In today’s rapidly evolving cybersecurity landscape, organizations need robust, proven security frameworks to protect their digital assets. For companies managing Apple device fleets, the Center for Internet Security (CIS) Benchmarks provides a comprehensive roadmap to enhance security posture while maintaining operational efficiency.
Table of Contents
- What Are CIS Benchmarks?
- Why CIS Benchmarks Matter for Real-World Security
- Apple Device Coverage: macOS and iOS/iPadOS
- Who Should Care About CIS Benchmarks?
- Implementing CIS Benchmarks with Jamf Solutions
- Conclusion: Building a Secure Future
What Are CIS Benchmarks?
The CIS Benchmarks® are prescriptive configuration recommendations for more than 25+ vendor product families. They represent the consensus-based effort of cybersecurity experts globally to help you protect your systems against threats more confidently. These benchmarks aren’t theoretical guidelines: they’re practical, battle-tested security configurations developed by industry experts who understand real-world threats and challenges.
Understanding CIS Benchmark Levels
CIS Benchmarks are structured into two primary implementation levels, each designed for different security needs and organizational capabilities:
Level 1: Foundation Security Level 1 recommendations form foundational protections, reducing your attack surface and giving cybercriminals fewer ways to compromise your data. They’re easy to install, but they do not offer robust protection from the most advanced persistent threats (APT). These configurations provide essential security without significantly impacting system functionality or user experience.
Level 2: Advanced Protection Level 2 recommendations are much more advanced, utilizing threat intelligence to prevent attacks proactively. Controls are more difficult to install and manage, but they offer much greater security assurance, and mappings to regulatory requirements. Organizations handling sensitive data or facing sophisticated threats typically implement Level 2 configurations.
Why CIS Benchmarks Matter for Real-World Security
System Hardening: Reducing Attack Surfaces
CIS Benchmarks provide practical steps to “lock down” your systems, minimizing vulnerabilities and limiting the ways attackers can breach your defenses. This makes your environment much harder to compromise. By following these guidelines, organizations can systematically eliminate common attack vectors and security misconfigurations.
Simplifying Compliance Requirements
Many regulations and standards (like HIPAA, PCI-DSS, GDPR) expect organizations to follow recognized security best practices. CIS Benchmarks serve as a trusted baseline that helps you meet these requirements, making audits easier and more straightforward. Instead of guessing what security measures satisfy regulatory requirements, organizations can point to industry-recognized standards.
Proven and Practical Advice, Not Just Theory
These benchmarks are developed and updated by cybersecurity experts worldwide based on real-world experiences. They’re tested and validated, so you’re implementing solutions that actually work, not just theoretical ideas. Each recommendation has been vetted by practitioners who understand both the security benefits and operational impacts.
Consistent Security Across Diverse Environments
Since CIS Benchmarks cover various systems, from operating systems to cloud platforms, they help maintain uniform security standards across your entire IT infrastructure. For organizations with mixed environments, this consistency is crucial for maintaining security posture and simplifying management processes.
Continuous Updates Reflect Emerging Threats
The cybersecurity landscape changes fast. CIS Benchmarks evolve regularly, ensuring you’re protected against the latest vulnerabilities and attack techniques. This ongoing refinement means organizations benefit from collective intelligence about emerging threats and evolving best practices.
Apple Device Coverage: macOS and iOS/iPadOS
CIS Benchmarks provide comprehensive coverage for Apple’s ecosystem, including both macOS and iOS/iPadOS platforms. This means organizations can apply consistent security standards across their entire Apple device fleet, from MacBooks and iMacs to iPhones and iPads. The benchmarks address platform-specific security considerations while maintaining the same rigorous approach to threat mitigation.
Who Should Care About CIS Benchmarks?
CISOs and Security Managers: Strategic Security Planning
These leaders use CIS Benchmarks to shape overall security strategies, ensuring their organizations are protected with well-defined, industry-recognized best practices. CIS Benchmarks provide the strategic framework needed to build comprehensive security programs that can evolve with changing threats.
