July 22, 2015 By Vikalp Paliwal 2 min read

Compliance Automation Is Essential – and Helps Keep You Sane

It’s summertime, and the barbecues are firing up. And if you’ve ever been brought before an auditor, you can relate to feeling the heat as you’re grilled. You need to be prepared to answer questions about roles and responsibilities in your organization, such as: Do you have documentation about who needs to do what? Do you have well-defined roles, responsibilities and processes for data security operations, auditing and managing compliance and policy mandates? Do you have evidence that you are following these processes and procedures?

If you don’t have any tools in place to support compliance activities, you may be asking, “How can I cost-effectively manage security and compliance for my organization when I’m faced with ever-growing costs for skilled resources?”

Likewise, if you are using a first-generation database monitoring tool to support your compliance requirements, you might be wondering “How can I get this solution to scale and support the level of reporting that I really need to be successful?”

The answer to both questions is simple.

Read the white paper: Three guiding principles to improve data security and compliance

Automated Compliance Streamlines Processes

Automated compliance reporting is essential to ensure reviews get done on time by the right people and are readily available for auditing. Successful data compliance requires three things:

  • Regular reporting reviews and signoffs to monitor who has completed their reviews;
  • Reporting reviews and signoffs to track that remediation has been completed;
  • A centralized repository to store those signoffs for when the auditors come knocking.

Workflow automation is essential to successfully support compliance. Security operations should have a well-defined workflow process for managing security, compliance and audit results. Let’s take the following as an example:


Figure 1: Compliance workflow crosses role boundaries.

The auditing process requires proper signoff from the database administrators (DBAs) after remediating vulnerabilities, from the information security professionals after reviewing and from auditors or managers after reviewing. The compliance workflow automation minimizes any delays in reviews or remediation, which reduces security operations cost and, most importantly, helps secure your data environment.

Securing Data With Compliant Behavior

First-generation database monitoring tools push compliance reporting to a preset list of people, who then must execute the workflow themselves. In this scenario, it’s difficult to deliver relevant reports to appropriate parties, and there’s no audit trail to provide proof that policies are being followed. With modern data protection tools, however, you can set up a complete, automated compliance workflow that encompasses everything from understanding vulnerabilities, remediation, approval and signoff to full audit readiness and more.

By relying on an audit-friendly workflow automation that is a closed-loop system, you have complete control, while meeting compliance regiments and getting the right reports to the right people at the right time It’s a common pitfall to think you can successfully support compliance requirements either manually or by using tools with limited capabilities, but you don’t have to put up with the time or expense of this struggle.

To learn more about securing your most valuable assets and sensitive data, view the on-demand webinar “It’s 2AM: Do You Know Who’s Accessing Your Sensitive Data?

More from Data Protection

Why safeguarding sensitive data is so crucial

4 min read - A data breach at virtual medical provider Confidant Health lays bare the vast difference between personally identifiable information (PII) on the one hand and sensitive data on the other.The story began when security researcher Jeremiah Fowler discovered an unsecured database containing 5.3 terabytes of exposed data linked to Confidant Health. The company provides addiction recovery help and mental health treatment in Connecticut, Florida, Texas and other states.The breach, first reported by WIRED, involved PII, such as patient names and addresses,…

Addressing growing concerns about cybersecurity in manufacturing

4 min read - Manufacturing has become increasingly reliant on modern technology, including industrial control systems (ICS), Internet of Things (IoT) devices and operational technology (OT). While these innovations boost productivity and streamline operations, they’ve vastly expanded the cyberattack surface.According to the 2024 IBM Cost of a Data Breach report, the average total cost of a data breach in the industrial sector was $5.56 million. This reflects an 18% increase for the sector compared to 2023.Apparently, the data being stored in industrial control systems is…

3 proven use cases for AI in preventative cybersecurity

3 min read - IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024 highlights a ground-breaking finding: The application of AI-powered automation in prevention has saved organizations an average of $2.2 million.Enterprises have been using AI for years in detection, investigation and response. However, as attack surfaces expand, security leaders must adopt a more proactive stance.Here are three ways how AI is helping to make that possible:1. Attack surface management: Proactive defense with AIIncreased complexity and interconnectedness are a growing headache for security teams, and…

Topic updates

Get email updates and stay ahead of the latest threats to the security landscape, thought leadership and research.
Subscribe today