NIS2 Compliance Checklist Now Available in HCL BigFix

Cybersecurity regulations in Europe are becoming more structured and enforceable, with the Network and Information Systems Directive (NIS2) setting clearer expectations around how organizations manage cyber risk. For organizations operating in the EU or supporting EU-based customers, NIS2 reinforces the need for stronger compliance management, consistent security controls, and the ability to demonstrate readiness through reliable reporting. Meeting these expectations requires moving beyond periodic checks toward sustained endpoint compliance across critical systems.

What Is NIS2

NIS2, formally Directive (EU) 2022/2555, replaces the original NIS directive and expands its scope to cover more sectors considered essential or important. It places greater emphasis on risk-management measures, technical safeguards, and operational resilience. Rather than focusing on one-time assessments, NIS2 expects organizations to maintain ongoing oversight of endpoint configurations, security controls, and operational resilience across critical systems.

What HCL BigFix Offers to Support NIS2 Requirements

To help organizations operationalize the NIS2 requirements, HCL BigFix has released an NIS2 compliance checklist for Windows servers and workstations as part of HCL BigFix Compliance.

This checklist focuses on NIS2-aligned technical controls that can be monitored and enforced at the endpoint level to maintain endpoint compliance. It aggregates recognized CIS benchmark checks and maps them directly to the relevant risk-management measures. 

Areas Covered Under the New NIS2 Checklist:

The checklist supports technical controls across eight key categories aligned to NIS2 requirements:

1. Incident handling: Covers logging and configuration checks, supporting detection and response.
2. Secure system lifecycle: Ensures security standards are enforced consistently across system deployment, updates, and ongoing maintenance.
3. Cryptography: Verifies that encryption and cryptographic controls are correctly implemented to protect sensitive data.
4. Access control: Confirms user access, privileges, and authentication policies are aligned with security and regulatory expectations.
5. Asset management: Provides accurate visibility into hardware and software assets to reduce unmanaged risk exposure.
6. Business continuity: Validates backup and recovery configurations to support operational resilience during disruptions.
7. Environmental and physical security: Covers controls such as screen locking and physical port security relevant to user-facing devices.
8. Human resources security: Supports security awareness and policy enforcement through interactive logon messages.

Benefits of the HCL BigFix NIS2 Compliance Checklist 

With the NIS2 Compliance Checklist provided by HCL BigFix for the Windows ecosystem, enterprises can achieve:

• Continuous compliance assessment: Teams can continuously assess and maintain endpoint compliance against NIS2-aligned technical controls. This reduces regulatory risk and avoids last-minute audit gaps.
• Automated configuration consistency: Security configurations can be applied consistently across supported Windows Server versions autonomously. This reduces exposure to configuration drift and manual errors.
• Compliance visibility and reporting: Teams get easy compliance reporting with near real-time visibility into configuration drift. This enables faster corrective action and simplifies ongoing compliance management.

How to Unlock NIS2 Checklist in HCL BigFix

The NIS2 compliance checklist for Windows servers and workstations is available on the HCL BigFix external site. You can enable the content from your License Overview Dashboard, deploy it to relevant endpoints, and run SCA import to generate compliance status reports.

Next Phase of NIS2 Enablement with HCL BigFix

HCL BigFix will continue to expand NIS2 support beyond the Windows ecosystem, with upcoming SCM checklists planned for additional platforms such as macOS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) to help organizations extend NIS2-aligned compliance across diverse environments.

To know more about the HCL BigFix Compliance SCM checklists, please see the following resources:

• BigFix Forum
• BigFix Compliance SCM Checklists

For questions about the NIS2 checklist, deployment guidance, or HCL BigFix Compliance capabilities, contact HCL BigFix to know more.