Build a Security Compliance Program
Cost-effective compliance is possible.
- Most organizations spend between 25 and 40 percent of their security budget on compliance-related activities.
- Despite this growing investment in compliance, only 28% of organizations believe that government regulations help them improve cybersecurity.
- The cost of complying with cybersecurity and data protection requirements has risen to the point where 58% of companies see compliance costs as barriers to entering new markets.
- However, recent reports suggest that while the costs of complying are higher, the costs of non-compliance are almost three times greater.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Test once, attest many. Having a control framework allows you to satisfy multiple compliance requirements by testing a single control.
- Choose your own conformance adventure. Conformance levels allow your organization to make informed business decisions on how compliance resources will be allocated.
- Put the horse before the cart. Take charge of your audit costs by preparing test scripts and evidence repositories in advance.
Impact and Result
- Reduce complexity within the control environment by using a single framework to align multiple compliance regimes.
- Provide senior management with a structured framework for making business decisions on allocating costs and efforts related to cybersecurity and data protection compliance obligations.
- Reduces costs and efforts related to managing IT audits through planning and preparation.
- This blueprint can help you comply with NIST, ISO, CMMC, SOC2, PCI, CIS, and other cybersecurity and data protection requirements.
Start here – read the Executive Brief
Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should manage your security compliance obligations, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the ways we can support you in completing this project.
Guided Implementations
This guided implementation is a nine call advisory process.
Guided Implementation #1 - Establish program
Call #1 - Scope requirements, objectives, and your specific challenges.
Guided Implementation #2 - Identify obligations
Call #1 - Establish framework and roles.
Call #2 - Identify operational environments.
Guided Implementation #3 - Implement compliance strategy
Call #1 - Identify compliance obligations and conformance levels.
Call #2 - Map obligations into control framework.
Guided Implementation #4 - Verify
Call #1 - Review policies and strategy.
Call #2 - Develop test scripts.
Guided Implementation #5 - Track and report
Call #1 - Track status and exceptions.
Call #2 - Report on program status.
Book Your Workshop
Onsite workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost onsite delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Establish the Program
The Purpose
- Establish the security compliance management program.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Reviewing and adopting an information security control framework.
- Understanding and establishing roles and responsibilities for security compliance management.
- Identifying and scoping operational environments for applicable compliance obligations.
Activities
Outputs
Review the business context.
- RACI matrix
Review the Info-Tech security control framework.
Establish roles and responsibilities.
Define operational environments.
- Environments list and definitions
Module 2: Identify Obligations
The Purpose
- Identify security and data protection compliance obligations.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Identifying the security compliance obligations that apply to your organization.
- Documenting obligations and obtaining direction from management on conformance levels.
- Mapping compliance obligation requirements into your control framework.
Activities
Outputs
Identify relevant security and data protection compliance obligations.
- List of compliance obligations
Develop conformance level recommendations.
- Completed Conformance Level Approval forms
Map compliance obligations into control framework.
- (Optional) Mapped compliance obligation
Develop process for operationalizing identification activities.
- (Optional) Identification process diagram
Module 3: Implement Compliance Strategy
The Purpose
- Understand how to build a compliance strategy.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Updating security policies and other control design documents to reflect required controls.
- Aligning your compliance obligations with your information security strategy.
Activities
Outputs
Review state of information security policies.
Recommend updates to policies to address control requirements.
- Recommendations and plan for updates to information security policies
Review information security strategy.
Identify alignment points between compliance obligations and information security strategy.
Develop compliance exception process and forms.
- Compliance exception forms
Module 4: Track and Report
The Purpose
- Track the status of your compliance program.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Tracking the status of your compliance obligations.
- Managing exceptions to compliance requirements.
- Reporting on the compliance management program to senior stakeholders.
Activities
Outputs
Define process and forms for self-attestation.
- Self-attestation forms
Develop audit test scripts for selected controls.
- Completed test scripts for selected controls
Review process and entity control types.
Develop self-assessment process.
- Self-assessment process
Integrate compliance management with risk register.
Develop metrics and reporting process.
- Reporting process
- Recommended metrics
After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this Blueprint, and what our clients have to say.
Client
Experience
Impact
$ Saved
Days Saved
Wade Trim Associates, Inc.
Guided Implementation
9/10
$12,562
2
