Security checklist is out

The National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Security Agency have released a specification to standardize IT security checklists.

NIST and NSA collaborated with representatives from industry to develop the Extensible Configuration Checklist Description Format as a way to provide a uniform format for security checklists, benchmarks and other configuration guidance.

NIST and NSA noted that using such checklists "can markedly reduce the vulnerability of an organization."