Security Standards - Modern Summary and Next Steps

This wrap-up brings the module together using today’s baseline: zero-trust architecture, TLS 1.3, MFA/WebAuthn, and modern control frameworks (NIST SP 800-53/CSF 2.0, ISO/IEC 27001, CIS Controls). You should now be able to plan a policy, select controls, and align people/process/technology to reduce risk measurably.

What you should now be able to do

1. Explain risk in business terms (likelihood × impact) and map threats to controls.
2. Design a defense-in-depth stack across identity, endpoints, networks, apps, and data.
3. Choose and justify controls from NIST, ISO 27001, or CIS for your environment.
4. Author and socialize a security policy with clear ownership, metrics, and review cadence.
5. Establish secure-by-default engineering practices (secret management, SBOMs, reviews, CI/CD gates).
6. Stand up training and tabletop exercises that reduce human-factor risk (phishing, social engineering).

Modern control map (people • process • tech)

• Identity and Access: MFA (FIDO2/WebAuthn), least privilege, just-in-time access, periodic access reviews.
• Network: Zero-trust segmentation, encrypted transport (TLS 1.3), mutual auth for services, secure DNS.
• Endpoints: EDR/XDR, disk encryption, device posture checks, rapid patch SLAs.
• Applications: Secure SDLC, code scanning (SAST/DAST), secrets scanning, dependency pinning, SBOM.
• Data: Classification, encrypt-at-rest (AES-256) and in-transit, DLP rules, key rotation and HSMs.
• Ops and Detection: SIEM/SOAR, threat intel, playbooks, log retention, continuous control monitoring.
• Resilience: Tested backups (3-2-1), immutable snapshots, incident response and recovery RTO/RPO.

Standards and frameworks to use together

• NIST CSF 2.0 for strategy; NIST SP 800-53 for control selection and assessment.
• ISO/IEC 27001 for ISMS governance and certification pathways.
• CIS Controls for prioritized, actionable hardening (baseline + benchmarks).
• OWASP ASVS/Top 10 for application-layer security requirements and testing.

Threats you must plan for in 2025

• Credential and session abuse: phishing, MFA fatigue, token theft → mitigate with phishing-resistant MFA and token binding.
• Ransomware and data extortion: harden AD, segment, EDR, egress controls, immutable backups.
• Supply chain: signed artifacts, SBOMs, provenance (SLSA), least-privileged CI/CD.
• Cloud misconfig: policy-as-code, CSPM, guardrails, org-level SCPs and drift detection.

Quick policy checklist (copy/paste into your runbook)

Policy: Enterprise Security Baseline (v1.0)
Scope: Corp, Cloud, Third-Party

Identity
  - Enforce FIDO2/WebAuthn where supported
  - PAM for privileged roles; quarterly access reviews

Transport and Crypto
  - TLS 1.3 everywhere; deprecate legacy suites
  - AES-256 at rest; keys in HSM/KMS; rotate 180 days

Change and Build
  - All changes via IaC; 4-eyes review
  - SAST/DAST, dependency pinning, SBOM required

Monitoring and Response
  - Centralize logs to SIEM; alert playbooks in SOAR
  - RTO/RPO documented; quarterly tabletops

Awareness
  - Role-based training; simulated phishing ≤ monthly

Updated key terms

• Zero-Trust: Never trust, always verify; continuous evaluation of identity, device, and context.
• EDR/XDR: Endpoint detection/response and extended detection across network, identity, and cloud.
• SBOM: Software bill of materials listing dependencies for supply-chain transparency.
• SIEM/SOAR: Centralized analytics and automated incident response orchestration.

Ready to assess your knowledge?

Take the multiple-choice quiz for this module:

Security Basics - Quiz