EvidenceSheet
CIS Controls v8.1 · CIS Control 4: Secure Configuration of Enterprise Assets and Software

4.1 Establish and Maintain a Secure Configuration Process

Keep a written process for configuring securely both the enterprise's hardware (laptops, phones and other portable kit, IoT and other non-computing devices, servers) and its software (operating systems and applications). Update the document every year or when significant change could affect this safeguard. Implementation Groups: IG1, IG2 and IG3 (part of the IG1 essential cyber hygiene baseline, so every enterprise applies it). Asset type: Documentation. Security function: Govern.

Source: CIS Controls v8.1, 4.1. The statement above is our statement of the clause, read from the published text and cited so you can check it against the official text, not the instrument verbatim. Open CIS Controls v8.1 in the compliance library.

Scope: Implementation Groups: IG1, IG2, IG3. Security function: Govern; asset type: Documentation.

Each safeguard shows its Implementation Groups. IG1 is the essential baseline for every enterprise, IG2 adds to it, IG3 is all 153. Version 8.1 adds the Govern security function and asks for more processes to be documented; numbering is unchanged from v8.

3
artefacts
2
held by a system
0
at each review
easy
to go live
Cloud console / configuration management
where the evidence lives
teal = a system already holds it · olive = produced at each review. To go live: easy when half or more of the artefacts are already held by a system, moderate from a quarter to a half, hard below a quarter.

These are the artefacts auditors commonly ask for on this requirement, our guidance rather than text from the standard. Your assessor decides what is sufficient in your context, and asks for samples across the period when a report covers one.

system holds itEvidence a system already holds

  • Secure configuration standard referencing benchmarks such as CIS Benchmarks per platform · Cloud console / configuration management
  • Annual review history · Cloud console / configuration management

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

none for this control

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

  • Baseline build documents or golden images · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Automate the pull from your Cloud console / configuration management. Configuration snapshots and change history from the cloud console or IaC repository, diffed against the baseline.

Common gaps auditors find

Do this for your whole sheet

Paste the rows you run your controls from and get this mapping for every control at once, with the periodic-review ones flagged and a first move per row. No account for the first run.

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3.14 Log Sensitive Data Access · 4.2 Establish and Maintain a Secure Configuration Process for Network Infrastructure