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CIS Hardened Images Launched on Google Cloud Shielded VMs

East Greenbush, N.Y.

April 15, 2019

CIS® (Center for Internet Security, Inc.) today announced the availability of its CIS Hardened Images™ on Shielded Virtual Machines (VMs) in the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Marketplace.

CIS Hardened Images are virtual machine images that have been preconfigured according to the security recommendations of the CIS Benchmarks™.  A CIS Hardened Image incorporates the security recommendations outlined in the CIS Benchmark applicable to the operating system.

“Bringing CIS Hardened Images to Shielded VMs on the Google Cloud Platform provides protection against rootkits,” said Curtis Dukes, CIS Executive Vice President, Security Best Practices & Automation Group. “Together, CIS and Google are delivering a secure platform in the cloud customers can trust to protect their critical applications.”

Shielded VMs ensure organizations are only using trusted, supported images.  Shielded VMs on Google Cloud are beneficial because they:

  • Protect VMs against advanced threats;
  • Ensure workloads are trusted and verifiable;
  • Protect secrets against exfiltration and replay;
  • Offer live migration and patching.

There is no additional cost for a Shielded VM on Google Cloud, and bring your own (BYO) image licensing is supported as well.

CIS Hardened Images available on Shielded VMs include:

  • Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter – Level 1 and Level 2
  • Windows Server 2016 Datacenter – Level 1 and Level 2
  • CentOS 7 – Level 1
  • Ubuntu 18.04 LTS – Level 1
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 – Level 1

View blog post for more information.

About CIS

CIS (Center for Internet Security, Inc.) is a forward-thinking, non-profit entity that harnesses the power of a global IT community to safeguard private and public organizations against cyber threats. The CIS Controls™ and CIS Benchmarks are the global standard and recognized best practices for securing IT systems and data against the most pervasive attacks. These proven guidelines are continuously refined and verified by a volunteer, global community of experienced IT professionals. Our CIS Hardened Images™ are virtual machine emulations preconfigured to provide secure, on-demand, and scalable computing environments in the cloud. CIS is home to both the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center® (MS-ISAC®), the go-to resource for cyber threat prevention, protection, response, and recovery for U.S. State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial government entities, and the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center™ (EI-ISAC®), which supports the cybersecurity needs of U.S. State, Local and Territorial elections offices. To learn more, visit CISecurity.org or follow us on Twitter: @CISecurity.

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