CIS - Experts & Thought Leaders

The Center for Internet Security, Inc. (CIS®), Astrix Security, and Cequence Security now announced a strategic partnership to develop new cybersecurity guidance tailored to the unique risks of artificial intelligence (AI) and agentic systems.  This collaborative initiative builds on the globally recognised CIS Critical Security Controls® (CIS Controls®), extending its principles into AI environments where autonomous decision‑making, tool and API access, and automated threats introduce new challenges. The intent of the partnership includes initially developing two CIS Controls companion guides: one for AI Agent Environments, which will focus on securing the agent system lifecycle; the other for Model Context Protocol (MCP) environments. Adopt AI responsibly and securely MCP environments introduce unique risks, including credential exposure, ungoverned local execution, unapproved third‑party connections, and uncontrolled data flows between models and tools. Together, these guides will provide targeted safeguards for organisations operating in environments where MCP agents, tools, and registries interact dynamically with enterprise systems.  “AI presents both tremendous opportunities and significant risks,” said Curtis Dukes, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Security Best Practices at CIS. “By partnering with Astrix and Cequence, we are ensuring that organisations have the tools they need to adopt AI responsibly and securely.”  AI ecosystems Astrix’s contribution centres on securing AI agents, MCP servers, and the Non‑Human Identities (NHIs), such as API keys, service accounts, and OAuth tokens, that link them to critical systems.  “AI agents and the non‑human identities that power them bring great potential but also new risks,” said Jonathan Sander, Field CTO of Astrix Security. “Our focus is helping enterprises discover, secure, and deploy AI agents responsibly, with the confidence to scale. Through this partnership, we’re providing clear, practical guidance to keep AI ecosystems safe so organisations can innovate with confidence.”  API security experience Cequence brings years of enterprise application and API security experience to agentic AI enablement and security. “As organisations embrace agentic AI, trust hinges on visibility, governance, and control over what those agents can see and do to your applications and data,” said Ameya Talwalkar, CEO of Cequence Security. “Security is strongest through collaboration, and this partnership gives organisations clear guidance to adopt AI safely and securely.”  How the partnership supports organisations  Extends trusted cybersecurity frameworks into AI environments, addressing risks from autonomous systems and integrations.  Delivers clear, prioritised safeguards that guide enterprises toward secure and responsible AI adoption.  Resilience across the AI ecosystem Combines expertise across standards, API security, and application defence to provide comprehensive protection. The new guidance is scheduled for release in early 2026, accompanied by workshops, webinars, and supporting resources delivered jointly by CIS, Astrix, and Cequence. Together, the organisations aim to help enterprises translate recommendations into practice while building a stronger foundation of trust, transparency, and resilience across the AI ecosystem. By working from a shared framework, enterprises, vendors, and security leaders can align on a common language for securing AI environments.

Aqua Security, the pure-play cloud-native security provider, and the Center for Internet Security (CIS), an independent, nonprofit organisation with a mission to create confidence in the connected world, releases the industry’s first formal guidelines for software supply chain security. Developed through a collaboration between the two organisations, the CIS Software Supply Chain Security Guide provides more than 100 foundational recommendations that can be applied across a variety of commonly used technologies and platforms. Software supply chain In addition, Aqua Security unveiled a new open-source tool, Chain-Bench, which is the first and only tool for auditing the software supply chain to ensure compliance with the new CIS guidelines. The new guidelines establish general best practices that support key emerging standards like SLSA and TUF Although threats to the software supply chain continue to increase, studies show that security across development environments remains low. The new guidelines establish general best practices that support key emerging standards like Supply Chain Levels for Software Artifacts (SLSA) and The Update Framework (TUF) while adding foundational recommendations for setting and auditing configurations on the Benchmark-supported platforms. Supply chain security Within the guide, recommendations span five categories of the software supply chain, including Source Code, Build Pipelines, Dependencies, Artifacts, and Deployment. CIS intends to expand this guidance into more specific CIS Benchmarks to create consistent security recommendations across platforms. As with all CIS guidance, the guide will be published and reviewed globally. Feedback will help ensure that future platform-specific guidance is accurate and relevant.  “By publishing the CIS Software Supply Chain Security Guide, CIS and Aqua Security hope to build a vibrant community interested in developing the platform-specific Benchmark guidance to come,” said Phil White, Benchmarks Development Team Manager for CIS. “Any subject matter experts that develop or work with the technologies and platforms that make up the software supply chain are encouraged to join the effort in building out additional benchmarks. Their expertise will be valuable to establishing critical best practices to advance software supply chain security for all.” Secure software releases Chain-Bench scans the DevOps stack from source code to deployment To date, the guide has been reviewed by experts at CIS, Aqua Security, Axonius, PayPal, CyberArk, Red Hat, and other technology firms. Ofir Shapira, Cyber Security Product Manager, Axonius: “The work Aqua is doing around software supply chain security, not only as a company but for the wider community, is paving the way for more secure software releases.” Erez Dasa, Cyber & Application Security Architect, digital payment organisation: “Implementing these guidelines over development processes gives us much more confidence in the security of releases.” To support organisations adopting the CIS guidance, Aqua released Chain-Bench. Chain-Bench scans the DevOps stack from source code to deployment and simplifies compliance with security regulations, standards, and internal policies to ensure teams can consistently implement software security controls and best practices. Stronger security practices “Building software at scale requires strong governance of the software supply chain, and strong governance requires effective tools. This is where we saw an opportunity to add value,” said Eylam Milner, Director Argon Technology, Aqua Security. “We wanted to leverage our expertise in software supply chain security to help build critical guidance for one of industry’s most pressing challenges, as well as a free, accessible tool to help other organisations adhere to it. The work doesn’t stop here. We will continue working with CIS to refine this guidance, so that organisations worldwide can benefit from stronger security practices.”