In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, organizations are undergoing significant transformations to stay competitive and adapt to changing market dynamics. As part of this process, digital transformation reshapes various aspects of business operations, including governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC). This article explores the intersection of digital transformation and GRC. Additionally, it outlines how automation plays a critical role in establishing and optimizing GRC practices.

Cybersecurity GRC automation, or Cyber GRC in short, is the use of technology to automate cybersecurity governance, risk management, and compliance tasks. This can include tasks such as vulnerability scanning, incident response, and compliance reporting. Cyber GRC can help organizations improve their security posture by reducing human errors, improving efficiency, and freeing up resources to focus on other areas of security.

Key benefits of Cybersecurity and GRC automation:

• Reduced risk of human error: Automation can reduce the risk of human error by eliminating manual tasks that are prone to mistakes. For example, vulnerability scanning can be automated to identify and remediate security vulnerabilities more quickly and efficiently than manual scanning.
• Improved efficiency: Automation can improve efficiency by freeing resources to focus on other security areas requiring human intervention. For example, compliance reporting can be automated to generate more accurate and timely reports than manual reports.
• Increased focus on strategic initiatives: Automation can help organizations focus on strategic initiatives by freeing up resources to focus on areas that are more critical to the business. For example, automation can be used to handle routine tasks such as vulnerability scanning and incident response. This frees up security professionals to focus on more strategic initiatives such as developing enhanced security policies and procedures.

Overall, cybersecurity GRC automation can be a valuable tool for organizations of all sizes to improve their security posture, reduce risk, and improve compliance.

Embracing Automation for Enhanced Governance, Risk, and Compliance

1. Understanding GRC in the Digital Age:
   Governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) encompasses the policies, procedures, and controls organizations put in place to ensure they operate in accordance with legal and regulatory requirements while effectively managing risks. In the digital age, GRC faces new challenges, such as increased cyber threats, data privacy concerns, and the need for real-time monitoring and reporting. As a result, organizations must reduce the costs and complexities associated with manual approaches to establishing and maintaining compliance by leveraging automation  to streamline GRC processes and enhance overall efficiency.
2. The Role of Digital Transformation in GRC:
   Digital transformation has become a strategic imperative for organizations seeking to leverage technology to optimize operations, enhance customer experiences, and drive innovation. When it comes to GRC, digital transformation enables organizations to integrate GRC practices into their broader digital strategies. By leveraging advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and natural language processing (NLP), organizations can automate and streamline GRC processes, resulting in improved accuracy, speed, and scalability.
3. GRC Automation Benefits:
   GRC automation empowers organizations to proactively manage risks, ensure compliance, and drive operational excellence. By automating routine and repetitive GRC tasks, organizations can free up valuable resources, reduce human errors, and increase efficiency. Automation enables real-time monitoring and alerts, allowing organizations to promptly identify and address potential risks or compliance issues. Moreover, automation facilitates data collection, analysis, and reporting, allowing organizations to gain valuable insights into their risk landscape. This enables them to make informed decisions.
4. Key Considerations for GRC Automation:
   Implementing GRC automation requires careful planning and consideration. Organizations should start by conducting a comprehensive assessment of their current GRC processes, identifying areas that would benefit most from automation. It is essential to select the right automation tools and technologies that align with organizational needs and objectives. Additionally, organizations must ensure proper integration between GRC automation solutions and existing systems to maximize efficiency and minimize disruption.
5. The Future of GRC: Embracing Automation:
   GRC’s future lies in embracing automation as an integral part of digital transformation initiatives. As organizations adopt advanced technologies, GRC automation will become increasingly essential. . Automation will enable organizations to enhance risk prediction and detection, accelerate compliance processes, and respond rapidly to changing regulatory requirements. Furthermore, the integration of GRC automation with other time-saving and highly scalable technologies, such as data analytics and cloud computing, will unlock new possibilities for organizations in terms of predictive risk analysis, real-time reporting, and enhanced decision-making.

