Compliance is a fundamental baseline for many organizations but doesn’t guarantee security. While there is some overlap, today’s security leaders must recognize the need to go beyond what compliance frameworks call for to achieve an extra layer of protection and peace of mind against potentially devastating breaches.
Compliance may set the foundation, but it should never be viewed as providing total protection or proof of a robust security posture. Proactivity should always remain a top priority when safeguarding your organization, which is why today’s leading security teams are implementing powerful automation.
Tines simplifies compliance procedures, allowing you to save time and resources and guarantee a systematic, consistent approach.
Understanding SOC 2 audits
Depending on your company’s industry, you may need to meet different compliance requirements. Customers rely on Tines to automate a long list of compliance processes for frameworks, including SOC 1, SOC 2, GDPR, CCPA, PCI, CIS controls/SANS top 20, various NIST frameworks, ISO 270001, and different ISO and industry-specific standards.
SOC 2 (System and Organization Controls) is a minimal requirement for security-conscious organizations that seeks to demonstrate SaaS providers are securely managing your data to protect your organization and its users’ interests and privacy. Tines’ cloud edition is SOC 2 compliant. You can read more details on our security controls here. Tines is also available for self-hosting, allowing for deployment in highly regulated environments, such as banking or healthcare, directly inside your compliant infrastructure.
Organizations need to participate in third-party audits to achieve SOC 2 certification. As part of this process, they provide evidence that they’ve been enforcing, tracking, and documenting specific measures, e.g., proof that every employee has completed the latest security awareness training. This information is used to file a SOC 2 report. However, the reality is that audits represent a snapshot of time. SOC 2 audits involve intensive evidence collection that is then subject to review; the process can take up to five or six months, with audits going through each control element and ensuring there’s enough evidence to support approval. The audit is only as thorough as the auditor and their due diligence.
Benefits of automating compliance
Reduce human error and burden on employees
Collecting relevant evidence to achieve compliance can be arduous and error-prone; the risk of pulling the wrong data is high. By automating many elements, security teams can save valuable time and resources, so they can focus on identifying and mitigating threats proactively. In addition, automation can help ensure that security and compliance policies are consistently applied across all environments, improving an organization’s overall security posture.
Streamline processes
Automating security and compliance tasks allows for standardization, reducing the likelihood of human error. For example, suppose a system administrator manually applies a security patch to one server but forgets to apply the same patch to another server. This could create a critical security gap. By automating the process of applying security patches, enterprises can help reduce the risk of vulnerabilities due to human error.
Improve visibility and understanding of your environment
When it comes to automating security and compliance tasks, there are a few things that organizations need to keep in mind to help prioritize the most significant findings. It’s important to understand the types of data stored in your environment, the associated risks, and the processes involved in achieving compliance. No-code automation facilitates this understanding and allows those doing the work manually to build and maintain automation workflows, making it easier to verify that tasks are being done correctly.
Leverage battle-tested playbooks
The Tines Story Library of pre-built automation workflows offers a robust foundation to meet and even exceed compliance standards like the internationally recognized SOC 2 and ISO 27001 protocols. With these intuitive Stories, you can be confident your procedures will be streamlined according to today’s best practices and guidance.
Conclusion
While compliance may not guarantee top-notch security, it's still a crucial step that Tines can simplify. Tines was created to help you automate as many cumbersome processes as possible so that you can focus on more important things. But it's about more than just staying compliant; limitless possibilities can be explored beyond that lens. For instance, alerting and investigation can now become streamlined operations thanks to the platform - data from other applications will get enriched and then sent into the case management system of your choice with all necessary context attached. Not only does this make life easier for your security teams, but you'll also have precious evidence needed to prove your infallible commitment toward full regulatory adherence!
Learn more from our customers about how Tines supports key compliance processes, including onboarding and offboarding.