GRC Software for IT & Technology Industries | ZenGRC

The Regulatory Burden

The risk landscape is rapidly evolving for organizations in the IT/Technology industries. Technology companies need to protect high value information such as intellectual property and customer information. While technology is a key enabler, it can also be a source of vulnerability.

Vulnerabilities in point-of-sales systems can lead to security breaches at retailers. Technology is often key infrastructure in all kinds of organizations, providing a broad attack surface that can be exploited. Due to the number of suppliers, partners, and distributors working with technology companies, third-party risk is another back door that can be exploited, causing reputational damage.

As the rate of technological innovation increases, so too does emerging cyber risk and pressure from regulatory bodies to combat it. This increases the need to plan, implement, and monitor compliance and risk. Technology companies need a flexible risk and compliance solution that helps them stay ahead of threats, meet compliance obligations, and better secure data, systems, and assets.

A Framework for Information Security Success

Several frameworks can potentially impact technology companies, each with its own requirements. For example, a technology provider might be expected to:

• ​Obtain a SOC 2 certification
• ​Undergo an audit to ensure NIST CSF, 800-53, 800-171, or ISO 27001 security protocols are enforced
• ​Adhere to HIPAA data privacy regulations if their tech is used to house personal healthcare information (PHI)
• ​Provide GDPR privacy notices and rights to users if they’re located in the EU
• ​Achieve CMMC certification if they work with the Department of Defense (DoD)

To meet their regulatory compliance requirements, tech businesses must develop a robust risk management strategy and embed cybersecurity awareness throughout the organization.

Manage Compliance and Risk with Confidence and Ease

ZenGRC equips security and compliance teams with a unified, real-time view of risk and compliance framed around business priorities to reveal information security risks across the business and provide actionable insight for mitigating risk.

With compliance and security frameworks built-in and maintained by experts, along with suggested risk and threat scores and real-time connections between control assessments and risk scoring, you get a unified, real-time view of risk and compliance and significant efficiency gains. This allows you to stay ahead of threats, reduce risk, and strengthen compliance.

With much of your compliance and risk management work automated, your team is free to spend more time growing your technology business.

Compliance Objectives

Your technology company’s compliance objectives will vary depending on the scope of your business and clientele. However, tech firms will be expected to have robust cybersecurity, risk management, and a compliance program in place in all circumstances.

With ZenGRC, you’ll be empowered to:

• ​Implement strong access controls and limit access to sensitive data and systems
• ​Enforce strict password policies and multi-factor authentication for users
• ​Perform a risk assessment to determine the quantity and severity of risks
• ​Create a risk reduction strategy to address vulnerabilities and potential threats
• ​Plan for business continuity and disaster recovery, including redundancies and backups
• ​Adopt continuous monitoring to detect and respond to potential threats
• ​Encrypt sensitive data and protect systems with firewalls and strict security policies

FAQs for Technology Industry

How do SOC 2 and NIST differ?

SOC 2 is a framework that applies to most service providers (often SaaS providers) and their ability to securely manage sensitive data and safeguard the interest of their clients. When SOC 2 is required, it results in an independent service auditor’s report and certification of compliance.

NIST, however, is a voluntary framework that can define and improve the security protocols necessary to secure a service provider’s IT systems and enhance information security.

Both standards focus on analyzing an organization’s internal security controls.

How does GRC software help me protect sensitive data?

To protect your IT systems and data from unauthorized access or theft, you must first understand what gaps, if any, exist in your security protocols as well as the unique risks facing your organization.

Once your risks are identified and assessed, you can leverage insights for better decision-making for risk reduction strategies, including which controls to implement or improve data privacy.

From there, your compliance or cybersecurity program will need to be maintained, monitored, and reviewed routinely to ensure that internal controls are still adequate to reduce risk and achieve compliance.

A governance, risk, and compliance management solution like ZenGRC helps you identify, meet, and maintain your risk posture, including threat and vulnerability importance and status.

ZenGRC ensures you always know where you stand and what action needs to be taken to address vulnerabilities and improve your risk, compliance, and security posture.

What are the benefits of NIST compliance?

Although NIST compliance is voluntary, there are several benefits to incorporating the NIST cybersecurity framework into your business, including:

• ​Creating standardized business processes for mitigating cybersecurity gaps across the organization
• ​Developing a set of best practices for a variety of information security concerns
• ​Decreasing the risk and severity of a data breach
• ​Greater cost-efficiency in the long term for cybersecurity and incident response
• ​Control mapping for several different related compliance frameworks

Additionally, with ZenGRC, you can increase the velocity of your NIST CF implementation. With built-in compliance templates and automation functionality, you can get organized, move quickly, and offload much of your manual compliance tasks.

What do I need to do to be CMMC compliant?

To achieve CMMC compliance certification, you must prove that you’ve implemented NIST 800-171 and 20 CMMC control requirements within your organization.

To verify this, you will need to submit your organization for third-party verification by a C3PAO assessor who will attest to your maturity level and grant the certification.

CMMC rules and roll-out are in flux and frequently change. ZenGRC Pro, coupled with Risk Insider experts and partners, can help you get started quickly with CMMC and stay up to date as changes emerge.

An Overview of ZenGRC

ZenGRC is a GRC software solution that spans all aspects of governance, risk, and compliance activities.