Most tech companies maintain multiple security audits and certifications like SOC and HITRUST. Can you simplify compliance?
- Maintaining multiple security audits and certifications like SOC 2, HITRUST or PCI can help tech companies earn customer trust and satisfy regulators.
- However, tackling compliance for multiple controls frameworks is expensive and time-consuming — unless you integrate your compliance efforts into a single unified process.
- Decide which controls frameworks are essential to attracting customers in your niche and then work with a third-party audit and compliance advisor to implement an integrated compliance process to avoid duplicating your efforts.
Tech companies often maintain multiple controls frameworks like SOC 2, HITRUST or PCI to appeal to customers and meet industry regulatory requirements. This can make compliance efforts messy because your team must manage parallel certification or attestation processes.
But what if you streamlined all your security audits and certifications into a single integrated compliance process? Keep reading to learn more about how this could save your team time, money and effort.
Why do tech companies need security audits and certifications like SOC 2 and HITRUST?
Tech companies hold vast amounts of customer or client data inside their systems. To prove to potential customers that their data will be appropriately protected, tech companies typically implement controls frameworks like SOC 2, HITRUST or PCI.
Each framework represents a set of controls, policies and actions designed to help ensure that an organization’s data is safe and secure. Different frameworks might work slightly differently, but they all fall under this broad overall format.
What are the major control frameworks for tech companies?
Some major frameworks relevant to tech companies include:
- SOC 2: Developed by the AICPA, SOC 2 is popular with tech companies in areas like SaaS, cloud services or AI.
- HITRUST: Originally developed for the healthcare sector as a way to comply with HIPAA, HITRUST has since also become popular in financial services, and is often useful to healthtech and fintech companies, as well as AI companies.
- PCI DSS: The global data security standard for all payments involving credit or debit cards from major issuers like Mastercard, Visa and American Express, is essential for companies involved in payment processing.
Depending on your needs, you may also want to demonstrate compliance with other key frameworks like GDPR and HIPAA.
How should you choose the right control framework(s)?
Focus on the frameworks relevant to your industry or niche. Expect potential customers to pay close attention to your data security controls during the sales process and see to it that you are in line with industry norms.
If you don’t offer the same level of security assurances that your competitors do, you may find it difficult to gain customer trust.
You may also need to implement a given framework to comply with industry regulations. Healthtech businesses, for example, will need HITRUST or a similar framework in place to demonstrate HIPAA compliance.
Why should you integrate your compliance efforts for SOC 2, HITRUST and/or PCI?
To prove to your customers or industry regulators that you have the appropriate security controls in place, you must complete an audit process (SOC 2), receive certification (HITRUST) or pass an assessment (PCI). This sounds manageable enough — until you try to do so for more than one cybersecurity framework at once.
However, by integrating your compliance efforts for two or more frameworks into a single unified process, you can make this work simpler and easier for your team. Because there is significant overlap between what each individual framework is calling for, you can significantly reduce the amount of time you’ll need to devote to compliance if you tackle them all at once.
- To complete a SOC attestation, earn HITRUST certification or demonstrate PCI compliance, you will need to take many of the same steps in the same order.
- To obtain the third-party assurance needed to show compliance, you’ll need to first provide extensive details about the data security controls you have in place and then undergo a testing process to show your auditor or certifier that your controls are working.
- Your team will have to share a great deal of information with your auditor or certifier, so being able to gather most of this information once rather than two or three times can save a great deal of effort.
How do you create an integrated compliance process for multiple control frameworks?
Here’s how CIOs, CTOs and other stakeholders can begin establishing an integrated compliance process for multiple cybersecurity frameworks:
1. Decide which frameworks your business needs
Look at what your potential customers are asking for and what your competitors offer. Which frameworks do you need in place to earn the trust of the people you want to serve?
Also, carefully consider the rules and regulations that govern your specific industry, as those may have strict security requirements as well.
2. Consult a compliance and audit advisor
Find an advisory firm that can help you complete the audit or certification process for your chosen cybersecurity frameworks. For example, if you plan to implement SOC 2 and HITRUST, you will need an advisor that can do a SOC 2 audit and issue HITRUST certification.
3. Create a roadmap
With your advisor, create a roadmap and timeline for your compliance efforts. You’ll want to align this to fit each framework you need to prove compliance with to avoid any major duplication of work. In each case, you’ll be assessed on your controls and policies during a certain period of time, so line these up as much as possible.
How Wipfli can help
We help tech companies complete a SOC 2 audit, earn HITRUST certification and/or pass a PCI assessment. Let’s talk about the specific framework(s) your business needs and whether you’d benefit from an integrated compliance strategy. Start a conversation.
Get help with SOC 2, HITRUST or PCI
