Third Party Risk Management

The 9 Best Internal Audit Software in 2024

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In today's fast-changing business environment, internal audit management software has become extremely crucial for organizations looking to simplify their audit processes while ensuring compliance and improving overall audit efficiency. While manual auditing is still a thing, software usage is preferred over manual internal audits because manual audits can prove to be cumbersome and less effective, and they are prone to look over potential weaknesses.

While there are several internal audit software solutions out there, choosing the right one can be overwhelming, as there are several variables to consider. To help you make an informed decision when choosing the best internal audit management software, we've compiled a detailed list of the nine best internal audit software in 2024.

What is Internal Audit Management Software?

Internal audit management software is a specialized tool designed to help various organizations strategize, execute, and supervise internal audits. These software solutions are indispensable for audit teams because they help simplify internal auditing processes, such as tracking audit progress and ensuring adherence to the organization’s regulations and internal policies. Internal audit software usually features solutions for an organization’s audit planning, risk assessment, document management, issue tracking, and reporting features.

How to Choose the Best Internal Audit Software

When choosing internal audit software for your organization, you must consider a few factors to ensure you have chosen the best software that covers all your needs. Listed below are the factors that you must consider:

Software Features: First and foremost, you must always look for software that offers a detailed set of features that meet your organization’s needs with regards to audit management requirements, such as planning audits, assessing risks, managing documents, and tracking and reporting issues.
Integration of the Software: Always ensure that the software you choose effortlessly integrates with your organization’s existing systems, such as ERP or accounting software, to simplify data transfer and improve efficiency.
Scalability: You must choose software that can aid your organization's growth by allowing you to add users and features as needed.
User-Friendliness of the Software: If the software's task is to simplify your work, it should be easy to use and intuitive. Consequently, your audit team should be able to adopt it quickly without extensive training, thanks to its user-friendliness.
Compliance with the Software: To ensure the security and integrity of your audit data, you must ensure that the software complies with relevant regulations and standards, such as SOX, GDPR, and ISO.
Support: When choosing software vendors, look for vendors offering excellent training and customer support that will help you resolve any issues or questions that may arise during the implementation and use of the software.
Pricing: Pricing plays a crucial role when choosing your internal audit software. While opting for a low-priced solution can be tempting, they often lack critical functionalities. Therefore, choose a solution that fits your organization’s budget while still containing all essential features. Also, ensure that the proposed pricing includes all necessary features and services because some software solutions offer add-on features at an additional cost.

The Best Internal Audit Software of 2024

Now that we know what internal audit management software is and how to choose one that works best for your organization, let’s dive right in and explore nine of the best internal audit software in 2024:

Cyber Sierra

Cyber Sierra’s is an end-to-end GRC automation platform offers a comprehensive suite of tools tailored to streamline security compliance easy for enterprises. With continuous control monitoring and effective risk management modules the platform facilitates internal audits seamlessly. Providing a real-time intuitive dashboard with centralized controls repository, and audit ready programs, the software offers clear visibility into your security controls and conducts entity level checks to identify areas of non compliance during internal audits.

Pros	Cons
Automated workflows for repetitive GRC tasks with prebuilt customizable templates.	The platform is built for enterprises, and hence may be slightly expensive for start-ups.
Extensive customization and scalability for improved productivity and efficiency.
Seamless integration and easy to use interface.
Automated evidence collection
Along with GRC the platform also offer threat intelligence and TPRM programs

Key Features of Cyber Sierra’s Internal Audit Software:

Robust risk identification, evaluation and mitigation features to effectively manage poentential risk and threat across the enterprise.
The software offers real-time monitoring caoablities with advanced reporting features providing data driven insights to support internal audits.
Compliance automation modules for frameworks such as GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, SOC and supports financial regulations including MAS-TRM, SEBI, CIRMP and more.
The platform continuously updates it alogorims and adapts as per the evolving regulatory frameworks.
Streamlines creating, monitoring and tracking of data management and policy repository including reviews and updates.
It also offers smart GRC, third-party risk management, continuous control monitoring, threat intelligence, employee security training and cyber insurance - all from a single unified platform.

