Title: Secure Configuration Standard
Document ID: [STD-CONFIG-001]
Version: 0.1 Draft
Status: Draft
Owner: CISO (Paul Jenkins)
Approver: CISO (Paul Jenkins)
Classification: Internal
Effective date: [DD Month YYYY]
Review date: [DD Month YYYY]

# Secure Configuration Standard

## Purpose

This standard defines the minimum secure configuration expectations for systems, services, platforms, and supporting technology within the ISMS scope.

## Scope

This standard applies to cloud resources, operating systems, endpoints, containers, Kubernetes components, applications, security tooling, and supporting infrastructure.

## Mandatory Requirements

Systems must be configured according to approved security baselines appropriate to their function, risk, and exposure.

Unnecessary services, ports, protocols, packages, permissions, and features must be disabled or removed where practical.

Default settings that increase security risk must be changed before operational use.

Configuration changes affecting security posture must be controlled through the approved change process.

Configuration standards for production and other high-risk environments must be documented and subject to periodic review.

Security-relevant configuration drift must be detected through review, monitoring, automation, or other suitable means.

Administrative interfaces and management access paths must be restricted and hardened.

Sensitive configuration items, including secrets and key material, must not be embedded in unsecured locations.

## Implementation Guidance

BlackDice should define baseline configurations for common asset classes and align them with cloud-native operating patterns, infrastructure-as-code usage, and automation pipelines.

For distributed or ephemeral workloads, secure configuration should be enforced as early as possible in templates, images, manifests, and deployment workflows rather than relying only on manual review.

Configuration assurance should cover both initial build state and ongoing operational state.

Where legacy constraints or third-party managed services limit baseline application, the residual risk should be understood and addressed through compensating control or exception.

## Roles and Responsibilities

- [Role] must define secure baseline expectations.
- System and platform owners must implement and maintain approved configurations.
- Change owners must ensure security-impacting configuration changes are assessed and approved.

## Exceptions

Exceptions to baseline configuration requirements must be documented, risk-assessed, approved, and reviewed.

## Related Documents

- Cloud Security Policy
- Network and Infrastructure Security Policy
- Vulnerability and Patch Management Policy
- Change Management Policy

## Version Control

| Version | Date | Description of Change | Author |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 0.1 Draft | [DD Month YYYY] | Initial draft. | [Name or Role] |