CIS Controls

What Is CIS Controls?

CIS Controls (Center for Internet Security Controls) are a prioritized set of cybersecurity best practices designed to help organizations defend against the most common cyberattacks. Developed by a global community of security experts, the framework organizes 18 control areas, such as inventory management, access control, and secure configuration, into actionable safeguards that any organization can implement regardless of size or industry.

Key takeaways

• CIS Controls are a best-practice framework, not a regulation; organizations adopt them voluntarily to strengthen cyber defense.
• The current version organizes safeguards into 18 controls, grouped into three Implementation Groups based on organizational size and resources.
• CIS Controls map to other major frameworks, including the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, which helps organizations avoid duplicate compliance work.
• Network devices such as firewalls play a direct role in several controls, including secure configuration, access control, and network monitoring.

CIS Controls exist because most cyberattacks exploit a small set of avoidable weaknesses: unpatched software, poor configuration management, excessive access, and inconsistent monitoring. Rather than asking organizations to address every conceivable risk at once, the framework gives security teams a prioritized, "must-do, do-first" list that delivers meaningful risk reduction without requiring unlimited resources.

Why CIS Controls Matter

Security teams face a constant stream of competing priorities, and not every control delivers equal value. CIS Controls solve this by ranking defensive actions based on real attacker behavior, a principle the Center for Internet Security calls "offense informs defense." Instead of a theoretical checklist, the controls reflect what actually stops the most pervasive and damaging attacks. That focus makes the framework useful whether an organization is building a security program from scratch or trying to close specific gaps in a mature one.

How CIS Controls Work

The framework is built around 18 top-level controls, covering areas like asset inventory, data protection, secure configuration of enterprise assets and software, account and access control management, continuous vulnerability management, and network monitoring and defense. Each control breaks down into specific safeguards, the concrete actions organizations take to implement it.

To account for differences in organizational maturity and resources, CIS organizes these safeguards into three Implementation Groups (IGs). IG1 represents essential cyber hygiene appropriate for nearly any organization. IG2 and IG3 add safeguards suited to organizations with more complex environments, more sensitive data, or greater exposure to targeted attacks. This tiered structure means a small business and a multinational enterprise can both use the same framework at a scope that fits their reality.

Key Components and Best Practices

A few principles run through the entire framework:

• Prioritization over completeness. The controls favor a focused set of high-value actions over an exhaustive list that few organizations could fully execute.
• Measurable safeguards. Each safeguard is written as a specific, verifiable action rather than a vague goal, which makes progress easier to track and report.
• Alignment with other frameworks. CIS Controls are mapped to frameworks such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, which lets organizations use one body of work to support multiple compliance and governance needs.
• Continuous improvement. The framework assumes attackers adapt, so it's periodically revised to stay current with modern systems, cloud environments, and emerging threats.

Common Challenges

Organizations often run into the same friction points when putting CIS Controls into practice. Many safeguards touch network infrastructure directly, secure configuration, access control, and boundary defense all depend on firewall and cloud security group rules, which means out-of-date or poorly documented rule sets undermine the control regardless of policy intent. Multi-vendor environments compound the problem: a safeguard that's easy to verify on one firewall platform can require a completely different manual process on another. Without a consistent way to check configurations across devices, teams often rely on periodic, spreadsheet-driven reviews that go stale the moment something changes. Demonstrating ongoing conformance, rather than a one-time snapshot, is typically the hardest part of sustaining the framework over time.

How This Connects to Network Security Policy Management and FireMon

A meaningful share of CIS Controls depends on what's actually configured and enforced on firewalls, cloud security groups, and segmentation policy, not just what's written in a policy document. Network security policy management (NSPM) closes that gap by giving teams a normalized, continuously updated view of what access exists and whether it matches intended controls.

FireMon, the founder of NSPM, helps organizations connect CIS benchmark requirements to rule-level checks against their actual firewall and cloud policies. Through pre-built compliance assessments, FireMon supports continuous assessment, documentation, and audit-ready evidence for CIS-aligned network controls across hybrid, multi-vendor environments. FireMon does not certify or guarantee CIS conformance; it provides the visibility, validation, and reporting that help teams demonstrate how their deployed network policy lines up with CIS Controls over time.