Cyber Sierra's AI-enabled platform has a Governance module to digitize compliance programs. It utilizes a multi-LLM approach to map vulnerabilities to controls, assets, and compliance programs. This facilitates continuous control monitoring and continuous third party risk management. Such capabilities are critical for enterprises that, on average, contend with over 500 technical controls daily, emphasizing the need for automation capabilities.

Auditboard

Auditboard is a compliance management platform that offers intelligent cloud-based audit management software with a wide range of features to help various enterprises manage their internal audits. It includes modules for collaborative audit planning, risk assessment, issue tracking, reporting, and closing security gaps.

Pros	Cons
They offer a user-friendly interface	The customer support isn’t as responsive
The platform has strong reporting capabilities	They have limited customization options
The software can seamlessly integrate with other systems	Decreased cross-integration with other platforms/software
It is the best for maintaining an audit trail

Key Features of Auditboard’s Internal Audit Software:

Offers a simple cloud-based audit management system
Audit planning and execution
Excellent risk assessment and relief
Good at issue tracking and resolution
Easy to integrate with other systems
Has an enhanced control program

Additionally, Auditboard is known for its strong reporting capabilities. That way, the software centralizes visibility and minimizes redundancies, allowing organizations to create simple customized reports that meet their needs. The software also offers a user-friendly interface, making it easy for audit teams to explore and use.

Workiva

Like Auditboard, Workiva is a cloud-based platform that offers a suite of audit, risk, and compliance management solutions. These include integrated governance, audit planning, risk assessment, document management, and reporting features.

Pros	Cons
The software’s user interface is easy to use	Might face lag when switching between pages
It has a fairly flexible customization option	Average customer support
It has excellent collaboration features	It might lack advanced features that are usually offered by other software
	The price might be high for new organizations

Key Features of Workiva’s Internal Audit Software:

Offers a simple cloud-based platform
Internal audits via Workiva save time
Allows the audit team to focus on the analytical activities
Its reporting is customizable
Effortlessly integrates with other systems

Additionally, Workiva is known for its assured integrated reporting and strong collaboration features, which allow audit teams to collaborate in real-time on various projects that are being audited. The software also offers flexible customization options, allowing organizations to tailor it to meet their needs.

SAP Audit Management

SAP Audit Management is a solution offered by the SAP suite of products. The SAP audit management software offers features aligning your organization’s business with audit planning, execution, and reporting. It integrates seamlessly with other SAP modules and offers strong analytical capabilities.

Pros	Cons
This software can seamlessly integrate with the organization along with all the other solutions SAP offers.	It might be pricey for small, up-and-coming organizations
This software has advanced analytics capabilities	Beginners can find it hard to learn the various processes
It can optimize staff utilization and resource planning
It has a strong reporting feature

Key Features of SAP’s Internal Audit Software:

Amazing and seamless integrated audit management within the SAP suite
Risk assessment and management

What makes SAP Audit Management one of the best internal audit management software is that it can seamlessly integrate with other SAP modules, allowing organizations to streamline their audit processes. The software also offers advanced analytics capabilities, allowing organizations to gain insights from their audit data.

TeamMate+

TeamMate+ is an audit management software that aims to assist audit teams and effectively move through the audit workflow by offering features for planning audits, executing internal audits, and reporting discrepancies. It includes modules for risk assessment, issue tracking, and document management.

Pros	Cons
End-to-end audit management and workflow solution.	The software has limited integration options with other systems
It has an intuitive user interface	Possibility of lacking a few advanced features that are offered by the other software.
Strong and comprehensive reporting capabilities	Document requests can only be sent one person at a time
The software is best when it comes to collaborative features

Key Features of TeamMate+’s Internal Audit Software:

It is one of the best document management software
The internal audit’s planning and execution are always risk-focused.
Has real-time collaboration
The reporting is customizable
Can easily integrate with other systems

TeamMate+ is a platform that gives you cloud-hosted options and is best known for its intuitive user interface, which makes it easy for audit teams to explore, navigate, and use the software. The software’s strong collaboration features allow audit teams to work seamlessly on audit projects.

Diligent

Diligent One Platform is an integrated risk management platform that offers audit, risk, and compliance management features for all digital organizations. The offers of Diligent include various modules for audit planning, risk assessment, issue tracking, and reporting.

