BrandPost: NGINX + CIS Hardened Images Provide Security at Maximum Efficiency

Just over 50% of the Internet’s busiest websites – including Dropbox, Netflix, and WordPress.com – are served or proxied on NGNIX (Source: W3Techs).  But how can organizations secure this popular open-source web server?

At CIS, our mission to help everyone have a secure online experience drives us to develop cybersecurity best practices. We take those best practices, use them to harden machine images, and make them available in the cloud. That’s why we’re excited about the CIS Hardened Images for NGINX on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This pre-configured virtual image is available on a CIS Hardened Linux base image and container image.

Security built through community

CIS offers virtual machine images hardened in accordance with the CIS Benchmarks. What’s unique about the Benchmark recommendations is the consensus-based process from which they’re developed. These recommendations are the only set of vendor-agnostic, internationally-recognized secure configuration guidelines both developed and accepted by government, business, industry, and academia. CIS Hardened Images, built on these benchmarks, provide a secure, on-demand, and scalable computing environment.

NGINX + CIS = efficient security

Operating CIS Hardened Images with NGINX is like Coke and Mentos. Separately they’re great – but together, they create incredible security and efficiency. Here’s why: the NGINX web server is built on performance optimization. According to Kinsta, a WordPress host, “NGINX offers low memory usage and high concurrency. Rather than creating new processes for each web request, it has an asynchronous, event-driven approach where requests are handled in a single thread.”

NGINX is one of the fastest web servers out there. Add the CIS Hardened Images to NGINX environments, and your team can enjoy security without sacrificing efficiency.

Flexible hardening options

Securing your OS is usually your first priority, but it’s just as important to secure your web server. Keeping a locked safe in a house with all of the doors open isn’t the best idea, right? So, why would you do that digitally? Thankfully, CIS Hardened Images are available not only for the NGINX application on CentOS Linux 7 on AWS, Azure, and GCP, but they are also available as a container on Ubuntu Linux 18.04 on AWS Marketplace:

Hardening that moves with you

Many organizations manage a complex hybrid environment comprised of an on-premises environment and cloud infrastructure. Others rely on multiple cloud service providers to manage workstations, systems, and data. No matter where your team works, everyone should have a secure online experience. That’s why CIS Hardened Images are available for multiple OS and applications on AWS Marketplace, Microsoft Azure Marketplace, Google Cloud Platform Marketplace, and Oracle Cloud Marketplace. Launch one today to start secure in the cloud.

Launch a CIS Hardened Image today 

READ MORE HERE