Establishing Essential Cyber Hygiene

When tasked to implement a cybersecurity program, many enterprises ask “How do we get started?” In response, the CIS Controls Community sorted the Safeguards in the Controls into three Implementation Groups (IGs) based on their difficulty and cost to implement.

IG1 is the group that is least costly and difficult to implement and are the Safeguards we assert that every enterprise should deploy. Applying all of the Safeguards listed in IG1 will help thwart general, non-targeted attacks and strengthen an enterprise’s security program. IG1 is the definition of essential cyber hygiene and represents a minimum standard of information security for all enterprises. This guide will help organizations establish essential cyber hygiene.