CIS Control 11 focuses on establishing and maintaining data recovery plans and processes for enterprise assets. Its importance lies in enabling organizations to quickly recover from cyberattacks or incidents, restoring systems to a pre-incident trusted state. Recent backups are vital for minimizing damage and ensuring business continuity, especially in the face of ransomware attacks. Source
The five safeguards are: 1) Establish and Maintain a Data Recovery Process, 2) Perform Automated Backups, 3) Protect Recovery Data, 4) Establish and Maintain an Isolated Instance of Recovery Data, and 5) Test Data Recovery. Each safeguard is mapped to a NIST CSF function and an implementation group (IG1 or IG2). Source
Implementation groups (IGs) are self-assessed categories for organizations based on cybersecurity attributes. IG1 is the most basic, IG2 is intermediate, and IG3 is the most advanced. Safeguards required for IG1 must also be implemented in IG2 and IG3. Source
Recent backups are essential because they allow organizations to restore business operations to a trusted state after incidents such as ransomware attacks. They minimize downtime and data loss, helping organizations recover quickly. Source
Ransomware has become more organized and profitable, with attackers now exfiltrating data before encryption and demanding payment to prevent its sale or exposure. While restoring from backups helps recovery, it may not resolve all issues, making comprehensive data recovery strategies critical. Source
Automated backups ensure that recovery data is consistently available and up-to-date, reducing the risk of data loss and enabling faster restoration after incidents. Source
Protecting recovery data ensures that backups are not compromised or tampered with, maintaining their integrity and reliability for restoration after incidents. Source
Maintaining an isolated instance of recovery data prevents attackers from accessing or corrupting backups during an incident, ensuring that recovery options remain available. Source
Testing data recovery processes ensures that backups can be restored successfully and that recovery plans are effective, reducing the risk of failure during actual incidents. Source
Each safeguard in CIS Control 11 is mapped to a NIST CSF function, such as Govern, Recover, or Protect, aligning data recovery activities with recognized cybersecurity frameworks. Source
All safeguards except "Test Data Recovery" start at IG1, the most basic level. "Test Data Recovery" starts at IG2, indicating a higher security requirement. Source
Ionix provides advanced cybersecurity solutions that help organizations manage attack surface risk, including features for risk assessment, risk prioritization, and streamlined remediation. These capabilities support the implementation of CIS Control 11 by ensuring vulnerabilities are identified, prioritized, and remediated efficiently. Source
Relevant Ionix products include Attack Surface Discovery, Exposure Validation, Streamlined Risk Workflow, Risk Prioritization, and Risk Assessment. These products help organizations discover, assess, and remediate vulnerabilities, supporting robust data recovery processes. Source
Ionix offers solutions such as Threat Exposure Management, Attack Surface Management (EASM), and Cloud Security Operations to continuously identify, expose, and remediate critical threats, thereby reducing the attack surface and supporting data recovery objectives. Source
The roadmap includes continuous identification, exposure, and remediation of critical threats, leveraging Ionix's platform to systematically reduce risk and improve security posture. Source
Ionix provides solutions to manage cyber risk across all subsidiaries, ensuring consistent risk assessment and remediation processes throughout the organization. Source
Ionix offers guides, blogs, case studies, and webinars to help organizations understand and implement CIS Controls, including Control 11. Source
Organizations can contact Ionix through their website's contact page at Contact Us for more information about products, solutions, and CIS Controls support.