Put Your Best Foot Forward with GRC Automation:

As digital transformation reshapes business landscapes, organizations must recognize the importance of integrating GRC practices into their digital strategies. GRC automation emerges as a crucial enabler for organizations aiming to navigate the complex and ever-changing risk and compliance landscape. By leveraging automation technologies, organizations can streamline GRC processes, enhance accuracy and efficiency, and proactively manage risks. As the future unfolds, embracing GRC automation will empower organizations to stay ahead, ensure compliance, and drive sustainable growth in the dynamic digital era.

To learn how Cypago can help you automate your critical GRC processes, book a custom tour of the platform today!

The standard was last updated in 2013, and after eight years, the new version, ISO 27001:2022, was published in October 2022. The transition period from the 2013 version to the 2022 one is set to be 3 years, meaning that current certificates need to be updated to the new version before November 2025.

This blog post will discuss the key changes introduced in the new version and their implications for organizations.

1. Scope and Context of the Standard
   The scope and context of the standard have been expanded in the new version to align with the latest trends and challenges in information security management. For instance, the new version addresses technologies that emerged after 2013, such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and the internet of things (IoT), which were not explicitly mentioned in the previous version.
   The context of the standard has also been updated to reflect the changing nature of information security risks, the importance of stakeholder involvement, and the need for risk-based thinking. The new version emphasizes the need for organizations to understand their internal and external context, including their business objectives, legal and regulatory requirements, and the needs and expectations of interested parties.
2. Risk Management
   Risk management has always been a central part of ISO 27001, but the new version provides more detailed guidance on the risk management process. The new version emphasizes the need for organizations to identify, assess, evaluate, and treat risks systematically and consistently. The new version also provides more guidance on how to determine the criteria for risk assessment and the selection of appropriate risk treatment options.
   Moreover, the new version introduces a somewhat new concept of “information security risk appetite.” This concept refers to the amount and type of risk that an organization is willing to accept in pursuit of its business objectives. The new version requires organizations to define their information security risk appetite explicitly and use it to guide their risk management decisions.
3. Information Security Controls
   The new version of the standard introduces several new controls and enhances some of the existing controls. For instance, the new version introduces controls related to supply chain security, secure development, and management of cryptographic keys. The new version also enhances existing controls related to access control, incident management, and business continuity. By that, the ISO 27001:2022 version becomes more similar, at least in essence, to the well-known and well-accepted SOC 2 standard created and maintained by the AICPA.
   The new version also provides more guidance on the implementation of controls, including the use of new technologies such as machine learning and automation. The new version also emphasizes the need for continuous monitoring and improvement of the effectiveness of controls.
4. Annex A
   Annex A is a critical part of ISO 27001, which provides a list of controls that organizations can implement to manage their information security risks. The new version of the standard has revised the structure and content of Annex A to make it more user-friendly and relevant to modern information security challenges. The new version has also added several new controls to Annex A, including controls related to supply chain security, secure development, and management of cryptographic keys. The new version has also updated the existing controls to reflect the latest industry best practices.
5. Certification
   The new version of the standard introduces some changes to the certification process. For instance, the new version requires certification bodies to conduct more rigorous and objective audits, including sampling techniques and the use of technology-based tools. This long-awaited requirement finally puts ISO 27001 inline with the latest developments in the Compliance Automation space. The new version also requires certification bodies to have competent auditors with relevant technical expertise and knowledge. The new version also introduces a new concept of “information security performance evaluation,” which refers to the assessment of an organization’s information security performance against its objectives and targets. The new version requires organizations to conduct regular information security performance evaluations and report the results to relevant stakeholders.

Conclusion

ISO 27001:2022 is a significant update to the previous version of the standard, which reflects the latest trends and challenges in information security management. The new version emphasizes the importance of risk-based thinking, stakeholder involvement, and the need for continuous compliance monitoring using technology tools and automation solutions.

Interested to learn how Cypago can help in achieving ISO 27001:2022 certification?
Sign-up to the free trial today and experience the true power of automation first-hand!

If you have any questions or comments about any of the above, please feel free to contact us.

