CIS Framework: Critical Security Controls for Stronger Cyber Defense

Organizations are under pressure to defend against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats while also complying with an ever-expanding list of regulatory and cyber insurance requirements. For many teams, the challenge isn’t understanding why an enhanced security posture is important; it’s knowing where to start.  

The CIS framework closes the gap between priority and practice, providing actionable and prioritized guidance for enhancing cybersecurity capabilities and addressing the most common threats. Unlike models that leave interpretation up to the individual organization, the CIS framework’s controls provide prescriptive steps for implementation. Take a deep dive into the CIS cybersecurity framework, learn how the controls build cyber resilience, and find out how Zero Networks unlocks compliance.  

What Is the CIS Cybersecurity Framework?  

The Center for Internet Security (CIS) Cybersecurity Framework provides a set of 18 critical security controls designed to defend against the most common cyberattacks. It was originally developed by an international consortium of experts, including government, academic, and industry leaders, to create a common baseline for cybersecurity. 

It’s important to distinguish between two key CIS offerings: 

• CIS Controls: A set of prescriptive best practices that address identity, data, devices, and infrastructure. 
• CIS Benchmarks: Configuration guidelines for securing specific technologies, such as operating systems, cloud platforms, or applications. 

Through its community consensus process, CIS involves a global panel of IT and security professionals to support the development of controls. After CIS subject matter experts initially draft a control, it’s shared with the global community for review. The final version of the control is published only after all feedback is addressed and consensus is reached, ensuring all guidance reflects the perspectives of real-world practitioners. 

CIS vs NIST: How Do They Compare?  

The CIS Framework doesn’t exist in isolation. It was designed to map to and complement other frameworks and regulatory requirements. 

Most commonly, CIS controls are compared to the NIST cybersecurity framework (CSF). While the NIST CSF is broad and risk-based, CIS is prescriptive and tactical. Many organizations use CIS Controls to operationalize NIST’s categories, as there’s significant overlap between the models. For example, alignment between NIST functions and CIS controls includes:  

• NIST Identify → CIS Controls 1-2 (asset inventory) 
• NIST Protect → CIS Controls 3-7 (data, accounts, access) 
• NIST Detect → CIS Controls 8, 13 (logging, monitoring) 
• NIST Respond → CIS Control 17 (incident response) 
• NIST Recover → CIS Control 11 (data recovery) 

Beyond the NIST CSF, CIS controls map to a number of other regulatory requirements and industry standards. 

CIS Controls: A Best Practices Breakdown 

The CIS critical security controls lie at the heart of its framework. Within 18 critical control categories, there are over 150 suggested safeguards (previously called sub-controls). To aid adoption, safeguards are structured into three tiers of phased implementation groups (IG1, IG2, and IG3), which allow organizations to scale adoption based on size, complexity, and risk profile:  

• IG1: These 56 foundational safeguards are considered basic cyber hygiene; they’re practices every enterprise should adopt to prevent common cyberattacks.  
• IG2: This phase includes 74 additional safeguards intended to help security teams manage operational complexity.  
• IG3: Finally, IG3 encompasses the remaining 23 safeguards outlined in the CIS framework – these are meant to address sophisticated tactics and minimize the impact of zero-day attacks. 

The 18 CIS Critical Security Controls Explained 

The best practices outlined in CIS’ critical security controls framework provide a roadmap for defending against modern cyber threats.  

CIS Control 1: Inventory and Control of Enterprise Assets 

As network sprawl proliferates, this best practice includes safeguards for actively managing all assets connected to an organization’s infrastructure. CIS recommends continuous asset discovery and automated controls to address shadow IT and unmanaged devices, which frequently create blind spots that attackers exploit. 

CIS Control 2: Inventory and Control of Software Assets  

Unapproved or outdated software presents a common attack vector. This control requires organizations to manage all software – from operating systems to applications – so that only authorized software is installed.  

CIS Control 3: Data Protection 

Protecting sensitive data is a core objective for many cybersecurity regulations; this CIS control guides organizations to develop processes and technical controls to safely identify, classify, handle, and retain important data.  

CIS Control 4: Secure Configuration of Enterprise Assets and Software  

Default system settings are rarely secure enough to prevent sophisticated attacks. CIS control 4 calls for hardened configurations across operating systems, applications, network devices, and other assets.  

CIS Control 5: Account Management 

Identity-based attacks are on the rise, but many teams struggle to secure the identity boundary. To mitigate these gaps, CIS advises that organizations assign and manage authorization to assets and software for user accounts, spanning admin accounts and service accounts.  

