CIS Benchmark for CIS Amazon Web Services Foundations Benchmark: What It Is And How to Use It

‍Read the article and you will know what the CIS AWS Foundations benchmark is, why it is important for your organization, and how to use it. You will also learn about the objectives, scope, and structure of the CIS AWS Foundations benchmark.

CIS Benchmark for CIS Amazon Web Services Foundations Benchmark: What It Is And How to Use It
videoDuration
Do not index
Do not index
Thumbnail
1U9KzgVPYpujhys1R462naQ-2.webp
Category
Security Benchmarks
video
Read the article and you will know what the CIS AWS Foundations benchmark is, why it is important for your organization, and how to use it. You will also learn about the objectives, scope, and structure of the CIS AWS Foundations benchmark.

What is the CIS AWS Foundations Benchmark?

The CIS AWS Foundations benchmark is a best practice framework for securing Amazon Web Services (AWS) environments. It is a way for organizations to measure their current AWS security posture against a list of best practices. The AWS Foundations benchmark is published by the Center for Internet Security (CIS), a not-for-profit organization that promotes the use of cybersecurity best practices across the entire industry. AWS is a widely used public cloud service. The AWS Foundations benchmark can be used to assess the security of any environment that contains AWS components. This can include AWS-based development and test environments, as well as production environments that contain AWS resources such as virtual machines, databases, application servers, etc.

Why is the CIS AWS Benchmark Important to Your Organization?

IT professionals can use the AWS Foundations benchmark to assess the security of their AWS environments. The AWS Foundations benchmark is a set of best practices for securing AWS environments. The AWS Foundations benchmark will help you identify security gaps and issues in your AWS environment. Once you have identified these gaps, you can take steps to fix them. The AWS Foundations benchmark is an excellent first step when conducting a security review of an AWS environment. The benchmark contains a list of common security issues that might be present in any AWS environment. If any of these issues are found, the CIS benchmark tells you how to fix them. The AWS Foundations benchmark can also be used to compare the security of different environments.

How to Use the CIS AWS Benchmark in Security Reviews

The AWS Foundations benchmark is a good place to start when conducting a security review of an AWS environment. The benchmark can be used to identify common security issues in an AWS environment. If any of these issues are found, the CIS benchmark tells you how to fix them. The AWS Foundations benchmark can also be used to compare the security of different environments. Let’s walk through an example security review based on the AWS Foundations benchmark. The first thing you should do is download a copy of the benchmark. You can find the latest version of the AWS Foundations benchmark on the CIS website. Next, you should review the scope and structure of the benchmark to understand what is included. The scope section of the benchmark explains which AWS components are included, and the structure section explains how the benchmark is organized.

Structure of the CIS AWS Foundations Benchmark

The AWS Foundations benchmark is organized into three sections:
  • Security Assessment, This section of the AWS Foundations benchmark explains how to carry out a security review of an AWS environment
  • Security Recommendations, This section of the AWS Foundations benchmark lists common security issues, and their corresponding mitigations.
  • The Glossary section defines key terms used throughout the AWS Foundations benchmark.
Since the AWS Foundations benchmark includes a separate security recommendation section, you can use it to compare the security of different environments. Let’s say you have two AWS environments, each with its own security team. You can use the AWS Foundations benchmark to compare the security of these two environments. First, you would use the benchmark to assess the security of each environment. Then, you would compare the results to see which environment is better-secured.

Objectives of the CIS AWS Foundations Benchmark

The objectives of the CIS AWS Foundations benchmark are to
  • Raise awareness of AWS security best practices and guidelines.
  • Provide a common language and a consistent framework for describing best practices.
  • Provide a common metric for comparing the security of various AWS environments.
  • Provide guidance for improving the security of an AWS environment.
  • Provide guidance on how to effectively use AWS security tools.
  • Provide guidance on how to effectively use AWS security services.
  • Provide guidance on how to effectively use AWS identity and access management (IAM) services.
  • Provide guidance on how to effectively use AWS security tools.
  • Provide guidance on how to effectively use AWS security services.
  • Provide guidance on how to effectively use AWS IAM services.
  • Provide guidance on how to effectively use AWS security tools.
  • Provide guidance on how to effectively use AWS security services.

Conclusion

The CIS AWS Foundations benchmark is a good place to start when conducting a security review of an AWS environment. The AWS Foundations benchmark can be used to identify common security issues in an AWS environment. If any of these issues are found, the benchmark tells you how to fix them. The AWS Foundations benchmark can also be used to compare the security of different environments. The objectives of the CIS AWS Foundations benchmark are to raise awareness of AWS security best practices and guidelines; provide a common language and a consistent framework for describing best practices; provide a common metric for comparing the security of various AWS environments; provide guidance for improving the security of an AWS environment; provide guidance on how to effectively use AWS security tools; provide guidance on how to effectively use AWS security services; provide guidance on how to effectively use AWS IAM services; provide guidance on how to effectively use AWS security tools; provide guidance on how to effectively use AWS security services; provide guidance on how to effectively use AWS IAM services; and provide guidance on how to effectively use AWS security tools.

Ready to secure your business?

Join other 2000+ Subscribers now!

Subscribe

Written by

Mohan Gandhi Ponnaganti
Mohan Gandhi Ponnaganti

Co-founder and CEO, Ofofo.io