Pros	Cons
Diligent has a comprehensive suite of features that many organizations can use	The price can be a little high for organizations that are just starting.
It can integrate easily with the organization’s software	It takes quite some time to learn how to use the software
It has flexible customization options

Key Features of Diligent’s Internal Audit Software:

One of the best-integrated risk management platform
Seamless integration with other systems
Comes with three apps: a projects app, a results app, and a reports app that shows automation workflow

Diligent is known for its comprehensive suite of features that allow organizations to manage all aspects of their audit, risk, and compliance processes using a singular platform. The software’s strong integration capabilities allow organizations to integrate with other systems to simplify their processes.

Archer Audit Management

Archer Audit Management is a component of the Archer suite of products that aims to transform the efficiency of your internal audit function and offers features for audit planning, quality, and issue management. The various modules include risk assessment, issue tracking, and document management.

Pros	Cons
You can seamlessly integrate the software with the organization’s system while also integrating with all the other Archer software	It can be a little expensive
Powerful reporting capabilities	Requires specialized training for optimal use
The software has strong customization options

Key Features of Archer’s Internal Audit Software:

The Archer Audit Management software is a component of the Archer suite of products
The software is great at document management, audit planning, and scheduling.
Seamless integration with other Archer modules

Archer Audit Management is best known for its seamless integration with other Archer modules. This allows organizations to manage all audit processes in one platform and assess audit entities risk-wise.

Hyperproof

Hyperproof is compliance and risk management software that offers audit, risk, and compliance management features. It includes modules for compliance operations, audit planning, risk assessment, issue tracking, and reporting.

Pros	Cons
It has a user-friendly interface	It has limited customization options
Excellent collaborative features	It might lack some of the advanced features the other software produce
It has the capability to send reports comprehensively

Key Features of Hyperproof’s Internal Audit Software:

Allows you to collaborate with your auditors easily
The software gives you seamless control over the controls and audit requests
You can know the status of your audit
Effortlessly integrates with other systems

Hyperproof is best known for its easy-to-use, user-friendly interface. This makes it one of the best internal audit management software for audit teams, as they can navigate and use it effortlessly. The software also offers excellent collaboration features, allowing audit teams to work together seamlessly on audit projects.

CURA

CURA is a governance, risk, and compliance software offering audit, risk, and compliance management features. The features offered by CURA include modules for audit planning, enterprise risk management, business risk management, risk assessment, issue tracking, and reporting.

Pros	Cons
It has flexible customization options	The price of the software can be a little high
Its integration capabilities are exemplary	It takes time to master the software
It has a thorough reporting feature

Key Features of CURA’s Internal Audit Software:

CURA is one of the best governance, risk, and compliance management software
The software’s strength lies in its issue-tracking and resolution capabilities
It is flexible and user-friendly.

CURA is best known for its flexible customization options and user-friendliness. The platform allows organizations to tailor the software to their liking and needs. The software is also very particular about risk management and has modules that range from enterprise risk management and operational risk management to incident management and policy management.

Ready to Successfully Navigate Audits?

With organizations worldwide grappling with increasing regulatory pressures and escalating cybersecurity threats, the demand for an advanced solution that can effectively help you navigate these challenges has skyrocketed. An internal audit solution is the first step to adding to cyber resilience. Therefore, choosing the right solution is paramount to ensuring the efficiency and effectiveness of your organization's internal audit processes.

The nine software solutions highlighted in this article offer a comprehensive range of features tailored to meet diverse organizational needs. Whether you require robust audit planning capabilities, seamless integration options, or comprehensive reporting features, there is a solution that can address your specific requirements and streamline your audit operations.

Here's how Cyber Sierra can facilitate your audit process

Cyber Sierra’s GRC program offers a robust suite of features such as advanced risk analytics, customizable compliance frameworks, and with the integration with technologies like AI the platform easily integrates with your existing tech infrastructure and maps to your GRC controls, and provides complete visibility into your security and compliance posture. To summarize, it puts your GRC program on autopilot and empowers your audit team to effortlessly manage and optimize audits, ensuring compliance while mitigating risks.

Schedule a demo today and discover how Cyber Sierra can transform your organization's audit landscape.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between internal and external audit software?

Internal audit software: This software is designed for organizations to conduct internal audits. Internal audits usually focus on the organization’s internal operations, processes, and compliance.

