--- sourceDocument: Yokohama Platform security sourceDocumentLink: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/yokohama/platform-security Release : - yokohama ft:locale : - en-US ft:publication_title : - Yokohama Platform security ft:clusterId : - psec bundleId : - psec workflow : - Platform --- # Security Best Practices # Security Best Practices {#ariaid-title1} * Release version: Yokohama * * Updated January 30, 2025 * * ![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 3 minutes to read Summarize ![AI sparkle icon](https://servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ai-sparkle-icon) Summarized using AI This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete. ## Summary of Security Best Practices The Security Best Practices feature in ServiceNow helps you implement privacy and security configurations on your instance to improve your overall security posture. It provides a structured approach with step-by-step instructions, progress tracking, and management tools that align with your organization's security goals. Show full answer Show less This feature is designed to guide you through best practices categorized by maturity levels and priorities, enabling systematic enhancement of your security stance. ## Key Features * **Home Page Dashboard:** Visualizes your progress with graphs showing completed best practices overall and by maturity level. It allows filtering to focus on specific maturity phases such as "Build a foundation" for initial low-impact security improvements. * **Security Best Practices Table:** Organizes best practices with key fields such as name, maturity level (Build a foundation, Enhance the experience, Optimize functionality, Add advanced features), status (Open, In progress, Completed), priority (Immediate, Later, Not applicable), and associated security goals (e.g., access control, encryption, monitoring). * **Details Page:** Access detailed information about each best practice, including priority settings, implementation progress, release history, and related documentation links. Buttons enable marking practices as complete or reopening them and creating Security Tasks to assign or track work. * **Task Steps Tab:** Provides clear, step-by-step instructions to implement each best practice, helping ensure consistent execution across your team. * **Activity Tab:** Displays a chronological record of user and system actions related to each best practice, supporting auditability and collaboration. * **Security Tasks Integration:** You can create and manage Security Tasks from best practice records to delegate work effectively. * **Filtering and Saved Lists:** Enables sorting, filtering, and saving customized views of best practices for different roles or use cases, facilitating focused work management. ## Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers * Helps you systematically improve your instance's security by following proven best practices tailored to your maturity level. * Provides a clear view of progress and priority, so you can focus on high-impact or immediate security improvements first. * Facilitates collaboration and tracking through integrated Security Tasks and activity logs. * Supports ongoing compliance and security posture management with detailed records and historical tracking of best practice updates. Use Security Best Practices to implement privacy and security configuration tasks on your ServiceNow instance. Identify best practices to improve your security posture, and follow step-by-step instructions on how to implement them. Security Best Practices provide the following: * The home page shows an overview of your progress on implementing security best practices. You can also organize and manage lists of security best practices according to your organization's goals. * The overview page provides details of each security best practice, the steps to implement them, and a record of all activities and comments. * The task steps page provides you with instructions on how to implement security best practices. * The activity page tracks the history of the user and system actions related to your security best practices. {#security-best-practices-manager__ul_pp5_d32_fbc} ## Security Best Practices home page {#security-best-practices-manager__section_ph2_yl1_ccc} The home page displays a Manage your best practices section, which includes graphs provide an overview of your progress. Completed overall : Displays a count and trend line of best practices you have completed. Select the card to view the Completed Overall metric page in [Security metrics](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/u9chflrsWyBffZslMTVrng "Monitor over 50 different Security Metrics to identify potential security threats or insecure behaviors. Set thresholds for email notifications, visualize, and analyze the data in multiple ways. Export the data, or create dashboards with the metrics that are most important to your organization."). Completed by maturity level : Displays a chart of completed best practices organized by maturity level (see a description of maturity levels in the proceeding table). Select the card to view the Completed by Maturity Level metric page in [Security metrics](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/u9chflrsWyBffZslMTVrng "Monitor over 50 different Security Metrics to identify potential security threats or insecure behaviors. Set thresholds for email notifications, visualize, and analyze the data in multiple ways. Export the data, or create dashboards with the metrics that are most important to your organization."). Build a foundation : Select the Build a foundation button to filter the table on this page to display only best practices in the Build a foundation maturity level. These are lower impact changes you can make to start improving instance security. Create a task : Use the +Create task button to create a Security Task to track or delegate best practice work. For details on Security Tasks, see [Security Tasks](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/8KGK~8cvFut3MgtYSHkv0Q "Use Security Tasks to monitor, prioritize, and assign all your security-related tasks in one place."). The table enables you to apply filters so that you can sort and save filtered lists, which you can use as work lists for different use cases or roles. See [save a filtered list](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/sz82X5Vs2MtT9V_L3sdRJA#save-a-filter-for-future-use "Discover the steps for saving filters in your security best practices for later reuse.") for more information. The following are explanations of the fields related to the security best practices table.