CIS Controls v8·Control 12.4·high·Component: Identify

What this control requires

Establish and maintain architecture diagram(s) and/or other network system documentation. Review and update documentation annually, or when significant enterprise changes occur that could impact this Safeguard.
— CIS Controls v8, Control 12.4

In plain English

Establish and maintain architecture diagram(s) and/or other network system documentation. In practice, this means you can prove you establish and maintain network-level controls on a defined cadence.

Why it matters

The CIS Controls are an industry-vetted, prioritised defence: skipping a safeguard widens the attack surface that the safeguards above and below it assume is closed. Audit frameworks (FedRAMP, PCI DSS, HIPAA) all cite CIS as evidence of due care.

This control is rated high. Auditors expect a named owner, a remediation SLA, and a tooling artefact that evidences continuous operation.

What an auditor looks for

A CIS-aligned reviewer wants to see (a) which Implementation Group you are targeting, (b) a documented owner for the safeguard, and (c) a tooling or process artefact (config, scan output, ticket) that proves the safeguard runs on the cadence the control demands.

Within Identify, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Control 12.4) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

How to implement

Policy Management

Docs. Keep each policy in version-controlled Markdown alongside the code that implements it; ship a signed PDF snapshot at each annual review and link the SHA into the SoA.

Network Security

AWS. VPC Flow Logs to S3, default-deny security groups, AWS Network Firewall for north-south, and Transit Gateway for hub-and-spoke segmentation.

Azure. NSGs with deny-by-default, Azure Firewall Premium with TLS inspection, Private Endpoints for PaaS, and Microsoft Defender for Cloud's secure score for drift.

GCP. VPC Service Controls perimeters around sensitive APIs, Cloud NGFW Enterprise for L7 inspection, Private Service Connect for managed services.

Operational checklist

  • Establish And Maintain. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
  • Scope: network, architecture diagram(s), enterprise.

Evidence to collect

  • Policy Document. A signed and version-controlled policy / standard / procedure document.
  • Infra Scan. Continuous infrastructure-posture telemetry — AWS Config, Azure Policy compliance, GCP Organisation Policy, Wiz / Prisma findings.

Signed policy or standard documents the safeguard. Focus: Establish and Maintain Architecture Diagram(s).

Common pitfalls

  • Policies that no engineer has read; the version in Confluence drifts from the version that's actually being enforced.
  • Default-allow egress rules; East-West traffic with no segmentation; jump hosts on the public internet with password auth.

Related controls in CIS Controls v8

References

Topics: governance riskpolicy managementnetwork securitypatch management