Essentially, having a GRC plan in place means the organization is adhering to a set of information security controls, is managing the risks involved with outstanding gaps in its cybersecurity posture, and is running internal processes to maintain and govern employee and procedural alignment with the applicable regulations.
Due to the overwhelming increase in the amount of data every organization is creating and consuming, today’s business environment demands a robust and integrated approach to GRC management. This is where GRC tools and best practices come into play.

GRC Overview

GRC refers to an integrated approach to governance, risk, and compliance. It involves identifying, assessing, and prioritizing risks and ensuring the organization complies with legal and regulatory requirements. Effective GRC management ensures that an organization achieves its objectives, avoids unnecessary risks, and complies with relevant laws and regulations.

 

GRC Tools

GRC tools are software solutions that facilitate GRC management. They offer an integrated platform that combines GRC functions and enables organizations to manage governance, risk, and compliance more efficiently and effectively. Some popular GRC tools include:

1. Risk Management Software – This software helps organizations identify, assess, and manage risks.
2. Compliance Management Software enables organizations to manage compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.
3. Audit Management Software – This software streamlines the audit process, from planning to reporting.
4. Policy Management Software – This software helps organizations manage policies, procedures, and other compliance documents.
5. Most importantly – Built-in automation capabilities that streamline all of the abovementioned components.

 

Best Practices for GRC Management

Effective GRC management requires a holistic approach that considers governance, risk, and compliance as interconnected functions. Some best practices for GRC management include:
Establish a GRC Framework – Develop or adopt a well-known framework, such as NIST CSF, that outlines the organization’s GRC objectives, policies, and procedures.
Define Roles and Responsibilities – Clearly define the roles and responsibilities of GRC management individuals.

• Conduct Risk Assessments – Identify and assess organization risks regularly.
• Implement Controls – Implement controls to mitigate identified risks.
• Monitor Compliance – Monitor compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.

GRC Audit

GRC audit refers to the process of reviewing an organization’s GRC management processes to ensure they are effective and comply with legal and regulatory requirements. A GRC audit assesses the organization’s GRC framework, identifies risks and controls, and evaluates compliance with relevant laws and regulations.

GRC Internal Audit

GRC internal audit refers to the internal audit function within an organization that assesses the effectiveness of the organization’s GRC management processes. Internal auditors are not a mandatory piece of GRC management but are crucial for sustainable GRC-related processes. Their importance lies in their ability to evaluate the organization’s GRC framework, identify risks and controls, and evaluate compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.
An organization’s GRC audit is an essential part of an organization’s efforts to manage risks, comply with laws and regulations, and maintain effective governance. It helps to ensure that the organization operates in a transparent, accountable, and sustainable way.

 

GRC Audit Checklist

A GRC audit checklist helps auditors review an organization’s GRC management processes systematically. It includes a list of GRC management processes, risks and controls, and legal and regulatory requirements. The checklist helps ensure that auditors review all relevant aspects of GRC management processes.
This list is used by external auditors to evaluate a company’s compliance with regulatory requirements and internal policies and procedures:

1. Governance:

• Are there clear lines of authority and defined roles and responsibilities?
• Are policies and procedures documented and communicated effectively?
• Are there processes in place to ensure compliance with relevant laws and regulations?

2. Risk Management:

• Has a risk assessment been conducted?
• Are risk mitigation strategies in place?
• Are risk management activities monitored and reported on?

3. Compliance:

• Are internal policies and procedures in place to ensure compliance?
• Is compliance with external regulations and standards monitored and reported on?
• Are there processes in place to respond to non-compliance issues?

 

How does Cypago help GRC experts?

Cypago allows organizations to do more with less by streamlining the GRC process and reducing manual intervention. With Cypago, organizations can automate workflows, manage risks, and ensure compliance with regulations and industry standards, all from a single platform. By centralizing GRC activities, Cypago eliminates the need for multiple tools and systems, significantly simplifying GRC management. Cypago’s automation capabilities enable organizations to identify, assess, and mitigate risks quickly and efficiently, allowing them to focus on other critical business activities. Overall, Cypago is an excellent example of a GRC tool that provides automation, simplifies GRC management, and helps organizations do more with less.

