Why automation is crucial for security and compliance

August 23, 2022

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Why automation is crucial for security and compliance

Presented by Vanta

Good security not only minimizes downside, but also enables faster growth. Learn how an automated security and compliance platform improves security posture, stands up to security audits, and can get you compliant in just weeks in this VB On-Demand event.

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In this macroeconomic climate, automated compliance has become critical for organizations of every size. Compliance done the old-fashioned, manual way can’t keep up with the proliferation of security regulations, stand up a truly effective security posture or achieve compliance outcomes.

Automation also provides immense value for smaller organizations that might not have the in-house expertise they need to deploy and stand up the security posture that meets their industry’s standards — or today’s in-depth security and infrastructure audits. It’s especially crucial in healthcare, financial and other highly regulated settings, where continuous compliance can make or break a business, particularly when a SOC 2 and DOD-level audit is always in the cards.

True continuous monitoring and demonstration of great security posture is also critical to not only demonstrating that you’re a business that cares for your customers’ data and mitigates risk, but can help unblock deals with larger customers that need a particular level of security, help businesses gain and maintain trust with customers and more.

“The move to automation is absolutely required,” says Chad McAvoy, VP DevOps, CIO and co-founder of AdaptX. “The cost and the level of expertise you need to have, the resources required and the management needed are just untenable otherwise. You simply cannot be in compliance — and by compliance I mean continuous, not point in time — without that sort of infrastructure automation.”

As thorough as the spreadsheet or checklist of a traditional compliance check may be, it only captures a single point in time, adds Kaitlin Pettersen, VP of customer experience at Vanta.

“Ongoing, continuous monitoring and verification is absolutely critical,” she says. “For me and the businesses that I work with, the software that companies are prioritizing to partner with — they want to know that business was not just compliant two months ago on a Tuesday. They want to understand what was put in place and then proven to be compliant on that Tuesday, and then what has been done every day since.”

The automated compliance difference

Automated security and compliance platforms like Vanta are intelligently integrated into a company’s tech stack to provide continuous monitoring. It works as a centralized repository for all of the items required across different compliance standards, including evidence, documentation, SLAs, processes, policies and so on, cross-referenced with compliance controls.

Because the platform is compliance-focused and constantly observing your environment, it alerts you when your environment falls out of compliance relative to SLAs that you’ve defined or that are industry standard, or events like onboarding and offboarding people, security training and policy acceptance. Compliance-focused observability means that infrastructure configuration changes are immediately flagged in real time, and the right staff is alerted so that any issues can be addressed immediately.

“It significantly reduces the cost. It reduces the stress on my organization,” McAvoy says. “I can keep my highly qualified security and compliance folks working on other things relative to our infrastructure and our security in general.”

Building a security framework

Whether you’re building a security framework for the first time or just taking a new approach, the best defense is a good offense, Pettersen says, if only because there’s such a notable cost to falling out of compliance. Whether its official penalties, blocking or slowing down your sales team when they’re trying to close a deal with a hesitant prospect or the reputational cost, preventative measures are the key.

“Your security framework should mitigate risk,” she says. “Prevent yourself from ever having to clean up a mess by building that great security posture, leveraging automation and smart software to help get you there. Save yourself time and money and avoid going the good old-fashioned way. Recognize that this isn’t a set it and forget it type of thing. You want to avoid any pain and any of the cost associated with cleaning that up.”

To learn more about why it’s crucial to automate security and compliance, how automation platforms help mitigate risk and lower costs, mistakes to avoid and more, don’t miss this VB On-Demand event!

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