Role of Automation in Building a Robust and Continuous Security Compliance Program

Continuous compliance is required to ensure that best security practices and controls are in place and are working effectively to maintain compliance. Continuous compliance requires constant monitoring of assets such as SaaS services, data stores, and employee laptops. Continuous monitoring is the only way to quickly identify and remedy security gaps such as unauthorized user access, missing workstation security tools such as anti-virus and password manager applications, and publicly exposed privacy and confidential data.

The auditors verify continuous compliance by taking a random sample of evidence over a given period to confirm that a particular control has been implemented and is working. Also, during the audit process, an auditor can verify the evidence of properly implemented controls. For example: in the last quarter, were all production releases of the company’s SaaS application tested and authorized by the QA organization before full release? Were all employees properly onboarded by completing security awareness training and acknowledging the company’s Code of Conduct and other mandatory policies?

Continuous compliance, therefore, requires 24/7 monitoring, evidence collection, notification in case of non-compliance with controls, and rapid remediation of gaps.

The critical element is automation. Automate your compliance program and processes with your systems and third-party services to the maximum possible. Continuous compliance can be accomplished in many ways. For example, integrating with third-party services such as cloud infrastructure, DevOps repositories, ticketing, change management, and productivity tools can be achieved via their APIs. This integration enables automatic, regular data collection and should occur often enough to show continuous compliance.

Also, using lightweight software agents on end-point devices such as laptops, workstations, and servers enables the automated collection of evidence from them. This lightweight software monitors the assets to ensure the necessary security tools — such as anti-virus software, a firewall, and multi-factor authentication — are in place. The company can also achieve additional automation by leveraging other security tools that monitor the company’s security posture.

Absent an automated system of this kind; compliance teams must manually hunt for Jira tickets, take screenshots, run reports, and then painstakingly associate that evidence with the proper controls. Manual is painful.

Compliance readiness and audits traditionally require time, resources, and heavy spending on outside consultants. However, by using emerging compliance automation tools and platforms, companies can automate the collection of audit evidence for continuous compliance. The automation typically dramatically shortens the time and resources required for compliance readiness. The quality of observation is also significantly improved, given that automation ensures that monitoring and evidence gathering happen consistently, accurately, and on schedule.

When implementing compliance automation tools, companies should look to ensure that the chosen automation platform can help accomplish the following:

Establishing trust is a crucial competitive differentiator when seeking to do business with SaaS companies in today’s era of data breaches and compromised privacy. Customers and partners want assurances that the vendors they work with are doing everything possible to prevent disclosing sensitive data and to avoid putting them at risk. Compliance certification as proof of security robustness fills that need. By automating compliance programs and processes, customers achieve compliance certification fast and cost-effectively and stay continuously compliant.

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