Robust cybersecurity measures are critical for modern businesses of all sizes. Despite the increasing frequency and sophistication of cyber threats, there is still a significant knowledge gap in effectively protecting IT environments. Further complicating the situation is the rising expectations of cyber insurance providers, who now mandate audits to confirm that insured identities adhere to security best practices.
Further complicating the situation is the rising expectations of cyber insurance providers, who now mandate audits to confirm that insured identities adhere to security best practices. Tasked with ensuring their customers’ systems are both secure and compliant, the burden of achieving and maintaining compliance falls heavily on managed service providers (MSPs).
Pre-configured CIS Hardened Images® provide the tools and knowledge needed to protect IT environments effectively.
Understanding hardened images
Hardened images are a cornerstone in the arsenal of modern security tools. They are virtual machine (VM) images that have been meticulously pre-configured to offer enhanced security and compliance. Unlike standard VM images, which may require extensive setup and customization, hardened images come ready to deploy, providing users with a secure, on-demand, and scalable computing environment right out of the box.
Hardened images offer MSPs and IT providers a streamlined path to compliance, ensuring that customers’ systems adhere to necessary regulations and security protocols without extensive manual intervention. This preemptive approach not only enhances security but also simplifies the management of IT infrastructures, enabling businesses to focus on their core operations with confidence.
CIS Hardened Images
To fully understand the power of hardened images, it’s important to recognize the role of the Center for Internet Security (CIS). CIS is a globally renowned organization dedicated to enhancing the cybersecurity posture of both private and public sector entities. It stands as the only credible source for creating these highly secure, pre-configured VM images. CIS offers its Hardened Images across major cloud platforms, including Microsoft Azure, AWS, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Oracle Cloud, demonstrating its versatility and effectiveness.
CIS Controls and Benchmarks
CIS Controls and Benchmarks™ are vendor-agnostic, internationally recognized guidelines. They are developed through a global consensus among leading cybersecurity experts and provide a comprehensive framework for fortifying various IT systems and environments.
Rather than leaving IT departments to interpret and implement these best practices independently, CIS simplifies this process by offering Hardened Windows Server and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) images that come pre-configured with Implementation Group 1 (IG1) policies. These policies are applied at the operating system level from the start, ensuring immediate compliance and security.
The importance for highly regulated industries
CIS Hardened Images are particularly valuable for organizations with stringent compliance requirements. For instance, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) explicitly recommends following CIS guidelines. CIS even offers a tool called the CIS Controls Navigator, which maps controls to industry-standard compliance requirements and further simplifies the adoption process.
Each Implementation Group suggests a set of compliance policies with varying impacts on end-users. IG1 is low impact and can be applied to environments without much issue, while IG2 and IG3 are much higher impact and require careful consideration before applying.
For example, CMMC and Department of Defense (DoD) customers require Impact Level 2 compliance with CIS Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIG).
The benefits of using CIS Hardened Images
Leveraging CIS Hardened Images brings a multitude of advantages, ensuring that your virtual environments are secure, compliant, and efficient. Their key benefits include:
- Enhanced security measures: These images help mitigate common security threats, such as malware, denial of service attacks, insufficient authorization, and overlapping trust boundary threats. By implementing CIS Hardened Images, organizations can significantly reduce their vulnerability to these attacks.
- Avoidance of misconfigurations: Human error is a significant risk factor in cybersecurity when hardening is done manually. CIS Hardened Images are built with third-party automation, helping to avoid misconfigurations and ensure consistency and reliability in your security configurations.
- Evidence of compliance: Each CIS Hardened Image includes a final CIS-CAT Pro Assessor report, demonstrating its compliance with the CIS Benchmarks. This report is invaluable for audits and compliance checks, providing on-the-spot evidence that your virtual machines meet industry standards. It also details any exceptions necessary for the image to operate in the cloud.
- Regular patching: Security is not a one-time task. CIS ensures that their Hardened Images are not only secure at initial implementation but remain strong over time. The images are updated monthly, incorporating the latest security patches and updates to maintain their hardened state.
- Cost-effectiveness: CIS Hardened Images offer a cost-effective solution that makes advanced security accessible even for organizations with limited budgets. By eliminating upfront hardware investments, businesses can harden their virtual machine images for just $0.0225 per compute hour.
How CIS Hardened Images are created
CIS Hardened Images are meticulously crafted to align with the stringent security recommendations outlined in their respective Benchmarks. Here’s how the process unfolds:
- Configuration: Start by configuring each CIS Hardened Image to the specific guidelines detailed in its corresponding Benchmark.
- Validation: Once configured, the CIS-CAT Pro Assessor tool examines the Hardened Image against the Benchmark’s parameters, validating that all applicable security configurations are correctly implemented.
- Compliance documentation: For every CIS Hardened Image, a comprehensive CIS-CAT Pro Assessor report is generated to serve as tangible evidence of the image’s compliance with the Benchmark. It details whether each security setting meets, exceeds, or falls short of the recommended standards.
- Handing exceptions: For settings flagged as a “Fail” within the CIS-CAT Pro Assessor report, an exceptions file within the Hardened Image’s documentation outlines the reasons for such deviations. These exceptions are necessary to ensure the image can function effectively in cloud environments while maintaining as much security posture as possible.
Note on group policy usage: It’s important to note that CIS Hardened Images are configured using local group policy settings. If you intend to deploy these images within a domain environment where policies are managed centrally, many of the security settings within the Hardened Image will be overridden by your domain policies.
How often are CIS Hardened Images updated?
CIS understands the dynamic nature of cybersecurity threats and evolving best practices. CIS Hardened Images undergo regular updates to ensure they remain robust and provide resilience against emerging threats.
- Monthly updates: Each monthly update cycle details the latest recommendations and guidelines from the corresponding CIS Benchmarks. These updates are essential for incorporating new security measures, addressing vulnerabilities, and improving overall system resilience.
- Versioning: Each new iteration of a CIS Hardened Image is assigned a distinct version number to help users easily track and identify the most current release of an image. The version number signifies updates made to the image or new releases aligned with changes in the CIS Benchmark.
- Adaptation to Benchmark updates: Whenever there is an update to the corresponding CIS Benchmark, new versions of CIS Hardened Images are promptly developed. This ensures that organizations can quickly adopt the latest security standards and best practices recommended by CIS, maintaining a high level of security and compliance.
Nerdio + CIS Collaboration
Recognizing the diverse compliance needs of customers across various industry verticals, Nerdio has partnered with CIS to become one of the few providers integrating CIS security policies directly into its products, streamlining compliance efforts and enhancing cybersecurity postures without extensive customization or manual configuration. The partnership has enabled CIS to produce its first Windows 10/11 multisession images, now available in the Azure Marketplace specifically for AVD deployments.
In the Nerdio Cost Estimator, customers will now be able to select if they’d like to leverage CIS Hardened Images and build it into the price quote. Additionally, when it comes time to deploy AVD machines, as customers go to build their initial image, they’ll have the option to select the CIS Hardened Image.
Learn more about Nerdio’s partnership with CIS and how it can help strengthen your organization’s security.