External audit software: This software, on the other hand, is used by external audit firms to conduct audits on their clients. External audits usually focus on financial statements and regulatory compliance.

Can internal audit software integrate with other systems used by the organization?

Yes, internal audit software integrates with other systems used by most organizations. Often, internal audit software solutions offer integration capabilities with systems like ERP, accounting, and document management systems. This integration allows for simple yet seamless data transfer, collaboration, and improved efficiency in the audit process.

Is internal audit software suitable for small organizations?

Yes, internal audit software solutions are suitable for small organizations. In fact, they are also specifically designed for small organizations. More often than not, these solutions offer features with price plans that accommodate the needs and budgets of small organizations. .

Srividhya Karthik

Srividhya Karthik is a seasoned content marketer and the Head of Marketing at Cyber Sierra. With a firm belief in the power of storytelling, she brings years of experience to create engaging narratives that captivate audiences. She also brings valuable insights from her work in the field of cybersecurity and compliance, possessing a deep understanding of the challenges and pain points faced by customers in these domains.

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Governance & Compliance

Why CISOs are Ditching the Regular for Smart GRC Software

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Legacy GRC tools get a bad rap.

For instance, when someone asked members of the r/cybersecurity subreddit community for their primary use of GRC software, the overwhelming response was negative. As you can see below, most respondents called the GRC tools they’ve used ‘shitty:’

Wondering why many people think GRC tools are ‘shitty,’ I dug deeper. My findings can be summarized by one of the many comments to the Reddit post above. The second comment, to be specific. As noted, most legacy GRC tools are basically prettier, more expensive versions of Excel spreadsheets with reminders and folders.

Smart GRC software is different.

But what exactly is it, you ask?

A smart, enterprise GRC solution is purposefully designed as one, unified cybersecurity governance, risk management, and compliance regulatory (GRC) suite. Across these tenets, an excellent one works interoperably. This means that you, your security team, and teams across your company can use it to automate mundane GRC processes while getting near real-time, actionable cybersecurity insights.

Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) opt for them because exceptional ones fill the voids of legacy GRC tools. Specifically, instead of a prettier spreadsheet with basic reminders, smart GRC consolidates the entire enterprise cybersecurity infrastructure under one technology roof, enabling your core team, organization, and security processes to work in sync.

And to cut the long story short…

It’s How You Create a Strong GRC Program

A major challenge in enterprise organizations is the presence of silos, where the core security team and teams across other departments work independently. This often leads to misalignment and inefficiencies in implementing holistic cyber risk measures.

Smart GRC software reduces such unwanted silos. This enables company-wide perspective and real-time implementation of programs across governance, risk management, and regulatory compliance. More importantly, it helps your team evolve with the ever-growing threat landscape, creating a strong GRC program.

But what makes GRC software smart?

According to CSO’s report, smart GRC is one with integrated cybersecurity capabilities, resulting in company-wide alignment:

Based on this, the rest of this article will explore benefits of adopting smart GRC software. In the end, you’d also see why the interoperable nature of Cyber Sierra makes it a more reliable, smart GRC platform for tackling enterprise cybersecurity holistically.

Benefits of Smart GRC in Enterprise Cybersecurity

Consider this illustration:

As shown, due to the interconnectedness of enterprise GRC, a core benefit of smart GRC software (like Cyber Sierra) is its interoperability. Meaning that from implementing governance frameworks to ongoing risk management measures and compliance regulations, your enterprise security team and organization can achieve everything below from one place.

1. Centralized, Optimized Workflows

Getting everyone involved —from stakeholders who provide executive oversight to your core cybersecurity team and employees across the organization— is a crucial benefit of smart GRC software.

But centralization is only the starting point.

The real value is that you’re also able to create, manage, and optimize critical cybersecurity workflow processes collaboratively. This gives you, the executive or security leader, a more comprehensive view of your company’s tech infrastructure and cybersecurity processes.

As was the case with Hemant Kumar, COO at Aktivolabs.

2. No Cumbersome Spreadsheet Versioning

Excel can’t handle modern GRC complexities.

But most people don’t realize this until there are multiple sheets with multiple tabs and hundreds of columns and rows to deal with. At which point you either have to deal with cumbersome versioning problems or train your team to become spreadsheet ninjas.

