To many it might seem that Governance, Risk, and Compliance is just a matter of writing a few controls and requirements down on paper. Requirement A maps to Control A. Simple, right? That’s the way most organizations tend to approach GRC. In fact, creating a document here and a document there over just a short amount of time, can land an organization in the situation we often see clients in when they first come to TRUE for help. Most often, they have created a multitude of documents and spreadsheets that they see as having formed their overall Cybersecurity program. Some of these may be templated policy documents, while others might be a spreadsheet of roles and responsibilities. Still other documents might be an attempt to map their managed technology vendors. In the end, one person has an old version of this spreadsheet, people are emailing versions back and forth, and there are varying degrees to which documents are being updated with new information. No one is really able to keep track of a regular cadence with cybersecurity tasks throughout the year, so annual compliance assessments and penetration tests are scheduled at the last minute, and the yearly push to meet compliance becomes a massive burden across numerous teams, scrambling to find the latest documentation and make sure all requirements have been met. Linking and re-using components of the security program is typically limited, in this common scenario, to referencing a document or spreadsheet here and there. But there is a better way.
Centralize & Automate Documentation
Using a GRC Program, or Platform (the combination of a powerful GRC software and the humans who operate it), companies can organize documentation for answering audit and compliance requirements. Risks can be identified and documented with links to existing controls or ongoing projects to mitigate the risk. The mitigations established by the company can meet the compliance requirements across numerous standards concurrently, making the documentation effort for those controls more efficient, since they are reusable within the GRC program. Then, historical evidence is automatically collected and maintained by the process of using the system.
Systematic interfaces can also be created to automatically collect process evidence. That’s where you really begin to see the benefits of your GRC program increase exponentially. Through integrations, you can automatically pull in information from platforms you may be using to perform functions like SIEM or MDR to provide evidence of your ongoing network monitoring.
Manage Deadlines and Progress for Each Team Member
If you have the right GRC program implemented) timely reminders of when items of interest require execution, audit or review serve to remind all stakeholders to move your security program forward. This is a point worth discussing in a little more detail, as not all GRC programs or platforms are created equally. 99% of what you find on the market is simply a repository that will map to compliance frameworks. It’s the active team management and quick snapshot capability, where you can quickly see who is responsible for which controls, and whether or not they have completed their tasks, that sets some GRC programs on a higher plane. A common slow-down in compliance and security management is in having to check in with stakeholders to get a sense of their progress, coordinate resources, examine documentation for whether or not it has been updated, and staying on top of deadlines. On-demand progress reports and dashboards keep you aware of the current state of security and compliance for the company, in addition to giving you the ability to report with accuracy on progress across numerous compliance frameworks throughout the year.
Why Doesn’t Everyone Use a GRC Platform?
The main hurdle to implementing central and automated GRC management is the human time factor. Your Risk Assessments, Penetration Tests, Vulnerability Scans, Policy Updates, and other documentation have to be loaded into the program at some point. This process doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It takes real humans who can put in the time and effort, because each organization’s compliance documentation is unique unto itself. The same reasons many organizations are always one step behind on compliance–because their teams are inundated with other tasks and objectives and don’t have time to sit with documentation for the time it would take them to organize it more efficiently–are those which keep them from making the jump. In those cases, it can be a tremendous load off to work with compliance and cybersecurity experts who can help you collect all the documentation, identify and remediate key vulnerabilities, and load all of that information into a GRC management tool for you. Where most GRC platforms do not maintain that kind of expertise in-house, you can be sure to include that in your list of differentiators when shopping for solution types.
Creating a Security Fabric: 5 Key Benefits to Leveraging a GRC Program
Once you have done the hard work of getting your organization set up in the right GRC platform, you will begin to see the benefits of efficiency and proactivity in your Governance, Risk, and Compliance program, most notably in the amount of time and stress your teams face when audit season rolls around again.
- The company documentation will be current, organized, and available. The policies and controls that define the processes within the company for maintaining security are monitored and linked to compliance requirements. As a result, timely messaging for maintaining and collecting current data for evidence is provided. Automated evidence collection through system interfaces is readily possible. Because of the historical evidence collection, the GRC program can answer audit and compliance questions far more effectively with data that is current, managed throughout history, and readily available.
- The risks to company will already have been identified and documented. These risks are expected to be mitigated either by existing control processes, project to fix or create a control process, or an exception. The mitigations are designed to lower the risk to an acceptable level for the company. When projects complete, often a new control process is established, and executing that control process on a regular schedule is what lessens the identified risk to an acceptable level.
- Mitigations can be used to satisfy different requirements from different standards. The company does not need to repeat work processes that are established for a given compliance requirement. The user of the GRC simply links the designated control to the compliance requirement that it satisfies. The same work processes with the same execution, audit and review history apply. In addition, automatic mappings from an existing compliance standard to another standard can be applied to further lessen the work involved with maintaining compliance. Try that with spreadsheets and documents.
- Historical evidence will be automatically collected and maintained by the process of using the system. Once a schedule is established for the executions and audits of controls, as well as, the reviews for risks and policies; timely reminders tickle participants to give their input. This means that the system informs the participants that they have something to provide and requests that they complete the task. By completing the task, historical evidence is collected for that instance of the item being worked. Automated process can also be established that further automate the collection of evidence for each instance of the item being worked.
- You will always know your current status. The system will maintain a series of on-demand dashboards and reports to intelligently communicate current compliance status. Often the GRC program will establish a scoring system that gives you a sense of exactly where you stand against all company compliance requirements.
As you can see, using a GRC Program is a much more effective way for a company to maintain its security posture. When it’s time to evaluate solution types, know that you will find a wide range of options. TRUE approaches GRC management as an extension of our clients’ teams, not just as a platform that sits in isolation and depends 100% on you. We support our clients in setting the right baselines, improving documentation, mapping to compliance requirements, and through coaching that supports ongoing improvement in their internal processes to make all of this easier and more effective over time. We are here to help every step of the way.
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