How to Prepare for Security Audits

Security audits are very important for modern businesses. Every business heavily relies on technology for delivering its services. But, cyberattacks are also increasing with time. It is important to make sure that your data is secured from attackers. A security audit is one of the best ways to check your organization’s security level. Most organizations think that a security audit is just a waste of time. But, security audits will protect your company from security breaches and mismanagement.

Companies have to also follow various compliance standards. Also, you must renew these compliance certificates every year by performing a security audit by a third-party provider. This is one of the main reasons for performing a security audit. Sometimes your customers want to audit your organization security. They want to make sure that their data is secured from attackers.

If you have never prepared for a security audit, then your certificate can get canceled. Also, you may end up losing your current or potential customers. Thus, it is important to make sure that you are ready for a security audit. In this article, we are going to share some tips that you can use for preparing for a security audit.

1. Always Stay Informed

Hackers are coming up with new complex attacks. Thus, the government is also changing security compliance regulations every year. They have to make sure that your client’s data is secured from new attacks. For example, a number of changes were made to PCI DSS and HIPPA in 2019. There were many changes made to SOC 2 reporting standards. You should always know about the new compliance regulations and standards. This will help your organization in preparing for a security audit.

2. Assess your security policy

Every organization must have a security policy. It defines all the rules and processes that are required to manage your digital assets and data. Your security policy must contain all the operating procedures for protecting your company from a data breach. This will ensure that your company is protected from a data breach. Also, it must contain additional details like who can access your data. Your security policy must define how your company stakeholders can access your organization data. This policy should also establish the legal and ethical responsibility of the organization. It is your duty to protect your customer’s data from attackers. Most of the security audit questions are going to apply to your security policy document. Thus, you must ensure that your security policy is updated. Also, it should be also available for the preparation process.

3. Create an asset inventory

A security audit will also check your IT infrastructure. Thus, you must create an inventory of your technology assets. You don’t want a security auditor to find out that your IT team forgot to create an asset inventory.

4. Create a Timeline

It is difficult to prepare for a security audit. Thus, you must first establish a timeline for your preparation phase. There are many things that you need to check. Hence, you must have a proper strategy. This will ensure that your IT team needs to know their responsibility. You should map out the things that your IT needs should accomplish. This will help your security team on focusing on important things only.

5. Assign Responsibilities and Roles

It is important to assign roles to your security team. If you want to prepare for the security audit quickly, then you should distribute tasks during the planning phase. This will ensure that everyone knows their responsibility. If everyone already knows their roles, then they can focus on their assigned tasks. This will help you in speeding up the preparation phase. It will also help you in reinforcing security procedures and policies.

6. Review your previous security audit results

Most of the companies have already gone through at least one security audit. Thus, it is always the best idea to review your previous security audit results. This will ensure that you have already addressed all the recommendations. Also, you must implement recommendations that you have ignored in the past. Most of the auditing agency focuses on some important aspects of compliance requirements. Your old security audit results will help you in understanding the main aspects of your compliance requirements.

7. Time for a self-assessment

First, you should implement all the security policies and procedures. After that, you should ensure that the technology inventory is created. Also, you must ensure that you have assigned roles to your team. After this, you must test your security policies. This test will help you in fixing all the security errors in your company. You can combine both an automated review system and a manual review system for assessing your security. This will help you in identifying security gaps and risks in your company. It will also help you in reducing the stress and anxiety of a real security audit. Your team will already know what to do. Also, you can fix all the security gaps before a real security audit.

8. Address security gaps

If you have done a self-assessment security audit, then you must have found some security gaps in your infrastructure. There can be some deficiencies in your security policy. It is important to address all the security gaps. This will help you in saving your money and time. Also, it will improve your security procedures. Thus, it will reduce the risk of data breaches.

Conclusion

A security audit is a stressful event for any company. But, it is also the best time to improve your security practice and operating procedures. First, you should create a timeline for your preparation phase. After that, you must assign roles to your team. This will ensure that your team can focus on an individual task. Also, you must test your security policies. This will help you in finding security gaps in your organization. Thus, you can fix these gaps before an actual security audit. A security audit will ensure that your company is protected from attackers. If you want more security tips, then you can contact Bleuwire.

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