Center for Internet Security Expands Membership Options, Provides Additional Flexibility To Security Consultants And Auditors

PRESS RELEASE

East Greenbush, NY - (July 02, 2013)

The Center for Internet Security (CIS), a nonprofit organization focused on enhancing the cyber security readiness and response of public and private sector entities, today announced a new type of membership that further expands the availability of its CIS-CAT assessment tool, a powerful automated resource for measuring the configuration security status of information systems against CIS Benchmarks. Now available for use in a 30-day membership, the CIS-CAT Consulting Engagement Membership allows individual IT security consultants and auditors to cost-effectively leverage CIS-CAT to help meet their clients' security goals.

CIS created the CIS-CAT Consulting Engagement Membership in response to the growing demand from security consultants and auditors needing access to CIS-CAT for short-term client engagements. Security consultants and auditors can use CIS-CAT to assess hundreds of client system configuration settings within minutes, and can easily measure, monitor and report client security configuration conformance with industry best practices while also demonstrating improvement over time.

"This new offering is the latest initiative implemented by CIS to help make cyber security more affordable and accessible," said Rick Comeau, Executive Director, CIS Security Benchmarks division. "With the CIS-CAT Consulting Engagement Membership, IT security consultants and auditors now have another flexible option to include in their toolbox for identifying and remediating security vulnerabilities."

System configuration issues are among the most common vulnerabilities hackers exploit to attack organizations. The 20 Critical Security Controls for Effective Cyber Defense and the Australian Government's 35 Strategies to Mitigate Targeted Cyber Intrusions, two leading security guidelines, recommend system and application hardening as a key strategy for minimizing cyber risk. CIS-CAT helps organizations improve configuration security by identifying configuration-based vulnerabilities and providing step-by-step strategies for remediating them.

For more information or to enroll as a CIS-CAT Consulting Engagement member, visit CIS at: http://benchmarks.cisecurity.org/membership/cis-cat-consulting

About the Center for Internet Security

The Center for Internet Security (CIS) is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to enhance the cyber security readiness and response of public and private sector entities, with a commitment to excellence through collaboration. CIS comprises three divisions: the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, which serves as a key cyber security resource for the nation's state, local, territorial, and tribal (SLTT) governments; the Security Benchmarks Division, which provides consensus best practice standards for security configurations; and the Trusted Purchasing Alliance, which serves SLTT governments and not-for-profits in achieving a greater cyber security posture through trusted expert guidance and cost-effective procurement.