Because smart GRC software is unified, it solves most, if not all, manual errors and frustrations from using Excel or its cloud-based alternative, Google Sheets. For instance, leveraging a smart GRC platform removes:

The risk of users overwriting various critical data
Leadership forgetting to change access permissions when employees leave your company, and
Dealing with data breaches due to the inherent lack of security on spreadsheets generally.

In addition to eliminating these inefficiencies, smart GRC software also offers massive scalability advantages. Say your organization was expanding and you needed to comply with various new compliance regulations. With a smart GRC platform, for instance, no need to create and manage new versions of sheets manually.

An excellent one comes pre-built with popular compliance programs, giving your team a streamlined process of becoming compliant.

3. Seamless Policy Creation & Maintenance

Across governance, risk management, and regulatory compliance are hundreds, and in many cases, dozens of hundreds of policies to be created and maintained with timely updates. Attempting to do any of the three —create, maintain, and update— with traditional word documents introduces lots of inefficiencies.

For instance, important policy documents may be spread across multiple employees’ computers and not accessible by others on your security team when needed. This creates inaccuracy, redundancy, and policy violations if, say, you needed to update such inaccessible policy documents to keep your company compliant.

Smart GRC solution solves this.

For instance (with Cyber Sierra), all policies across governance, risk management, and compliance are created and consolidated into a unified view automatically. This gives you, your security team, and relevant stakeholders across your organization a centralized pane for creating, managing, and updating policy documents.

With everything in one place, you can see who was assigned a specific policy document, the current version, the last time it was updated, the last time it was reviewed by leadership, and much more.

4. Real-time Cybersecurity Controls’ Audit Logs

Post-GRC implementation effectiveness is as, if not more, crucial as centralizing pre-GRC implementation. It’s how your security team ensures implemented GRC controls are all functioning effectively.

Failure to swiftly identify and fix broken cybersecurity controls across governance, risk management, and regulatory compliance programs can lead to data breaches and hefty fines. This creates a dire need for real-time cybersecurity controls’ audit logs with the goal of spotting and fixing control breaks as they happen.

Smart GRC software streamlines the process.

It can log, audit, and monitor all cybersecurity controls in near real-time. It also gives your team a dedicated view where all control breaks can be immediately tracked and remediated. More importantly, with an exceptional one, you can assign remediation tasks to members of your security team from the same pane.

Crucial Steps In Implementing Enterprise GRC

Get the right people —executive stakeholders and core cybersecurity team— involved, and implementing enterprise GRC comes down to creating and training them on critical processes. Next, empower them with an interoperable, GRC platform, and they will more easily streamline the work involved collaboratively.

As illustrated below:

People

People, as they say, are your first line of cybersecurity defense. This saying applies so much to enterprise GRC implementation because you need the combined efforts of:

Executives experienced in choosing the right GRC governance frameworks and providing leadership oversight
Cybersecurity operators versed in implementing and maintaining implemented GRC frameworks, and
Employees trained on doing their bits to avoid data breaches that could lead to GRC implementation failures and hefty fines.

Smart GRC software brings you and everyone needed to implement and maintain your GRC program into one centralized pane. But to ensure this, the platform must be pre-built with major GRC frameworks and compliance programs like SOC2, PCI DSS, and others across the US, Europe, and Asia. This is crucial because it makes choosing GRC frameworks and initiating the process of implementing your GRC program a few clicks for members of your leadership team.

Another benefit of a smart GRC platform is that you can train your core cybersecurity team and employees across the company on GRC implementation best practices from the same place. This is crucial, as it helps to keep everyone aligned on necessary security awareness.

Processes

Creating and managing policies, which can be dozens or hundreds, in many cases, forms the bulk of enterprise GRC implementation. Typically, your team must create, upload, and provide evidence of corresponding cybersecurity controls for each policy.

As you can imagine, the processes involved can be overwhelming if done manually. But with a smart, interoperable GRC platform, the processes and steps involved are all streamlined.

Each GRC policy your team needs to implement gets a unified view for streamlining all processes and steps involved. For instance:

Details of the policy,
Evidence of controls, and
Version history

…will all be in one place.

Consolidating everything related to each GRC policy this way reduces the implementation processes required to a few clicks. Say you wanted to assign the implementation of a policy to one person and its corresponding controls to others in your team.

It takes just a few clicks to do that.