 

Conclusion

GRC management is essential for modern organizations to achieve their objectives, avoid unnecessary risks, and comply with legal and regulatory requirements. GRC tools and best practices help organizations manage GRC more efficiently and effectively. GRC audit and GRC internal audit assess an organization’s GRC management processes. A GRC audit checklist helps auditors review these processes systematically. By implementing GRC tools and best practices and conducting GRC audits, organizations can improve their GRC management and achieve their objectives with greater confidence.

If you have any questions or comments about any of the above, please feel free to contact us.

Why is it important?

Ensuring effective risk management is vital for your business’s smooth operation and success and for maintaining security and compliance with standards such as ISO, SOC, NIST, and many more. Automated risk management can efficiently handle the complexity of risk management processes, saving time and reducing human errors.

What is compliance risk management?

Compliance risk management refers to identifying, assessing, and controlling the potential risks associated with non-compliance with laws, regulations, standards, and policies applicable to a particular business or industry. While true for multiple operational aspects, managing cybersecurity risks is one of the most challenging and evolving fields of Risk Management. The goal of compliance risk management in this respect is to ensure that an organization operates within boundaries minimizing the potential for negative information security and privacy consequences. A compliance risk management policy should be integrated into an organization’s overall risk management framework to ensure it is aligned with its strategic goals and objectives.

What are the main steps in risk management?

1. Risk Identification
   The initial step in effective risk management is identifying which risks apply to your business. It involves considering both business and IT assets, threats, and vulnerabilities. In essence, risk
   can be defined as the possibility of harm occurring when a threat exploits a vulnerability. Alternatively, risk can be viewed as the point at which assets, threats, and vulnerabilities intersect.
2. Risk Analysis/Assessment/Evaluation
   Once risks have been identified, the next crucial step in your compliance risk management plan is to conduct a comprehensive analysis, measuring, assessment, or scoring of each of the identified risks. This involves giving meaning to each risk, taking into account factors such as the likelihood and impact of the risk, the expected loss in the event of the risk happening, and the probability of the risk. By analyzing these factors, we can define the characteristics of each risk and produce a risk “bottom line,” such as a score, number, or price. This information serves as crucial input for the risk management expert in making informed decisions and taking appropriate actions in the next step. Different analytical methods can be applied, including qualitative or quantitative risk analysis, which we’ll delve into in the next post, where I’ll explain the differences and guide you on how to perform a thorough cyber risk analysis.
3. Risk Treatment
   Once the risks have been identified, analyzed, and fully comprehended, it’s time to take action – this is where risk treatment comes into play. Here are the available options for each risk:
   • Avoid – This approach involves eliminating the risk and for instance, modifying your plans or implementation to eliminate the likelihood or impact of the risk. This means there will be no risk whatsoever.
   • Mitigate (reduce) – This method entails taking action to reduce the likelihood or impact of the risk. One effective method is defining and monitoring security controls. Accept – By choosing to accept you acknowledge that the risk can happen and do nothing to prevent it. You may wonder when this would be advisable. An instance is when mitigating the risk is too expensive compared to the likelihood, impact, and loss expectancy, as deduced from the comprehensive risk analysis you carried out earlier.
   • Transfer – In this approach, you transfer the risk to a third party.
4. Continuous Risk Monitoring
   Effective risk management is an ongoing and dynamic process that demands consistent attention. Once risks have been reduced through the implementation of mitigation strategies and controls, it becomes imperative to monitor them regularly. To achieve this, updating the risk, registering, and testing the effectiveness of processes should be a regular practice.
   
   

This article provides an overview of the key steps involved in risk management for businesses. The initial step is to identify risks that are relevant to the business, considering both business and IT assets, threats, and vulnerabilities. Once risks have been identified, a comprehensive analysis should be conducted, measuring factors such as the likelihood and impact of the risk. The next step is risk treatment, where available options include avoiding the risk, reducing the likelihood or impact, accepting the risk, or transferring it to a third party. Finally, ongoing risk monitoring is crucial to ensure that risk management remains effective and dynamic. We emphasize the importance of effective risk management for business success, security, and compliance with industry standards.