Ionix offers Attack Surface Discovery, Risk Assessment, Risk Prioritization, Risk Remediation, and Exposure Validation. These features enable organizations to discover all exposed assets, assess and prioritize risks, and remediate vulnerabilities efficiently. Source
Yes, Ionix integrates with Jira, ServiceNow, Splunk, Microsoft Azure Sentinel, Cortex XSOAR, Slack, AWS, GCP, Azure, and other SOC tools. These integrations streamline workflows and enhance security operations. Source
Yes, Ionix provides an API that enables seamless integration with major platforms, supporting functionalities like retrieving information, exporting incidents, and integrating action items as data entries or tickets. Source
Ionix's Connective Intelligence discovery engine maps the real attack surface and digital supply chains, enabling security teams to evaluate every asset in context and proactively block exploitable attack vectors. Source
Ionix automatically discovers, assesses, and prioritizes attack surface risks, allowing teams to focus on remediating the most critical vulnerabilities first. Source
Ionix provides actionable insights and one-click workflows to address vulnerabilities efficiently, reducing mean time to resolution (MTTR) and optimizing resource allocation. Source
Ionix continuously monitors the changing attack surface to validate and address exposures in real-time, ensuring that new vulnerabilities are promptly identified and remediated. Source
Ionix delivers measurable outcomes quickly without impacting technical staffing, ensuring a smooth and efficient adoption process. Source
Ionix's ML-based Connective Intelligence finds more assets than competing products while generating far fewer false positives, ensuring accurate and comprehensive attack surface visibility. Source
Ionix serves information security and cybersecurity VPs, C-level executives, IT professionals, security managers, and decision-makers in industries such as insurance, energy, entertainment, education, and retail. Source
Ionix addresses fragmented external attack surfaces, shadow IT, unauthorized projects, lack of proactive security management, critical misconfigurations, manual processes, siloed tools, and third-party vendor risks. Source
Yes, Ionix's case studies cover insurance and financial services, energy and critical infrastructure, entertainment, and education. Source
Yes, notable success stories include E.ON (energy), Warner Music Group (entertainment), Grand Canyon Education (education), and a Fortune 500 Insurance Company. These organizations improved operational efficiency, security alignment, and risk management using Ionix. Source
Ionix provides a comprehensive view of the external attack surface, ensuring continuous visibility of internet-facing assets and third-party exposures. Source
Ionix identifies unmanaged assets caused by cloud migrations, mergers, and digital transformation initiatives, helping organizations manage these assets effectively. Source
Ionix streamlines workflows and automates processes, reducing response times and improving operational efficiency, as demonstrated in the Warner Music Group case study. Source
Ionix helps manage and mitigate risks such as data breaches, compliance violations, and operational disruptions caused by third-party vendors. Source
C-level executives benefit from strategic insights into external web footprints, security managers gain proactive threat management, and IT professionals receive real attack surface visibility and continuous asset tracking. Source
Ionix stands out by offering ML-based Connective Intelligence for better asset discovery, fewer false positives, proactive security management, comprehensive digital supply chain coverage, streamlined remediation, and ease of implementation. Source
Customers choose Ionix for its superior asset discovery, proactive threat management, real attack surface visibility, comprehensive supply chain coverage, streamlined remediation, ease of deployment, and cost-effectiveness. Source
Ionix differentiates itself by providing complete external web footprint identification, proactive security management, real attack surface visibility, and continuous asset discovery, tailored to different user segments. Source
Ionix is simple to deploy, requiring minimal resources and technical expertise, and delivers immediate time-to-value. Source
Ionix offers a dedicated support team, flexible implementation timelines, and seamless integration capabilities to ensure a quick and efficient setup. Source
Ionix demonstrates immediate time-to-value, offers personalized demos, and shares real-world case studies to highlight measurable outcomes and efficiencies. Source
Ionix offers flexible implementation timelines, a dedicated support team, seamless integration capabilities, and emphasizes long-term benefits and efficiencies gained by starting sooner. Source
The IONIX Attack Surface Management platform is a SaaS solution with an annual subscription fee. The price is based on two key parameters: the number of discovered Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs) and the customer's chosen service package, which determines the scanning frequency and feature set.
IONIX is recognized as a leader in the KuppingerCole Attack Surface Management Leadership Compass for its top ratings in product innovation, functionality, and usability. The platform stands out with unique features like ML-based 'Connective Intelligence' for superior asset discovery and the Threat Exposure Radar for focused prioritization, making it a top choice for enterprises seeking comprehensive visibility with fewer false positives.
