CIS (Center for Internet Security) has published an interesting guide on software supply chain security.
Even if you do not build software on your own, it still is useful to to pick the relevant security measures/controls as part of your information security management to protect yourself and your enterprise.
As we all learned from the log4j issue which impacted many generally used platforms, it has become very clear that you need to look beyond the first level of control (your own)…
It’s critical to manage 2nd (your suppliers) and even third level (suppliers of suppliers)
Highlights
In high level overview, the document discusses:
Source code
Code changes
Repository management
Contribution access
Third party
Code risks
Build pipelines
Build environment
Build worker
Pipeline instructions
Dependencies
Third party packages
Validate packages
Artifacts
Verification
Access to artifacts
Package registries
Origin traceability
Deployment
Deployment configuration
Deployment environment
Supply chain guide access (need to register on CIS)
The CIS (Center for Information Security) Controls list is a very well known list of security measures to protect your environment against cyberattacks. The Center for Information Security provides a handy XLS sheet for download to assist in your exercise.
Security note for the security freaks, apparently the document is hosted on the pardot(dot)com Salesforce website, which might be blocked by Adlist domain blockers as it’s used for marketing campaigns, you might need to unblock it, or use Tor browser…)
FYI, the previous version (2019, v1) of the mapping had quite some gaps. Therefor I’ve submitted a suggestion for an updated CIS-ISO27001 mapping. And after review, a new version (1.1) with updates has been published on the CIS workbench.
You’ll notice that the update (1.1) version has still some gaps. And I’ll leave to the discretion of the CIS review work group to argument these gaps.
But I’m convinced you can map the CIS controls for 100% to ISO27001, in one way or another, meaning use ALL ISO27001 controls in certain extent (sometimes a subset, equally or a superset of it, combining controls.)
But the license for use of the CIS controls mapping does not allow redistribution of modified materials…
To further clarify the Creative Commons license related to the CIS ControlsTM content, you are authorized to copy and redistribute the content as a framework for use by you, within your organization and outside of your organization for non-commercial purposes only, provided that (i) appropriate credit is given to CIS, and (ii) a link to the license is provided. Additionally, if you remix, transform or build upon the CIS Controls, you may not distribute the modified materials. Users of the CIS Controls framework are also required to refer to (http://www.cisecurity.org/controls/) when referring to the CIS Controls in order to ensure that users are employing the most up-to-date guidance. Commercial use of the CIS Controls is subject to the prior approval of CIS® (Center for Internet Security, Inc.).”
So I CANNOT distribute the XLS as modified material (Why not?).
Extending the mapping
If you still want to build an extended version of the mapping on your own, you download the 1.1 version and add these items to the list:
CIS section
Coverage
ISO27001 Control
2.2
=
A.12.5.1
2.5
=
A.8.1.1
2.8
small subset
A.12.5.1
2.10
small superset
A.9.4.1/A.8.2
3.1
small subset
A.12.6.1
3.2
small subset
A.12.6.1
3.4
small subset
A.12.6.1
3.5
small subset
A.12.6.1
3.6
small subset
A.12.6.1
4.1
small superset
A.8.1.1/A.9.2.3
6.5
small subset
A.12.4.1
6.6
small subset
A.12.4.1
6.8
small subset
A.12.4.1
7.3
small subset
A.12.2.1
7.5
small superset
A.8./A.13.1.1
7.6
small subset
A.13.1.1
8.3
small subset
A12.2.1
9.5
small subset
A.13.1.1
10.2
small subset
A.12.3.1
10.5
=
A.12.3.1
11.1
small subset
A.13.1.1
11.2
small subset
A.13.1.1
11.6
small subset
A.13.1.1
12.1
small subset
A.13.1.1
12.5
small subset
A.13.1.1
12.10
small subset
A.13.1.1
13.2
small subset
A.11.2.5
14.7
small subset
A.8.2.3
16.2
small subset
A.9.3.1
16.3
small subset
A.9.3.1
16.9
small subset
A.9.2.1
16.10
small subset
A.9.2.1
16.12
=
A.12.4.1
16.13
=
A.12.4.1
17.1
=
Clause 7.2
18.3
=
A.12.5.1
18.4
=
A.12.5.1
18.7
=
A.14.2.9
18.10
small subset
A.14.2.5
18.11
small subset
A.14.2.5
19.3
small subset
A16.1.1
19.6
small subset
A16.1.2
19.7
small subset
A16.1.1
19.8
small subset
A16.1.4
20.1
small subset
A18.2.3
20.2
small subset
A18.2.3
20.3
small subset
A18.2.3
20.4
small subset
A18.2.3
20.5
small subset
A18.2.3
20.6
small subset
A18.2.3
20.7
small subset
A18.2.3
20.8
small subset
A18.2.3
Planning for ISO Certification using CIS Controls?
When you look at it from a different angle and you would like to build a plan to certify your ISO27001 implementation, we need to turn around the mapping, and look for the gaps in the ISO27001 security controls AND CLAUSES, when doing the CIS control mapping.
And then you’ll notice the explicit difference in approach between CIS controls and ISO27001 controls. CIS controls are focusing on technical implementation to harden your cybersecurity, while ISO27001 is a management system that needs these controls, but requires a management layer to support these technical controls. CIS controls are lacking this management layer. If you compare both systems in a table the story gets clear:
The “red” areas require extra work to make it ISO27001 compliant.
And as always, if you have suggestions of feedback to improve this article, let me know, I’ll fix it on the fly.
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