System Administrators and Engineers: Day-to-Day Implementation
The folks on the ground who configure and maintain systems rely on these benchmarks as clear guidelines to harden servers, desktops, and network devices effectively and consistently. These detailed recommendations eliminate guesswork and provide step-by-step implementation guidance.
Compliance Officers and Auditors: Simplifying Audits and Reports
CIS Benchmarks act as a trusted standard that compliance teams can point to when preparing for audits, making it easier to demonstrate adherence to security policies and regulatory requirements. The benchmarks provide documentation and justification for security decisions.
DevOps and Cloud Teams: Integrating Benchmarks in Modern Workflows
In fast-paced environments, these teams use CIS Benchmarks to automate security configurations within their infrastructure-as-code pipelines, ensuring continuous compliance without slowing down development. The benchmarks can be integrated into CI/CD processes for consistent security implementation.
Implementing CIS Benchmarks with Jamf Solutions
For organizations managing Apple devices, Jamf provides powerful tools to implement and maintain CIS Benchmark compliance across your fleet.
Starting with Jamf Compliance Editor
Organizations can begin their compliance journey by establishing a baseline with Jamf Compliance Editor. This tool helps create comprehensive compliance configurations that align with CIS Benchmark recommendations. The Compliance Editor provides a structured approach to defining and implementing security policies across your Apple device ecosystem.
For detailed guidance on establishing compliance baselines, visit the Jamf documentation, and explore the open-source resources available at the Jamf Compliance Editor GitHub repository.
Jamf Pro Compliance Benchmarks: A Game-Changing Feature
A newer capability within Jamf Pro is Compliance Benchmarks, which brings significant advantages to organizations implementing CIS standards. For comprehensive configuration guidance, refer to the Jamf Compliance Benchmarks Configuration Guide.
Key Benefits
Quick Setup and Implementation We’ve integrated both CIS Level 1 and Level 2 benchmark templates from the macOS Security Compliance open source project (mSCP) to allow rapid deployment of compliance rules. Using compliance benchmarks, IT teams can quickly create compliance configurations across your organization, dramatically reducing implementation time.
Flexible Options IT teams can assess compliance status in monitoring mode before enforcing changes, allowing them to understand impact and prepare users. This provides a risk-free way to evaluate compliance status without disrupting productivity, enabling organizations to plan rollouts carefully and minimize user disruption.
Automated Remediation When devices fall out of compliance, Jamf Pro mechanisms ensure quick return to compliance with minimal IT intervention. This automation reduces the administrative burden while maintaining consistent security posture across the fleet.
Seamless Jamf Pro Integration Devices are automatically categorized as compliant or non-compliant into smart groups, enabling further workflows such as integration with Microsoft Entra and Google BeyondCorp to allow organizations to ensure that only trusted users on compliant devices can access company resources.
Why Compliance Benchmarks Matter
Regulatory Compliance and Risk Management Meet strict security requirements for handling sensitive data while avoiding penalties and legal issues. Compliance benchmarks provide a clear framework to achieve and maintain regulatory standards across your organization, giving leadership confidence in the security posture.
Simplified Security Implementation Instead of tracking numerous security settings changes across different operating systems, use pre-validated security standards as your guide. This makes it easier to implement and maintain security measures across all devices consistently, reducing complexity and potential errors.
Continuous Monitoring Track compliance status near real-time across your device fleet. This enables quick identification of security gaps, streamlines auditing processes, and helps demonstrate compliance to regulators when needed. Real-time visibility ensures that security drift is detected and addressed promptly.
Conclusion: Building a Secure Future
Implementing CIS Benchmarks for your Apple fleet isn’t just about checking compliance boxes: it’s about building a robust security foundation that protects your organization while enabling productivity. With tools like Jamf Pro’s Compliance Benchmarks, organizations can efficiently implement these industry-standard security measures while maintaining the user experience that makes Apple devices popular in enterprise environments.
The combination of proven CIS security standards and Jamf’s management capabilities provides organizations with a powerful approach to fleet security that scales with business needs while adapting to evolving threats. By leveraging these tools and standards, IT teams can confidently secure their Apple device ecosystems while focusing on strategic initiatives that drive business value.
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