Is an impending IT audit always a source of stress? It’s understandable if it feels that way. Companies are facing an ever-growing list of regulations governing their IT environments, and demonstrating compliance can seem daunting. But what if your IT infrastructure was audit-ready every day? That’s where BRYXX can help.
Organizations must comply with an increasing range of legislation aimed at improving digital resilience, including NIS2 and DORA. Regulators conduct audits to verify whether you are actually meeting the requirements. In addition, many sectors now demand information security certificates, such as ISO/IEC 27001 and SOC 2, just to operate. Achieving these certificates also depends on successfully passing audits.
Guilty until proven innocent
In the courtroom, you are innocent until proven guilty. During an audit, however, exactly the opposite applies. You must demonstrate that your IT environment complies with the relevant regulation or standard. Which IT systems do you use and which security controls are in place? Are all activities on the systems logged for the required period? Do your security solutions work as intended? These are the questions you must be able to answer when the auditor comes knocking.
In theory, this shouldn’t be a problem if established processes are consistently followed. In practice, however, only a handful of colleagues often know exactly how particular processes work. If those people are unavailable when the auditor asks questions, providing clear answers can become difficult. What’s more, day-to-day operations don’t always match the documented procedures. The more exceptions there are, the greater the stress before the audit takes place, because the likelihood increases that the auditor will discover areas where your organization is not fully compliant.
The last-minute scramble
It’s not uncommon for organizations to discover that their log data is incomplete. But that’s only part of the challenge. Many organizations only start collecting the necessary data once an audit is imminent. Some companies spend as much as two months a year preparing for all the audits they have to undergo.
And after all that preparation, the moment of truth arrives: the audit itself. It can feel like your chances of retaining certification are fifty-fifty. And if you lose it, then the stress levels go through the roof, because the consequences can be significant. Opportunities might be delayed or deals might even fall through just because you’re no longer properly certified.
A better approach
Fortunately, there is a better way. Rather than treating an audit as an exam that you spend weeks cramming for, spend a little time every day preparing. That way, you no longer have to panic and frantically gather information as the audit looms ever closer. At the same time, you maintain a clearer view of how your systems can run better and you become more confident that your organization is fully compliant, every single day. With this comes the comfort of knowing that if things go wrong, you know how to put them right — after all, you regularly test your IT contingency plans.
When the audit finally takes place, it becomes less of a test and more of an opportunity to validate your work and learn how to do things even better. So you’re not only working on continuous compliance, but also on continuous improvement. Granted, manually gathering data is still a time-consuming task, even if you do it over time, but automation can make a real difference in this area. Next time, we’ll take a closer look at which solutions can keep the admin burden to the minimum.