If you have any questions or comments about any of the above, please feel free to contact us.

As a new market phenomenon, this category has multiple names.
Enterprises see it as an enhancement to existing GRC tools; Gartner has started toying with the name CCA (Continuous Compliance Automation), while others use CAT (Compliance Automation Tools) as an acronym.

We at Cypago, one of the first vendors to provide a holistic platform to automate and manage all compliance needs, simply call it Compliance Automation.

But what are the benefits of such tools, and why should a CISO or a GRC expert care about them? Why should a security compliance expert abandon the manual yet trusted and familiar way of running compliance processes and switch to an automated solution?

Let’s discuss what compliance means in today’s digital markets and why you should care about automating your security compliance.

Increasing demand for compliance

As more and more companies are embracing digital transformation and moving additional workloads to the cloud, data security is becoming a crucial factor in protecting sensitive information. In the last 12 months only, we’ve witnessed a series of events, such as the ones reported by Okta, LastPass, CircleCI, and many others, highlighting how customers’ data is at an all-time high risk of exposure, mishandling, and misuse. In turn, it created a massive spike in customers’ demand that their service providers and vendors prove compliance with security and privacy frameworks.

Although security doesn’t always equal compliance, security compliance automation tools can be a powerful solution for ensuring that your organization meets industry standards and complies with regulatory requirements.

 

Why should you be using compliance automation?

Here are some key benefits of using a security compliance automation tool.

1. Reducing the Risk of Human Error
   Mistakes can happen, but even a tiny error can have significant consequences regarding security and compliance. Compliance automation tools help to reduce the risk of human error by automating many of the manual processes involved in compliance management. As a result, organizations can spend less time worrying about compliance and focusing more on their core business objectives.
2. Ensuring Consistency
   Compliance requirements can vary widely depending on the industry and regulatory bodies involved. Compliance automation tools help ensure that your organization consistently meets these requirements over time and across regions or product lines, reducing the risk of non-compliance and potential penalties.
3. Saving Time and Resources
   Managing compliance can be a complex and time-consuming process. Compliance automation tools streamline many tasks involved in compliance management, such as documentation, evidence collection, data analysis, and reporting. This helps reduce the time and resources required for compliance management, allowing your organization to focus on other priorities.
   
4. Enhancing Security
   A security compliance automation tool can enhance your organization’s security posture by identifying and addressing system and process risks. An effective tool will assess the requirements made by the applicable security frameworks and highlight, on an ongoing basis, all the outstanding compliance gaps. Therefore, automated compliance testing can help to identify potential security risks, and automated remediation processes can help to resolve these issues quickly.
5. Keeping Up with Regulatory Changes
   Regulatory requirements can change rapidly, making it challenging for organizations to keep up. Compliance automation tools can help to ensure that your organization stays up-to-date with the latest regulatory requirements, reducing the risk of non-compliance and potential penalties.
6. Providing Greater Visibility and Control
   Compliance automation tools provide greater visibility and control over your organization’s compliance posture. Automated reporting and monitoring tools provide real-time insights into your compliance status, allowing you to identify and address any issues that arise quickly. With in-depth visibility, the ability to share insights with stakeholders and management becomes a more straightforward and actionable task.
7. Demonstrating Compliance to Auditors
   Compliance audits can be stressful and time-consuming processes. Compliance automation tools simplify the process by providing a centralized repository of compliance-related documentation and evidence. In addition, auditors can leverage the tool just like the end user, only they will review evidence, validate it, and share feedback with the end user. This way, communication is made more accessible, reducing the time and resources required for audits.

 

Embrace change, earn efficiency

As described, using a security compliance automation tool can be a game-changer for your organization. By reducing the risk of human error, ensuring consistency, saving time and resources, and providing greater visibility and control, these tools can help your organization achieve and maintain compliance while focusing on your core business objectives.

