CIS Controls
The CIS Critical Security Controls are a prioritized set of defensive actions developed and maintained by the Center for Internet Security (CIS), a non-profit community of security practitioners. They are practical and prescriptive - telling you what to do, and in what order, to defend against the most common and damaging real-world attacks.
The current version, CIS Controls v8.1, is made up of 18 top-level controls broken into 153 individual safeguards - covering inventory of enterprise assets and software, data protection, secure configuration, access control, continuous vulnerability management, audit log management, and incident response. To make adoption realistic at any size, the safeguards are grouped into three Implementation Groups (IG1, IG2, IG3), giving both a small business and a large enterprise a clear starting point.
The controls exist to answer a simple question - "what should we do first?" - turning an overwhelming threat landscape into a manageable, measurable roadmap grounded in real attack data. We help you assess where you stand and implement the safeguards that reduce your risk the fastest.
Are the CIS Controls right for you?
The CIS Controls give you a prioritized starting point at any level of maturity. A quick check:
You likely need this if
- You want a clear, prioritized roadmap rather than an overwhelming checklist
- You need to know which Implementation Group (IG1, IG2, IG3) fits your size
- You lack a measurable baseline of your current security posture
- You need controls that map cleanly to NIS2, ISO 27001, or PCI DSS
Not sure where you land? A short assessment call will tell you plainly, including if you do not need this yet.
How We Help You Implement
A pragmatic, prioritized path through the CIS Controls, tailored to your Implementation Group.
We help you determine the right Implementation Group (IG1, IG2, or IG3) for your organization's size, resources, and risk profile, so you focus on the safeguards that matter most for you.
A measurable assessment of your current posture against the 18 CIS Controls and their safeguards, producing a scored baseline and a prioritized remediation plan.
Establishing accurate, continuous inventories of your enterprise assets and software - the foundational controls that everything else depends on.
Implementation of secure configuration baselines, account and access management, and continuous vulnerability management to eliminate the weaknesses attackers exploit most.
Standing up audit log management, malware defenses, and an incident response capability so you can detect and contain threats quickly.
Measurable Security Improvement
The strength of the CIS Controls is that progress is measurable. We benchmark your maturity, implement safeguards in priority order, and re-measure - giving you and your leadership a clear, evidence-based view of how your defenses are improving over time. The CIS Controls also map cleanly to frameworks like NIS2, ISO 27001, and PCI DSS, so the work you do here accelerates your broader compliance goals.