Join CIS at AWS Public Sector Summit 2021 in DC
The Center for Internet Security (CIS) is excited to sponsor and attend the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Public Sector Summit at booth 209. This year the event is in Washington, D.C., on September 27-29 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
CIS has deep ties with the public sector. The Multi-State Information Sharing & Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), a part of CIS, provides cyber threat prevention, protection, response, and recovery for the nation’s state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) governments. This relationship allows CIS to have a deep understanding of how to protect SLTT entities’ IT infrastructure. Additionally, CIS manages the communities that build and maintain the CIS Benchmarks. The CIS Benchmarks are prescriptive guidance to safeguard systems against common cyber threats. Specifically for the public sector, CIS builds CIS STIG Benchmarks for Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems to DISA STIG standards. What’s more, CIS Hardened Images, pre-hardened virtual machine images (VMs) built to CIS STIG Benchmarks are available in AWS Marketplace.
Attend These AWS Public Sector Summit Sessions
Between keynote speeches, breakout sessions, and workshops, there is plenty to learn at AWS Public Sector Summit this year. You’ll find information on security, compliance, new AWS services, and so much more. Make sure to carve out time for the following sessions; you won’t regret it!
Expo Session | Ease the DISA STIG Compliance Journey with CIS Resources
Expo Theater One: Tuesday, September 28th at 9:40AM
In this presentation from Michelle Peterson, CIS Product Owner of CIS Benchmarks and Cloud, you’ll learn about CIS STIG resources.
Organizations that must align with regulatory frameworks know that it’s not easy. Thankfully, CIS builds secure configuration guides that can help. Although the DoD references the CIS Benchmarks as an acceptable standard to meet compliance, many organizations still must utilize STIGs for DoD IA and IA-enabled devices/systems. That’s why CIS offers CIS Benchmarks mapped directly to DISA STIG standards. Furthermore, CIS builds CIS Hardened Images, pre-hardened virtual machine images, to CIS STIG Benchmark standards and offers them in AWS Marketplace.
Breakout Session | Security best practices in the AWS Cloud
Tuesday, September 28th at 1:30PM
In this introductory session at AWS Public Sector Summit, you’ll get familiar with AWS cloud security services. You can learn how to scale and innovate while maintaining a secure environment and paying only for the services you use. Security in the cloud is much like security in your on-premises data centers—only without the costs of maintaining facilities and hardware.
To expand on what you can learn in this session, a recommended starting point to applying security best practices on the AWS cloud is the CIS AWS Foundations Benchmark. Similar to the session content, this free downloadable guidance offers the basics to maintaining a secure environment for your AWS account. Namely, it offers configuration guidance for identity and access management, monitoring and logging, and networking.
Another CIS Cybersecurity Resource for the Public Sector
In addition to the previously mentioned CIS resources for the public sector, it’s crucial to note the compliance assistance CIS Benchmarks can provide. CIS Benchmarks are referenced as an acceptable standard to help meet compliance to a variety of regulatory frameworks. Notably, NIST, FedRAMP, the DoD Cloud Computing SRG, and DISA STIGs all reference CIS Benchmarks. The CIS Benchmarks are just one resource that can help organizations with compliance.
In sum, the AWS Public Sector Summit is a great place to learn from the CIS team about cybersecurity resources that can help your organization. Prior to the event, you can familiarize yourself with our free CIS Benchmarks in PDF format. We hope to see you there!