Yet it’s a change in how compliance is done today. As such, it calls for an open mind and readiness for disruption. Take screenshots, for example – this manual habit is no longer required when leveraging automatic evidence collection and analysis. The same is true for data sharing; instead of sending emails or text messages, you can now collaborate more innovatively and efficiently with all the relevant stakeholders. Compliance monitoring is another case in which existing spreadsheets can be replaced with intelligent workflows and actionable dashboards, providing in-context compliance visibility.

Some might question the possibility of automating security compliance processes.
But many others already enjoy new compliance visibility, efficiency, and enforcement levels.

If you have any questions or comments about any of the above, please feel free to contact us.

 

With the growing complexity of the business landscape, GRC teams are tasked with ensuring that an organization is operating in compliance with relevant laws and regulations as well as managing risks that could impact the organization’s ability to achieve its goals.

Additionally, with the increasing importance of cybersecurity and data privacy, GRC teams play a crucial role in helping organizations protect their sensitive information and prevent cyber attacks.

As regulatory demands continue to evolve, it is increasingly evident that GRC teams face an increasing workload.

What can be done to reduce the workload?

Before we share practical bits of advice, let’s recap today’s key challenges for GRC teams and security compliance professionals:

1. Lack of expertise – There’s a growing demand for GRC professionals who have the knowledge and expertise to navigate the complexities of the regulatory landscape and help organizations implement effective risk management strategies.
2. Risk visibility – In addition to regulatory compliance, GRC teams oversee an organization’s risk management efforts. It includes extensive data gathering, meticulous data analyses, and the ability to identify potential risks stemming from gaps in compliance adherence.
3. Policy enforcement – Implementing controls to mitigate compliance gaps and risks, and regularly monitoring the effectiveness of those controls.

Do more with less

To address the aforementioned challenges and to significantly reduce the required efforts, hear are a few action items you can implement:

1. Automate like there’s no tomorrow – Identify these specific steps in which human expertise is needed and put all your chips on automating the rest. For example, don’t waste your time on data collection and analysis, but do take the time to plan the appropriate remediation path.
2. Seeing is believing – It’s challenging to make the right decision with no data, however reviewing multiple spreadsheets and dashboards is even more time-consuming and tedious. Find a solution that is right for you that allows for a single pane of glass for compliance and provides that in-depth visibility that you need.
3. One size doesn’t fit all – All (wo)men are created equal, but every organization is profoundly different. It’s tempting to download a template or reuse one a friend shared, but a custom-fit process is required to cut costs and save time. Define the main steps in your current process and the tools the team is using, and look for software that will adapt to your terms rather than vice versa.

Overall, the demand for GRC teams is expected to continue to grow as organizations recognize the importance of effective governance, risk, and compliance management.
GRC professionals who are able to do the mind shift to automation and have the skills to implement effective risk management strategies will prevail.

Cypago’s compliance solution accelerates compliance adherence while reducing the workload for GRC teams

You need an intelligent platform that will continuously monitor the overall compliance status and watch your back, regardless of how fast the organization or the cyber threat landscape grows. Cypago is that platform. It serves as a single source of truth for any security standard, offloading most of the heavy lifting from GRC leaders and enabling them to make faster and wiser decisions with unmatched success.

If you have any questions or comments about any of the above, please feel free to contact us.

 

At Cypago, we’re always looking for ways to improve our customers’ ability to seamlessly and effortlessly secure their compliance needs. To achieve this goal, our research and development teams have made some exciting updates to our products.

Here is our latest update:

More flexibility and customization

Using the newly introduced Custom Audit wizard, users can upload their own set of controls into Cypago and enjoy the full range of our built-in automation and analysis capabilities based on a unique implementation of advanced NLP-based algorithms.

New for cloud providers

A significant enhancement is now available for cloud providers’ automated evidence collection, gap analysis and continuous monitoring. This includes an impressive lineup of capabilities, including audit trail logging coverage, bucket versioning and backups, server disk backup encryption, server monitoring, user access keys rotation, user access keys limitation, and much, much more.

