9.3 Maintain and Enforce Network-Based URL Filters
Apply and keep updated network-level URL filters that stop assets from reaching malicious or unapproved websites, for example by category, by reputation or by block list, and apply them to every asset. Implementation Groups: IG2 and IG3 (not in the IG1 baseline; applies from IG2 upward). Asset type: Network. Security function: Protect.
Source: CIS Controls v8.1, 9.3. 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.
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.
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
none for this control
periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review
- Policy update and exception records · Policy repository / GRC workspace
governing documentDocuments that govern the control
- Web filter policy showing categories and reputation settings · Policy repository / GRC workspace
- Coverage of all egress paths · Document repository
First move
Common gaps auditors find
- Servers allowed unrestricted internet egress
- Exceptions granted broadly
- Filters bypassed by direct-to-internet traffic
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.
Build my evidence sheet9.2 Use DNS Filtering Services · 9.4 Restrict Unnecessary or Unauthorized Browser and Email Client Extensions