What sources of technical controls does your organization use?
Do you base device/operating system configurations on:
- CIS workbench?
- NIST/STIG?
- Microsoft best practice?
- Google searches and ‘that looks good’?
How closely rigorously does your organization enforce change management for policies or settings?
- Can you change GPOs/Linux/Network device settings as needed?
- During maintenance window?
- After a group meeting with code/change review and some sort of approval authority?
In my experience the difference between theory and practice is that in theory and organisation claims to be certified in all the right ways, but in practice the CEO has a nephew who is “good with computers”.
What I’ve yet to see in 40 years in this profession is anything that assumes that you will be compromised and what you might put in place before that actually happens.