 

Deeper SDLC monitoring

Get deeper and more accurate visibility into your secure development lifecycle processes with capabilities extending to deployment notifications, branch protection, branch push and merge access, branch force push and code owner requirement, user SSO enrollment, releases, and environments.

 

 

Updated and expanded controls and requirements

These features were purpose-built to empower superior automation, and enable mappings to all standards, including – but not limited to – SOC 2, ISOs, and HIPAA.

New batch of supported integrations

Cypago can now successfully integrate with newly collected assets such as builds, pipelines, and job configurations, within the Azure DevOps (ADO) space, and supports integration with additional tools such as Freshservice, Curricula, Monday.com, Snyk, and Snowflake.

 

Private cloud tool integration

Cypago now enables advanced GitLab and Jira server collection from your own private cloud premises, including environments, releases, deployment notifications as well as users, groups, and admin permissions.

If you have any questions or comments about any of the above product updates, please feel free to contact us. We will be happy to discuss them with you.

The job of the CISO is extremely important, and ever-evolving. Faced with a rapidly digitizing environment and its subsequently expanding threat landscape, CISOs are the security leaders charged with helping organizations stay ahead of the game, and retain their competitive edge, without falling prey to malicious hackers, ransomware, and other cyber attacks.

CISOs must keep up with industry trends, anticipate cyber risks, and take measures to prevent them from materializing. To do so, they fulfill integral roles in helping organizations build their overall cybersecurity strategies and courses of action. As such, it goes without saying that they must constantly keep updated on the latest innovative tech tools and operational strategies, while remaining fully compliant with all relevant regulatory requirements.

It’s no wonder that, when it comes to implementing and managing cybersecurity programs, CISOs face their fair share of challenges.

Let’s take a deep dive into the top 3 challenges CISOs face, from Cypago’s perspective.

1. Creating and maintaining a comprehensive cybersecurity program that covers all aspects of the organization’s business operations

Over the past decade, organizations have adapted to many new and diverse work models and policies. Today, more and more people are working remotely at least one day a week, requiring network access from multiple locations. Additionally, many companies now employ a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy, allowing employees to access internal systems from a personal device, such as a laptop, tablet, or smartphone. Coupled with the preponderance of out-of-date devices and corporate systems that should have been updated or decommissioned long ago, as well as a plethora of unpatched vulnerabilities, CISOs often find themselves struggling to build a cybersecurity strategy that ensures protection anytime, and from anywhere.

2. Implementing and managing security controls and technologies that are effective against the latest threats

With increased digitization comes an increase in the volume and sophistication of cyber-attacks attempted against organizations. Those technologies and practices that successfully warded off attacks just a short while ago, have essentially been rendered obsolete. To stay even one step ahead of cybercriminals and their ever-changing threats, visibility is key, but it’s only the starting point. Once they know what they need to protect against, CISOs must identify the most effective security controls and technologies that keep their organizations safe against the latest threats, and then implement and monitor them, to ensure their continued success. To say that this is a cumbersome process is an understatement!

3. Ensuring that the organization’s cybersecurity program is constantly evolving to meet the changing needs of the business.

The cyber threat landscape isn’t the only piece of the puzzle that’s in a state of constant evolution. Businesses across industries are consistently changing as well, in an effort to meet customer expectations, market trends, budget constraints, and employee well-being and satisfaction-related demands.

Above all, CISOs must regularly verify that the organization’s cybersecurity program is aligned with all compliance and regulatory requirements derived from its business goals and objectives. These, of course, tend to evolve over time as well, with new regulations emerging to help protect organizations, their assets, and their customer base. Given the rapid changes and the nature of the regulations, CISOs need to leverage the right tools to deliver on this key liability.

Cypago’s end-to-end compliance solution helps CISOs overcome these main challenges – and others!

You need an intelligent platform that will continuously monitor your overall compliance status and watch your back, regardless of how fast your organization or the cyber threat landscape grows. Cypago is precisely that platform, serving as a single source of truth for any security standard, giving CISOs the peace of mind they need, to make faster, smarter decisions that help them overcome the above main challenges, with unmatched success.

