AWS re:Invent – Inspiration in the Global Cloud Community
AWS re:Invent is one of the most well-known events in the global cloud community. It's where developers, engineers, IT executives, and other personnel gather to network with one another and see what's possible in the cloud.
The Center for Internet Security (CIS) is inspired by the work of this global cloud community. We're also motivated to do our part. That’s why we’re excited to sponsor and attend AWS re:Invent across multiple venues in Las Vegas, Nevada on November 28 through December 2.
Why We’re Heading to AWS re:Invent
Cloud security incidents are nothing if not two things: commonplace and expensive. In September 2022, Venafi released a study in which 81% of participating organizations revealed that they had suffered a security incident involving the cloud in the last 12 months. Nearly half (45%) said that they had fallen victim to at least four incidents in that span of time. Meanwhile, research from Varonis demonstrated that Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) features publicly expose 157,000 sensitive files in the average company. This exposure constitutes $28 million worth of risk.
The problem is that many organizations don’t have the necessary time, money, or resources to prevent or detect a cloud security incident. This leads to gaps in visibility. For instance, 40.3% of security professionals told Laminar that they don't have tools in place for monitoring data exfiltration and other activities related to malicious insiders and external threats. Approximately the same proportion of respondents went on to state they don't know if a third party has exfiltrated their public cloud data or whether an internal employee has inadvertently accessed sensitive data in the cloud.
How CIS Is Working to Advance Cloud Security Everywhere
We're committed to helping organizations strengthen their cloud security and prevent an incident from occurring. We do this through the following three offerings:
CIS SecureSuite Membership
Through CIS SecureSuite, Members gain access to resources that help them maximize their use of the CIS Critical Security Controls (CIS Controls) and CIS Benchmarks. Among them is a tool for tracking the implementation of the CIS Controls, both on premises and in the cloud. Membership also includes access to a tool for evaluating systems' settings against the CIS Benchmarks, thus helping to avoid configuration drift and misconfigurations.
AWS Shared Responsibility Model
In the public cloud, the cloud service provider is responsible for securing the underlying physical infrastructure. Your job is to protect your apps, systems, and/or data depending on the type of cloud deployment you're using. With the Shared Responsibility Model, you can identify which public cloud security measures you're responsible for, when you're responsible for them, and how CIS can help.
CIS Hardened Images
Our CIS Hardened Images consist of virtual machine (VM) images that are pre-hardened to the security recommendations of the CIS Benchmarks. Available on all the major cloud marketplaces including AWS Marketplace, the CIS Hardened Images enable your team to save time and money by applying the security recommendations of the CIS Benchmarks to virtual machine images in the cloud. As a result, you can focus on optimizing your use of your cloud-based assets while enjoying greater protection against malware, denial of service, misconfigurations, and other threats.
Learn More in Las Vegas!
Want to learn more about how you can use our resources to strengthen your cloud security? We recommend you attend COP306: Cloud compliance and auditing best practices on AWS. The presenters will discuss how our standards and those of others can help with maintaining compliance, preparing for an audit, and fulfilling vital security functions.
This AWS re:Invent session is scheduled to take place on November 28 at 1:00 P.M. local time and December 1 at 1:15 P.M. local time.
In addition, we’ll be stationed at Booth #127 all throughout the conference. We hope you’ll register to attend and stop by so that we can learn how we can help you with your cloud security needs.