Why Choose Cyber Sierra’s Smart GRC Platform?

Enterprise organizations choose a smart GRC platform like Cyber Sierra for its inbuilt interoperability. Essentially, this means, instead of point cybersecurity tools for different GRC implementation steps, you and your team can do everything from one place.

Starting with cybersecurity governance.

Our platform has various compliance programs across the main global jurisdiction pre-built. With this, your team can just choose a program (or add a custom one) and have the entire process of becoming compliant streamlined from one place:

But becoming compliant is just a start.

Your team will often need to track and update policies, identify and remediate compliance control breaks to stay compliant to ever-changing regulations. Doing these requires two things:

A centralized pane for managing all policies:

Near real-time audit logs for identifying and remediating cybersecurity compliance control breaks:

As shown above, these crucial capabilities are all pre-built into Cyber Sierra’s interoperable, smart GRC suite.

Scalability is another reason we often see. Growing organizations using Cyber Sierra are able to implement international security and compliance regulations as they emerge and become inevitable.

One example is Aktinolabs:

Pramodh Rai

Meet Pramodh Rai, a technology aficionado and Cyber Sierra's co-founder, whose zest for innovation is fuelled by a cupboard stacked with zero-sugar Redbull. With a nimble footwork through the tech tulips across Asia Pacific, he's donned hats at Hmlet (the proptech kind) and Funding Societies | Modalku, building high-performing teams and technologies. A Barclays prodigy with dual degrees from Nanyang Technological University, Pramodh is a treasure trove of wisdom, dad jokes, and everything product/tech. He's the Sherpa in sneakers you need.

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Third Party Risk Management

Enterprise TPRM Buyer’s Guide for CISOs

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You deserve a pat on the back.

In case you’re wondering why, here goes. Taking the time to explore enterprise TPRM software buyer’s guide before buying one reminds me of this famous Abraham Lincoln-attributed quote:

All things being equal, a sharpened ax will chop down a tree more effectively and efficiently. But you need some time to sharpen it, as Lincoln wisely opined. Similarly, the right third-party risk management (TPRM) tool is like having processes pre-sharpened to be more effective and efficient at tackling all 3rd party risks. But due to the ever-changing cyber threat landscape, choosing the right one requires investing some time to know what works best today.

And the first step is to…

Understand Today’s TPRM Lifecycle

To stay competitive, Gartner’s research found that up to 60% of organizations now partner with over 1,000 3rd party vendors. This number, the study noted, will only increase, giving security teams like yours more work to do. But the most worrying part is what the same research also found: A whopping 83% of organizations identify third-party risks long after performing initial due diligence.

This insight is instructive for chief information security officers (CISOs) and tech executives like you. It calls for a need to rethink the old way of assessing and managing vendor risks. Specifically, it means you must go beyond initial due diligence and perform ongoing categorization, swift remediation, and ongoing monitoring of third party vendors partnering with your company to be able to deal with risks promptly.

That’s what today’s TPRM lifecycle entails:

A great way to address each stage and step of the TPRM lifecycle illustrated above is through a unified platform with holistic vendors’ directory management capabilities. With that, at every step of the process, your security team can implement and maintain an effective and efficient TPRM program without losing context of other steps.

Which brings us to…

What to Look Out for in an Enterprise TPRM Solution

Irrespective of your organization’s unique situation, there are must-haves to look out for in an enterprise TPRM platform given today’s precarious threat landscape. The rest of this guide explores those crucial features, so you can make a more informed decision as you embark on buying and adopting an enterprise TPRM solution.

1. Holistic Vendor Directory

Imagine waking up to the news that a severe cyberattack has breached the data of many tech companies located in Singapore. Knowing your company partners with third-party vendors located in Singapore, you’d want to ensure they aren’t among those affected.

Doing that would be a stretch without a TPRM platform with holistic vendor directory capabilities. If the tool you choose lacks this feature, your vendor risk management team will rely on a mishmash of spreadsheets —with disconnected and disorganized pieces of information about the vendors your company is working with.

And it’d be difficult for you, the security leader or tech executive, to quickly filter and find specific lists of vendors any time the need arises. A holistic vendor directory solves that in three ways:

All vendors’ info management: From documents, to risk profiles, and policies in a centralized cloud-based platform.

