SANS top 20

What Are the Controls?
The detailed Consensus Audit Guidelines are posted at http://www.sans.org/cag/ along with detailed control descriptions, examples of attacks they stop or mitigate, how to automate them, and how to test them. Below is the list of control names:

Critical Controls Subject to Automated Measurement and Validation:

1. Inventory of Authorized and Unauthorized Hardware
2. Inventory of Authorized and Unauthorized Software
3. Secure Configurations for Hardware and Software for Which Such Configurations Are Available
4. Secure Configurations of Network Devices Such as Firewalls and Routers
5. Boundary Defense
6. Maintenance and Analysis of Complete Security Audit Logs
7. Application Software Security
8. Controlled Use of Administrative Privileges
9. Controlled Access Based On Need to Know
10. Continuous Vulnerability Testing and Remediation
11. Dormant Account Monitoring and Control
12. Anti-Malware Defenses
13. Limitation and Control of Ports, Protocols and Services
14. Wireless Device Control
15. Data Leakage Protection

Additional Critical Controls (not directly supported by automated measurement and validation):

16. Secure Network Engineering
17. Red Team Exercises
18. Incident Response Capability
19. Assured Data Back-Ups
20. Security Skills Assessment and Training to Fill Gaps

http://sec.chinabyte.com/465/12310465.shtml

http://www.sans.org/critical-security-controls/