What are the Benefits of Using CIS Hardened Images®?

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CIS Hardened Images are direct derivatives of the CIS Benchmarks®. The CIS Benchmarks are community-developed secure configuration recommendations for hardening technologies against cyber attacks. They are internationally recognized and used by thousands of businesses to improve their cybersecurity defenses. Mapped to the CIS Critical Security Controls® (CIS Controls®), the CIS Benchmarks elevate the security defenses for systems and software.They also help organizations demonstrate compliance with components of various industry regulations and frameworks.

CIS Hardened Images have been hardened to either a Level 1, Level 2, or STIG Benchmark profile. A Level 1 CIS Benchmark profile meets minimum and essential security requirements, while a Level 2 CIS Benchmark profile provides more advanced settings for situations where security is paramount. A CIS STIG Benchmark combines both the CIS Benchmarks recommendations with the DISA STIG framework of security protocols.

You can enjoy several benefits by using CIS Hardened Images. CIS Hardened Images:

  • Are pre-configured according to CIS Benchmark configuration guidelines. The CIS Benchmarks are community developed and trusted by users across businesses, government, academia, and non-profit organizations.
  • Offer extra security in the cloud by limiting potential weaknesses that make systems vulnerable to cyber attacks while helping to mitigate malware, denial of service, insufficient authorization, and overlapping trust boundary threats.
  • Assist in avoiding misconfigurations and other instances of human error that are common with manual hardening.
  • Are available from trusted Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) like AWS Marektplace, Azure Marektplace, Google Cloud Marketplace, and Oracle Cloud Marketplace. They are utilized by thousands of users around the globe to complete millions of compute hours of work each month.
  • Include a CIS-CAT® Pro report that illustrates their conformance to the secure recommendations of the CIS Benchmarks.
  • Save users time, space, and money on hardware purchasing and housing, software licensing, and system maintenance.