Cyber Security Compliance Audit

Unknown, Unmanaged, & Unprotected Privileged Accounts Violate Compliance Mandates

To pass your next compliance audit you must demonstrate effective privilege management

Every major security framework & regulation demands proper password protection

New compliance standards are emerging and audits are becoming more frequent and intense. Compliance bodies are now mandating a higher level of responsibility for security leaders, executives, and Boards of Directors.

Virtually every organization that handles data must abide by security compliance requirements. If you handle any type of personal, financial, or health information, you must be able to demonstrate compliance or face significant financial penalties and public embarrassment. If you are seeking government contracts you must receive a stamp of approval from security auditors to be successful.

Compliance for compliance sake is not the goal. The real goal is effective security against rising cyber threats. Even if you are not required by law to comply, you can use compliance regulations as a framework for security best practices. Effective privilege management helps you pass compliance audits and reduces your cyber risk.

Before auditors come knocking, get smart about compliance

How can you prepare for a compliance audit? Start with an internal audit to see how you map to regulatory requirements and see where you stand.

As part of the audit, you must identify all the privileged accounts in your organization and explain how controls over privileges work to safeguard protected data. Many organizations have hundreds or thousands of privileged accounts. That list includes service accounts that are not associated with individuals and may easily slip through the cracks. It includes privileged accounts in operating systems and platforms beyond Windows, such as root and other accounts in Unix/Linux.

Why would 70% of organizations fail a cyber security compliance audit?

Many organizations don’t have effective password management practices in place. Even if you wrote up a password policy and rolled out compliance training without correct controls, people will fall back on bad habits. In a compliance review, auditors will find security gaps that include missing passwords, duplicate passwords, or password sharing.

To pass an audit, you must implement and enforce granular limitations on access privileges for systems and data. You must monitor and report on ongoing access for internal users and third parties. Password protection and privileged access policies should be consistent, regardless of platform.

A one-time clean-up before an audit is not the solution. Increasingly, audit bodies are looking for demonstrable proof that cyber security policies can be maintained on an ongoing basis. Auditors are looking for systematic, automated security controls. You may not get a second chance to correct the mistakes.