# CIS 14.1 — Establish and Maintain a Security Awareness Program

- Source: https://support.icompaas.com/support/solutions/articles/a_gen_cis_141_5ecd36802a-cis-141-establish-and-maintain-a-security-awareness-program
- Section: [Solutions](https://support.icompaas.com/support/solutions) › [AWS Checks New Version](https://support.icompaas.com/support/solutions/62000112673) › [Protect](https://support.icompaas.com/support/solutions/folders/f_gen_62000112673_protect)
- Last updated: 2026-05-30
- Publisher: iCompaas, Inc. (https://www.icompaas.com)

CIS · Control 14.1 · Priority: critical · Component: Protect

### What this control covers

Establish and maintain a security awareness program. The purpose of a security awareness program is to educate the enterprise's workforce on how to interact with enterprise assets and data in a secure manner. Conduct training at hire and, at a minimum, annually. Review and update content annually, or when significant enterprise changes occur that could impact this Safeguard.

### Why it matters

Most successful attacks involve a human; training closes the gap technical controls cannot.

### How to implement

#### AWS

Manage all changes in **Terraform/CloudFormation**; enforce SCPs that deny console writes for prod. Use **AWS Config rules** + **conformance packs** (CIS, HIPAA, PCI) to detect drift.

#### Azure

**Azure Policy** + **Blueprints** baseline landing zones; Bicep/Terraform as IaC and **Policy Insights** for drift.

#### GCP

**Org Policy Service** for guardrails and **Config Validator** in CI to pre-check Terraform plans against policy as code (Rego).

#### On-premises

Roll out role-based security awareness annually + phishing simulations quarterly. Track completion in your LMS and tie to performance review for repeat-fails.

### Evidence to collect

-   `infra_scan` — See the iCompaas Evidence library for the canonical source for this evidence type.

Infrastructure posture tooling (AWS Config, Azure Policy, Nessus) verifies platform hardening. Focus: Establish and Maintain a Security Awareness Program.

### Quick checklist

-   Establish And Maintain — Network / Data
-   Protect — Network / Data
-   Conduct — Network / Data

### Related articles on this site

-   [Microsoft Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)](https://support.icompaas.com/support/solutions/articles/62000234105-microsoft-cloud-security-posture-management-cspm-)
-   [NIST 800-171 3.2.3 Provide security awareness training on recognizing and reporting potential indicators of insider threat.](https://support.icompaas.com/support/solutions/articles/62000229270-nist-800-171-3-2-3-provide-security-awareness-training-on-recognizing-and-reporting-potential-indicat)
-   [NIST 800-171 3.4.2 Establish and enforce security configuration settings for information technology products employed in organizational systems.](https://support.icompaas.com/support/solutions/articles/62000229281-nist-800-171-3-4-2-establish-and-enforce-security-configuration-settings-for-information-technology-p)
-   [CMMC 2.0 AT.3.058 Provide security awareness training on recognizing and reporting potential indicators of insider threat.](https://support.icompaas.com/support/solutions/articles/62000229424-cmmc-2-0-at-3-058-provide-security-awareness-training-on-recognizing-and-reporting-potential-indicato)

## Related compliance guidance

- [SOC 2 compliance: a practical implementation guide for cloud-native SaaS teams](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/soc-2-trust-services-criteria): Configuration checks like this one are the technical half of a SOC 2 / ISO 27001 programme — the guide shows where they fit, what else an auditor expects, and how to evidence them.
- [ISO/IEC 27001:2022 compliance: a practical implementation guide](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022): ISO 27001 Annex A.8 (technological controls) is where cloud hardening evidence lands; the guide shows how to run the ISMS around it.