{#security-best-practices-manager__table_ktk_yh2_fbc__entry__2} | Name | Description | |-|-| | Name | Word used to identify a security best practice. | | Maturity level | Applications and features that have been arranged by the order of impact to provide you measurable results. The values for maturity levels are: * Build a foundation * Enhance the experience * Optimize the functionality * Add advanced features {#security-best-practices-manager__ul_ltk_yh2_fbc} These can also be thought of as crawl, walk, run, and fly phases. | | Status | Current state of a best practice: * Open * In progress * Completed {#security-best-practices-manager__ul_mtk_yh2_fbc} | | Priority | Order of importance for implementing a best practice in your organization: * Immediate * Later * Not applicable {#security-best-practices-manager__ul_ntk_yh2_fbc} | | Goals | Security category that a best practice addresses: * Address initial security configurations * Secure emails * Monitoring logs * Manage access controls * Protect with encryption * Keep instances up to date {#security-best-practices-manager__ul_otk_yh2_fbc} | | First introduced | Which Security Center version the best practice was introduced. | | Changed | Which Security Center version the best practice was changed. | | Removed | Which Security Center version the best practice was removed. | [Table 1. Summary of fields used in the security best practices table] {#security-best-practices-manager__table_ktk_yh2_fbc} ## Security Best Practices details page {#security-best-practices-manager__section_fhv_1m1_ccc} Select a best practice from the table to view its page. At the top of the details page, you can view general information about the security best practice including priority, maturity level, and status. Use Complete Best Practice button to mark a the practice as complete, or Reopen Best Practice button to mark the practice complete. Use the +Create Task to create a Security Task to track and delegate this task. For details on Security Tasks, see [Security Tasks](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/8KGK~8cvFut3MgtYSHkv0Q "Use Security Tasks to monitor, prioritize, and assign all your security-related tasks in one place."). This page provides more information on the best practice, divided into tabs: Overview : This tab contains the Priority drop-down menu, which enables you to specify the security best practices that are important to you at this time and which are not applicable. The details section provides content about the features associated with the security best practice, and the documentation section provides one or more links where you can find additional information. The Progress card on the right shows the number of steps completed versus the total number of steps included. Select go to next step to navigate to the next incomplete step. The best practice update history card provides a snapshot of the release information for the best practice. You can track which ServiceNow Security Center version the security best practice was released in, and which versions it was subsequently last updated in. Task Steps : This tab provides step-by-step instructions for how to implement this security best practice. See [complete a security best practice](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/Up~l4_QY3vZ4OBGs5Coxdw "Learn how to complete a security best practice on your ServiceNow instance.") for more information. Activity : This tabe displays timestamped activities listed from newest to oldest. Use search and filter to query for information. See [apply filters to the security best practices table](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/sz82X5Vs2MtT9V_L3sdRJA#apply-filters-to-the-security-best-practices-table "Apply filters to return more relevant results for your security best practices.") for more information. * **[Complete a security best practice](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/Up~l4_QY3vZ4OBGs5Coxdw)** Learn how to complete a security best practice on your ServiceNow instance. * **[View activity of a best practice](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/QhWPuCwYbWlZNLHl9KTGTQ)** Track the chronological and timestamped history related to a security best practice that you're completing on your ServiceNow instance, along with the user that initiated the activity. * **[View data of completed best practices](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/lMmId7nyobONe7QlYDURZQ)** See visual representations of the total amount of best practices completed, or segmented by maturity level. * **[Filters the security best practices table](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/sz82X5Vs2MtT9V_L3sdRJA#apply-filters-to-the-security-best-practices-table)** Apply filters to return more relevant results for your security best practices. * **[Best Practices](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/aYFZEq770SEdvOv8nqTSDA)** Learn details about the Best Practices in the Security Posture Console.