Want to learn more about Cypago’s compliance solution? Visit us >> cypago.com

At Cypago, we’re always looking for ways to improve our customers’ experience and security compliance management capabilities. To that end, our research and development teams have been hard at work on updating our products so that they help make compliance processes that much smoother and more successful.

Here is a brief summary:

Evidence management This will enable you to easily view, identify, export, and handle compliant/non-compliant artifacts.
	Compliance dashboard We’ve launched an updated, extremely powerful dashboard that provide you with actionable insights on your current compliance posture, in one convenient location.
User access reviews This is a groundbreaking innovative tool that was purpose-built to enable you to review, assess, and approve users, permissions, and application access.
	Vendor management This feature creates a single location, from which you can effectively and efficiently manage, assess, and document your vendors and their associated risks.
Audit scope editor Use this feature to add or remove controls from existing scope, annotate ignored ones, assign ownership, and more.
	New batch of supported integrations Cypago can now successfully integrate with the following digital solutions: Gitlab CI, AWS CloudTrail, AWS CloudWatch, Microsoft Azure, Okta, MongoDB, Terraform, JFrog, Elastic Cloud, JumpCloud, Slack. Many more to come very soon.
Auditor interaction With this new feature, you’ll benefit from streamlined management for the control implementation lifecycle, including snapshots and submissions for audits.
	Risk register Manage, assess, and document your risks in one place, with this efficient feature.
Assets directory Use this directory to gain full visibility of all of your security & compliance-related assets, which will be continuously collected from all connected integrations and stored in a single repository, for easy access.
	Task management Create and delegate tasks for team members and colleagues to mitigate outstanding gaps or deliver new required evidence with greater ease than ever before.

If you have any questions or comments about any of the above product updates, please feel free to contact us.

Security audits can be complex, confusing, and time-consuming. They can also cost an organization a pretty penny. As such, when seeking to sail through IT compliance and security audits, it’s important to identify the difference between how much you’re spending, and how much you SHOULD be spending, to get the security audit results your organization and clients seek and deserve.

To better understand the compliance pricing landscape, let’s overview the direct, indirect, and opportunity loss costs associated with SOC 2 and ISO 27001 audits.

Direct costs

How much are you spending on consultancy services, auditor fees, and security or IT tools needed to comply with the standard requirements (such as a code vulnerability scanner, for example)?

Numbers for direct costs vary widely, depending on the nature of the organization, the product architecture (SaaS or not), the rating of the auditor (The ‘Big 4’ or others), and the geography.

Indirect costs

These are the sum of all organization resources spent on preparing and running a security compliance process. For example, all the efforts put in by internal teams to define the audit’s scope, collect evidence, analyze and identify the gaps, remediate them, and manage the overall process.

For fast-growing organizations, this can quickly sum up to hundreds of work hours spent by your most expensive and time-limited employees!

Opportunity loss costs

A lack of adequate security compliance can lead to failed business opportunities and subsequent financial loss. In today’s market, given the high sensitivity to data protection and privacy, a SOC 2 report or ISO 27001 certification must be made available, to prevent or mitigate opportunity loss costs.

Bottom line: how much does an internal audit cost?

All in all, the overall cost of a SOC 2 or ISO 27001 audit run manually without any automation can be extremely painful. It can significantly and negatively influence any team’s availability and ability to focus on its business-critical tasks. This is without considering a vital component of audit costs, when it comes to regulated markets: fines applied by the authorities, should any misalignment with regulatory requirements be detected.

Automating security compliance processes has quickly become the leading option for forward-looking compliance managers and security experts. By significantly reducing the overall efforts required in these processes, you can save hundreds of hours every year and experience a major drop in your total cost of ownership.

In the market for a compliance automation solution to reduce your security compliance costs?

Discover Cypago’s end-to-end intelligent compliance solution for any security standard and start orchestrating your startup’s security compliance, today!