CIS Control 6: Access Control Management 

All too often, privileged accounts create hidden network security vulnerabilities, giving attackers an all-access pass to move laterally across the network. This control tackles excessive privileges head-on, suggesting that organizations create, assign, manage, and revoke unneeded access and privileges for user, admin, and service accounts.  

CIS Control 7: Continuous Vulnerability Management  

This control requires continuous scanning, assessment, and remediation of vulnerabilities, ensuring attackers’ window of opportunity is as narrow as possible.  

CIS Control 8: Audit Log Management  

Effective logging ensures accountability and forensic readiness. This control emphasizes centralized logging, retention policies, and regular reviews to detect suspicious activity, support incident response, and streamline compliance audits and regulatory reporting. 

CIS Control 9: Email and Web Browser Protection  

To address phishing attacks and other prevalent vectors, this control mandates filtering, sandboxing, and browser security configurations to better protect against email and web threats.  

CIS Control 10: Malware Defenses 

Ransomware ranks as a top concern for most security leaders; this control aims to prevent or control the installation, spread, and execution of malware on enterprise assets with safeguards like endpoint protection and behavioral detection.  

CIS Control 11: Data Recovery  

To achieve cyber resilience, organizations need a strategy to bounce back when a security breach occurs – not if. CIS advises security teams to maintain data recovery practices capable of returning key assets to a pre-incident state.  

CIS Control 12: Network Infrastructure Management  

Network devices must be securely configured, regularly updated, and monitored – otherwise, attackers can exploit vulnerable services and access points. This control emphasizes building a secure network architecture and minimizing the attack surface.  

CIS Control 13: Network Monitoring and Defense 

This control establishes comprehensive network monitoring to support the detection of anomalies, intrusions, or unauthorized lateral movement. The hope is that, by proactively watching for abnormal behavior, organizations can stop breaches before they spread. 

CIS Control 14: Security Awareness and Skills Training 

Technology alone cannot defend against every cyber threat. This control requires organizations to implement regular training programs that drive security awareness across the workforce.  

CIS Control 15: Service Provider Management 

Third-party vulnerabilities and supply chain attacks represent a growing risk for many organizations. Organizations must evaluate service providers to ensure they’re protecting internal platforms and data appropriately.  

CIS Control 16: Application Software Security  

Applications must be developed, tested, and maintained with security in mind. This control calls for secure coding practices, vulnerability scanning, and remediation of flaws during development to ensure exploitable weaknesses never negatively impact the organization as a whole.  

CIS Control 17: Incident Response Management 

Effective incident response reduces downtime, limits the blast radius of a breach, and ensures compliance with regulatory and insurance requirements. To help every organization build an actionable incident response plan, CIS advises that roles, responsibilities, and escalation procedures be documented and tested. 

CIS Control 18: Penetration Testing  

This final control tests the effectiveness and resiliency of an organization’s security posture, identifying and exploiting weaknesses in controls and simulating attacks. 

How Zero Networks Supports Key CIS Controls  

With automated, identity-aware microsegmentation and layered identity access controls, Zero Networks helps organizations align with key elements of the CIS framework.  

Comprehensive Visibility and Control of Assets  

Zero Networks facilitates, validates, or fully delivers most of the safeguards specified in CIS controls 1 and 2, including:  

• 1.1 - Establish and maintain a detailed enterprise asset inventory 
• 1.2 - Address unauthorized assets 
• 1.3 - Utilize an active discovery tool 
• 1.4 - Use a passive asset discovery tool  
• 2.1 - Establish and maintain a software inventory 

Zero automates discovery, pinpointing every network asset and identity in a click to streamline the path to granular security.  

Protect Assets and Identities by Design  

CIS controls 4-6 target inherent vulnerabilities and over-privileged accounts – Zero enables full compliance with many safeguards encompassed by these controls, such as:  

• 4.4 - Implement and manage a firewall on servers  
• 4.5 - Implement and manage a firewall on end-user devices  
• 6.4 - Require MFA for remote network access  
• 6.5 - Require MFA for administrative access  

By microsegmenting every network asset and identity and layering just-in-time MFA to further secure privileged access, Zero Networks closes security gaps and enhances cyber resilience without adding operational complexity.  

Build a Resilient Network Architecture  

Rapid threat containment and real-time traffic monitoring are core to a resilient architecture underpinned by Zero Trust principles. Zero Networks helps organizations advance cyber resilience objectives by supporting safeguards like:  

• 12.2 – Establish and maintain a secure network architecture 
• 13.4 - Perform traffic filtering between network segments 

With granular, adaptive controls powered by deterministic automation, Zero ensures that comprehensive security scales alongside network changes.  

Take a closer look at how Zero Networks enables compliance with CIS controls – request a demo.