado em fun??es s?o os guardi?es dessa fortaleza, permitindo que você gerencie com precis?o quem entra e quem fica de fora no universo da nuvem.

This calls for training and awareness.Train and educate your staff about the importance of adhering to CIS controls and their role in maintaining cloud security.

Managing cloud identities and access involves various tasks to ensure secure and efficient management of user identities and their access to cloud resources. Here are some key steps to manage cloud identities and access effectively: Identity Provisioning Single Sign-On (SSO) Identity Federation Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) Privileged Access Management (PAM) Identity Governance Continuous Monitoring and Alerting Regular Audits and Reviews User Education and Awareness

Encryption is often considered as one of the key controls in cloud services when mitigating risks that arises when organisation is moving from onprem systems to cloud. There are some limitations at this area one should be aware of: - Many times companies tell they have encrypted all data but encryption is added just for compliance reasons and do not give any real security addition. - It is not an easy or cheap thing to apply encryption to the cloud services. Especially when data is in use. - Key management should be primary focus area when designing successful encryption policy in cloud.

Data classification will help your organisation to define data driven use cases: -Data access across your environment through IAM best practices . -Tagging with sensitivity label leveraging security configuration in accordance with your internal data classification policies. -encryption based on scope with key management control and custom permissions related to Persona consuming the data. -Adaptative data loss prevention solution mixing perimeter controls and behaviour analytics based on role and users activities. -For data compliance and high resilience, retention, deletion policy and encrypted backup.

Protecting your cloud data is essential for aligning with CIS Controls. It involves securing data against unauthorized access, modification, deletion, or leakage while ensuring it remains available, recoverable, and resilient. Implement tools like cloud encryption for data security, cloud key management to safeguard encryption keys, cloud backup for data redundancy, cloud disaster recovery to maintain business continuity, and cloud data loss prevention to prevent sensitive data exposure. These measures collectively enhance the protection of your cloud data, ensuring it is safeguarded across all cloud services and platforms.

Consider encryption-in-use for 3 practical reasons: 1. Reduce the frequency of decryption in the back end (good for performance, security, and privacy) since data can be processed in it's encrypted form. 2. Maintain confidentiality and comply with most data privacy compliance, not just sensitive columns in the database, but also the payload in the log file and system traces. 3. You'll have the option to keep the encryption key somewhere (even on premise). And also, immutable backup in other cloud service provider is also good thing to be considered, to preserve data integrity against insider threat and/or cyber attack.

Aligning with the CIS Controls involves implementing robust measures to protect your cloud data. Utilize encryption for data at rest, in transit, and during processing. Leverage cloud-native encryption services and key management solutions. Classify data based on sensitivity and apply appropriate access controls. Regularly back up critical data and establish data loss prevention (DLP) policies. Implementing these measures safeguards your cloud data, ensuring its integrity and confidentiality, and aligns with CIS Controls focused on data protection.

Aunque el artículo es interesante, no dispone de algunas cuestiones fundamentales a la hora de implementar controles CIS. Por ejemplo, no contempla la categorización fundamental ni la subdivisión. Para la primera habría que determinar los controles básicos, fundamentales y organizativos que se han de aplicar en cada contexto del Cloud. Para la segunda sería interesante identificar, de manera somera, la subdivisión de controles como el control de activos de SW, uso de privilegios, monitorización, etc.

Responding to cloud incidents is vital for aligning with CIS Controls. Develop a comprehensive plan for detecting, containing, analyzing, resolving, and learning from cloud security incidents. Establish a dedicated team equipped with the right tools for effective incident response. Utilize cloud-specific tools for incident detection, response, forensics, and threat intelligence. This proactive approach ensures you're prepared to swiftly address security incidents, minimizing potential damage and enhancing your cloud environment's resilience against future threats.

Prepare and implement an effective incident response plan specific to your cloud environment. Align incident response practices with CIS Controls by defining roles and responsibilities, establishing communication channels, and outlining incident detection and response procedures. Regularly test and update the incident response plan to address emerging threats. Ensure that your team is well-trained to respond promptly and effectively to security incidents in the cloud. This proactive approach helps minimize the impact of incidents and aligns with CIS Controls emphasizing the importance of incident response in the cloud security program.

Having a well-defined incident response plan is just as important as preventative measures in cloud security. A robust response mechanism ensures that when an incident occurs, the impact on the organization’s operations is minimized. This mechanism should be regularly tested and updated to adapt to new types of threats and changes in the cloud environment. The integration of tools for incident detection, response, and forensics is crucial to quickly identify and mitigate breaches, as well as to understand their root causes. Additionally, a dedicated response team with clear roles and responsibilities is essential to manage the situation effectively.

O último passo crucial para ajustar nosso programa de seguran?a na nuvem aos Controles CIS é colocar em prática um plano de resposta a incidentes na nuvem eficaz. Isso significa ter uma abordagem clara para detectar, conter, analisar, resolver e aprender com eventos de seguran?a. Além disso, é essencial contar com uma equipe dedicada e ferramentas adequadas, como detec??o de incidentes e resposta a incidentes na nuvem, para garantir uma resposta rápida e eficiente. Essa estratégia visa assegurar a seguran?a contínua do nosso espa?o digital, agindo de maneira ágil diante de possíveis contratempos.

One interesting thing about CIS controls is once the proper categorization of the enterprise is done, then aligning the controls and sub-controls to the cloud security program is less challenging. Also to buttress these different 18 controls, it is well nested with NIST CSF, where we can also plugin its categories and sub-categories from other standards.

By aligning your cloud security program with the CIS Controls, you can establish a robust and proactive approach to securing your cloud environment, mitigating risks, and ensuring compliance with industry-recognized standards. One must stay abreast of any updates or revisions to the CIS Controls framework. As cloud technologies and threats evolve, the CIS Controls are periodically updated to reflect emerging best practices. Incorporate these updates into your cloud security program to maintain alignment with the latest industry standards.

1) Familiarize yourself with the CIS Controls framework. 2) Assess your current cloud security measures. 3) Identify discrepancies between your practices and CIS Controls. 4) Implement CIS Controls based on risk prioritization. 5) Continuously monitor and update your cloud security program. 6) Adapt and improve security measures in response to emerging threats and technologies.

Aligning cloud security with CIS Controls requires continuous adaptation and learning. Stay updated on trends via cybersecurity communities. Emphasize team training to mitigate human error. Explore AI and machine learning for better threat detection. Cloud security is an ongoing process of improvement. Share experiences to enhance collective cybersecurity knowledge, promoting a culture of resilience.

I have a slightly different strategy towards alignment of CIS controls:- 1. Get familiar with the CIS Controls framework, prioritizing basic cyber hygiene. 2. Evaluate cloud security posture to identify strengths, weaknesses, and gaps. 3. Determine how each CIS Control applies to cloud setup, considering IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. 4. Develop policies, procedures, and technical measures to address each CIS Control in cloud environment. 5. Continuously oversee cloud security controls, update them as needed. 6. Develop and test an incident response plan specific to cloud environment. 7. Provide training to employees and stakeholders. 8. Engage external auditors or experts to assess cloud security program against CIS Controls.