The Twenty Critical Security Controls for Effective Cyber Defense (commonly called the Consensus Audit Guidelines or CAG) is a publication of best practice

Best practice

A best practice is a method or technique that has consistently shown results superior to those achieved with other means, and that is used as a benchmark...

 guidelines for computer security

Computer security

Computer security is a branch of computer technology known as information security as applied to computers and networks. The objective of computer security includes protection of information and property from theft, corruption, or natural disaster, while allowing the information and property to...

. The project was initiated early in 2008 as a response to extreme data losses experienced by organizations in the US defense industrial base. The publication can be found on the SANS Institute website.

Contributors

The Consensus Audit Guidelines were compiled by a consortium of more than 100 contributors from US government agencies, commercial forensics experts and pen testers. Authors of the initial draft include members of:

• US National Security Agency Red Team and Blue Team
• US Department of Homeland Security, US-CERT
• US DoD Computer Network Defense Architecture Group
• US DoD Joint Task Force – Global Network Operations (JTF-GNO)
• US DoD Defense Cyber Crime Center (DC3)
• US Department of Energy Los Alamos National Lab, and three other National Labs.
• US Department of State, Office of the CISO
• US Air Force
• US Army Research Laboratory
• US Department of Transportation, Office of the CIO
• US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the CISO
• US Government Accountability Office (GAO)
• MITRE Corporation
• The SANS Institute

Goals

The Consensus Audit Guidelines consist of 20 key actions, called security controls, that organizations should take to block or mitigate known attacks. The controls are designed so that primarily automated means can be used to implement, enforce and monitor them. The security controls give no-nonsense, actionable recommendations for cyber security, written in language that’s easily understood by IT

Information technology

Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...

personnel. Goals of the Consensus Audit Guidelines include to:

• Leverage cyber offense to inform cyber defense, focusing on high payoff areas,

• Ensure that security investments are focused to counter highest threats,

• Maximize use of automation to enforce security controls, thereby negating human errors, and

• Use consensus process to collect best ideas.

Controls

Version 3.0 was released on April 13, 2011 and consists of the following security controls.

• Critical Control 1: Inventory of Authorized and Unauthorized Devices

• Critical Control 2: Inventory of Authorized and Unauthorized Software

• Critical Control 3: Secure Configurations for Hardware and Software on Laptops, Workstations, and Servers

• Critical Control 4: Secure Configurations for Network Devices such as Firewalls, Routers, and Switches

• Critical Control 5: Boundary Defense

• Critical Control 6: Maintenance, Monitoring, and Analysis of Audit Logs

• Critical Control 7: Application Software Security

• Critical Control 8: Controlled Use of Administrative Privileges

• Critical Control 9: Controlled Access Based on the Need to Know

• Critical Control 10: Continuous Vulnerability Assessment and Remediation

• Critical Control 11: Account Monitoring and Control

• Critical Control 12: Malware Defenses

• Critical Control 13: Limitation and Control of Network Ports, Protocols, and Services

• Critical Control 14: Wireless Device Control

• Critical Control 15: Data Loss Prevention

• Critical Control 16: Secure Network Engineering

• Critical Control 17: Penetration Tests and Red Team Exercises

• Critical Control 18: Incident Response Capability

• Critical Control 19: Data Recovery Capability

• Critical Control 20: Security Skills Assessment and Appropriate Training to Fill Gaps

Controls 16 through 20 differ from the others because they cannot be automated.

Notable results

Starting in 2009, the US Department of State began supplementing its risk scoring program in part using the Consensus Audit Guidlines. According to the Department's measurements, in the first year of site scoring using this approach the department reduced overall risk on its key unclassified network by nearly 90 percent in overseas sites, and by 89 percent in domestic sites.

External links

• “Twenty Critical Security Controls for Effective Cyber Defense: Consensus Audit Guidelines” Website (SANS Institute website)
• “Addressing the Consensus Audit Guidelines (CAG) with the Symantec™ Risk Automation Suite” Whitepaper (whitepaper from Symantec Corporation)
• "Fast Track to Consensus Audit Guidelines #8 (CAG 8) Compliance" Article (article published on a Blog sponsored by Lieberman Software Corporation)
• "nCircle Solutions for Automating the Consensus Audit Guidelines Critical Security Controls" Whitepaper (whitepaper from nCircle Network Security, Inc.)