The CIS Benchmark is a set of technical standards that draws upon best practices published by the SANS Institute, the National Security Agency (NSA), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA).

Elemental has seen growing traction in markets where Mac platform use is prevalent, such as university environments, presenting an expanding opportunity. According to Gartner, Inc., the U.S. Mac OS installed base totals more than 11 million units in 2006.

With these certifications, Elemental customers are assured that their security best practices and security benchmark policies are properly implemented in order to assure that Mac OS X computers are configured with the most appropriate security settings.

“The CIS Benchmarks are widely accepted standards that help companies satisfy the configuration and compliance requirements for popular computing platforms, including Macs,” said Elemental Chief Marketing Officer Roy Agostino. “We are pleased to be the first vendor to earn this certification for our growing number of Mac platform customers, to assure that the policy baselines we offer them are in line with the high-security industry benchmarks, as defined by CIS and industry user consensus. This is a unique distinction for Elemental, because few enterprise-class security solutions exist for Mac platforms. Mac users have an advantage because Apple’s BSD derivative operating system provides an improved out-of-the-box security posture.”