CIS Controls v8·Control 8.11·high·Component: Detect

What this control requires

Conduct reviews of audit logs to detect anomalies or abnormal events that could indicate a potential threat. Conduct reviews on a weekly, or more frequent, basis.
— CIS Controls v8, Control 8.11

In plain English

Conduct reviews of audit logs to detect anomalies or abnormal events that could indicate a potential threat. In practice, this means you can prove you log logs-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 Detect, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Control 8.11) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

How to implement

Endpoint Protection

MDM. Make MDM enrollment a hard gate for device access (Intune compliance + Conditional Access, or Jamf + Okta device trust). Unmanaged devices simply don't get a session token.

EDR. Deploy CrowdStrike / SentinelOne / Defender for Endpoint to every server and laptop; alert on any host that stops sending telemetry for >24h.

Logging Monitoring

AWS. Org-trail CloudTrail to a central log archive account, GuardDuty in every region, and Security Hub for cross-source correlation.

Azure. Pipe every diagnostic setting into a central Log Analytics workspace; onboard Microsoft Sentinel for SIEM/SOAR.

GCP. Aggregate audit logs in a dedicated logging project with sink to BigQuery; enable Security Command Center Premium and route findings to Chronicle SIEM.

Operational checklist

  • Log. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
  • Conduct Audit Log. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
  • Scope: logs, reviews, edr.

Evidence to collect

  • Edr Scan. edr_scan evidence

EDR telemetry (CrowdStrike, Defender for Endpoint) confirms threat detection. Focus: Conduct Audit Log Reviews.

Common pitfalls

  • Pilot MDM rollouts that quietly exclude executives or engineers; carving out the highest-risk users is the most common audit failure.
  • Per-account logging that nobody stitches together at the org level — incidents that cross accounts go undetected for days.

Related controls in CIS Controls v8

References

Topics: logging monitoringedr xdrendpoint protectionthreat intelligence