Ask These Critical Questions About Compliance and Managed Threat Intelligence

IT compliance management is often a manual and tedious effort. It requires teams to monitor several IT security point products and pull together information from multiple sources to demonstrate compliance against industry-specific regulations like PCI DSS, HIPAA, FINRA, and SEC OCIE. And, while a SIEM or Security Information and Event Management tool can help automate much of the effort required to collect ‘compliance data points, a SIEM stops well short of being a one-stop-shop for compliance management.

So what do busy executives and IT leaders do? Most of them don’t have the luxury of having full-time security analysts on staff to deploy and manage a SIEM. This is where Managed Threat Intelligence (MTI) comes into play. The best MTI solutions go way beyond identifying threat information and collecting logs from critical sources like firewalls, servers, and switches. When you’re looking to beef up your compliance management and security management strategy, ask these critical questions.

• Does the solution provider know my industry? Whatever industry you’re in you have your own set of industry-specific regulations to manage. And, when it comes to enabling compliance with an MTI partner, one-size-does-not-fit-all.  It’s important to find the right managed threat intelligence solution and partner that has your back with expertise around your security and compliance issues. Make sure they have deep security experience in your industry to help you design a program that supports your needs while giving you complete visibility and control.

• Does the solution cover all my assets, users, and data across multiple environments? Today’s corporate IT environment is drastically different than even 10 years ago. In the past, network environments were mostly on-premises and physical, so security systems had a singular focus. Today, however, there’s no defined perimeter to protect. Offices are global, and workers are remotely accessing business-critical data and applications way beyond the traditional network. That’s why you need a managed security solution that’s capable of protecting your dynamic environment. Make sure your managed threat intelligence solution can monitor all your assets, including traditional on-premises devices, and remote workers, and virtual assets that are part of your cloud environments.

• Does the solution offer automated and customizable reports related to my compliance requirements? Compliance reporting is a crucial but tedious process. Make sure your managed threat intelligence solution includes built-in compliance reporting features that satisfy compliance reporting requirements, so you don’t have to recreate the wheel. Automated and customizable reporting capabilities will save you a lot of time and stress.

• Does the solution include periodic reviews with security analysts? Working with a managed threat intelligence partner should enable simplified compliance monitoring and reporting. Also, it’s critical managed security partners also provide security insights and periodic reviews of your compliance environment and cybersecurity posture. Ask them if they have the security expertise to aggregate all the required data points to produce compliance reports as well as the ability to provide periodic reviews of your environment, so you know you’re on track for the future.

Achieving compliance and keeping business data secure requires having the right security tools plus a single-pane-of-glass view into your networks, cloud environments, and endpoints. With the right managed threat intelligence solution, teams can focus on compliance management including streamlined auditing and reporting plus security management. At Vertek, our MTI solutions include SOC experts who provide continuous threat monitoring, visibility, and information for comprehensive security management and simplified regulatory compliance. If your customer needs help building and managing a plan for compliance that will protect their data and enhance their security posture, talk to us.