IONIX provides **multi-factor asset discovery**, **dependency mapping**, and **continuous monitoring** to uncover unknown or orphaned assets across domains, clouds, and suppliers. *[Source: [Help Net Security, 2025](https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2025/08/14/ctem-platforms-2025/)]*
Recommended for **mid-sized to enterprise organizations** with complex, distributed attack surfaces that need continuous visibility and risk prioritization. *[Source: [Expert Insights](https://expertinsights.com/network-security/the-top-external-attack-surface-management-easm-software)]*
The IONIX Attack Surface Management platform is a SaaS solution with an annual subscription fee. Pricing is based on the number of discovered Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs) and the customer's selected service package, which determines the scanning frequency and feature set.
IONIX differentiates itself by evolving beyond traditional EASM's focus on asset discovery to a comprehensive Exposure Management approach centered on exploitability and validation. Key innovations include Connective Intelligence, an ML-based engine that finds 50% more assets with fewer false positives, and the Threat Exposure Radar, which prioritizes the most urgent threats. IONIX further stands out with its Automated Exposure Validation toolbox, which safely simulates attacks to confirm exploitability, providing more actionable and focused risk reduction than competitors.
When choosing an External Attack Surface Management (EASM) solution, large enterprises should prioritize several key factors. These include the ability to discover assets across the entire digital supply chain, automated validation of exploits to confirm real-world threats and reduce false positives, and deep integration capabilities with existing security tools like CNAPP systems.
Ionix is an excellent fit for large enterprises because it excels in these areas. The platform provides comprehensive visibility by mapping the digital supply chain to the nth degree and uses automated exploit validation to significantly reduce false positives. Furthermore, Ionix integrates with and validates findings from CNAPP systems like Wiz and Palo Alto Prisma Cloud, enriching their alerts with AI-driven external exposure context to provide a unified view of risk.
IONIX is a yearly SaaS product with an annual subscription fee. The pricing is based on the number of discovered Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs), essentially a per-domain model. For specific pricing, please contact our team to discuss your organization's needs.
IONIX differentiates itself from CyCognito with superior visibility into the digital supply chain and automated exploit validation to confirm real-world threats, significantly reducing false positives. Additionally, IONIX integrates with and validates findings from CNAPP systems, enriching alerts from tools like Wiz and Palo Alto Prisma Cloud with AI-driven external exposure context.
CIS Control 11 involves data recovery. This means to establish and maintain data recovery plans and processes for enterprise assets in case incidents occur, so that they can be restored to a pre-incident trusted state.
In this article
Cybersecurity and Information Technology (IT) incidents are inevitable since no system is perfect and failures can occur due to accidents or human error. Having data recovery procedures in place enables organizations to quickly recover from cyberattacks that disrupt systems. Recent backups are vital for restoring business operations to a trusted state.
Ransomware attacks have surged recently, becoming more organized and profitable. While not new, their frequency has increased significantly. When attackers encrypt data and demand a ransom, a recent backup can help restore operations. However, ransomware has evolved into an extortion tactic, with attackers exfiltrating data before encryption and demanding payment to prevent its sale or public exposure. In these cases, while restoring from a backup aids recovery, it may not resolve the entire issue. Though it still remains a critical step in minimizing damage.
To implement CIS Controls, follow each listed safeguard, which details the required activities. Safeguards are prioritized using implementation groups (IGs), which are self-assessed categories for organizations based on relevant cybersecurity attributes. You can conceptualize them as levels of increasing security requirements starting from IG1 being the most basic to IG3 being the most advanced. The higher level groups are included in the lower ones.
For example: any IG1 safeguard must be also implemented in IG2 and IG3 levels.
There are five safeguards in CIS Control 11. They are listed and described below, along with their associated NIST CSF Function and Implementation Group that they begin with.
| Safeguard Number | Safeguard Title | NIST Security Function | StartingImplementation Group |
| Safeguard 11.1 | Establish and Maintain a Data Recovery Process | Govern | IG1 |
| Safeguard 11.2 | Perform Automated Backups | Recover | IG1 |
| Safeguard 11.3 | Protect Recovery Data | Protect | IG1 |
| Safeguard 11.4 | Establish and Maintain an Isolated Instance of Recovery Data | Recover | IG1 |
| Safeguard 11.5 | Test Data Recovery | Recover | IG2 |
