Security Configuration Settings

As part of a holistic risk management strategy and applying the information security concept of defense-in-depth, organizations should employ appropriate configuration settings on commercial information technology products that compose their organizational information systems. These products include, for example, mainframe computers, workstations, portable and mobile devices, and network components. Requirements to establish mandatory configuration settings derive from the Federal Information Security Management Act as implemented by FIPS 200 and NIST Special Publication 800-53 (Security Control CM-6, Configuration Settings), and OMB Policy. The following links provide important information for organizations implementing configuration settings on their information system components:

• Security Content Automation Protocol
• Federal Desktop Core Configuration
• Configuration Settings for Mainframe Computers