Automatic segmentation: Leverages attributes like vendor location, vendor tiers, and others to automatically segment third-parties in your overall vendor ecosystem.

Easy searchability: Ability to quickly filter and find vendors that match whatever criteria relevant to you at any given time.

Based on what’s itemized above, here’s how to view a holistic vendor directory. It is a central place where all details of past and existing third-party vendors working with your organization can be easily filtered and retrieved by authorized persons.

2. Selection & Onboarding

Each time a new 3rd party is allowed into your vendor ecosystem, varying degrees of new cyber risks are introduced. The extent to which your team can know which vendors are likely to introduce more risks depends so much on how well you select and onboard them.

This is why vendor selection and onboarding is the first stage of the TPRM lifecycle. It sets your cybersecurity team up to manage each third-party allowed into your vendor ecosystem successfully:

As shown, the two steps in this stage, categorization and risk assessment and due diligence, helps your team tier vendors to be prioritized for ongoing risk monitoring. So vendor selection and onboarding capabilities a TPRM platform should have are:

Pre-onboarding risk analysis: Streamline the risk-profiling process for new vendors through security assessment surveys.

Customizing assessments: Enable leveraging standard vendor assessment templates like NIST and ISO, and the ability to customize them per your organization and vendor needs.

Pre-contract due diligence: Automate the cybersecurity due diligence processes before vendor contracts are approved.

Multiple vendor tiering: Automatically segmenting vendors into multiple tiers such as those with inherent or critical risks.

An easy way to simplify achieving the steps above is to start with standard cybersecurity assessment frameworks like NIST and ISO. Once you can customize any of these to your company’s specific needs, the other things can easily fall into place.

3. Risk Management & Remediation

To win your company’s business, third-party vendors will do everything within their power to pass initial security assessments. But once most are in, they become lackluster about security. This is why you shouldn’t rely on the first, positive impressions of vendors.

It’s also why your cybersecurity team needs processes in place for managing and remediating vendor risks should they emerge. This TPRM lifecycle stage ensures that, and its importance is shown in the fact that it has the most steps compared to other two stages:

So after guiding vendors through onboarding and performing due diligence, seek a TPRM platform that also helps your team to:

Track security assessment progress: Streamline the process of tracking the due dates and review statuses of sent security assessment questionnaires across all vendors.

Re-populate questionnaires: Use answers previously submitted by vendors to re-populate questionnaires for what has changed.

Auto-score assessment responses: Automatically score responses and evidence provided by vendors to security assessment questions to understand possible risks.

Get swift incident response insights: Access actionable, in-context insight for responding to and remediating risks.

Adjust vendor contracts: Append changing risk profiles of vendors to relevant sections of their contracts and streamline the processes of using the same to request contract adjustments.

Even with all these in place, in most cases, managing and remediating risks requires vendors to make adjustments to their internal systems that are outside your team’s control. This requires collaborating with vendors whenever the need arises. And to be effective, communicating with them should be streamlined and in-context of specific risks. As you’d see below, the TPRM comments’ feature on Cyber Sierra enables that.

4. Continuous Vendors’ Monitoring

As the cyber threat landscape evolves, so would 3rd parties in your company’s vendor ecosystem need to adjust to changing regulatory requirements. But the onus is on your security team to ensure vendors are staying compliant with those changing compliance regulations. Failure to do this can result in collateral data breach damages and the hefty regulatory fines that come with them.

Avoiding such requires continuous vendor monitoring. First to ensure adherence to evolving compliance requirements. And second to reap the added advantage of identifying and proactively remediating risks from all vendor relationships before it’s too late.

This stage of the TPRM lifecycle addresses both:

TPRM capabilities needed here are:

Real-time vendor monitoring: Track vendors’ posture against compliance failures and cybersecurity risks in real-time.

Continuous risk trends’ visibility: Gain comprehensive, continuous visibility into vendors’ statuses against evolving risk trends and regulatory compliance requirements.

Auto-risk flagging and scoring: Flag all risks and automatically assign scores to each, enabling your team to prioritize.

Actionable remediation insights: Provide useful insights your team can use to prevent data breaches and compliance failures.

These continuous vendor risk monitoring capabilities are pre-built into Cyber Sierra’s TPRM suite. And it’s one of the reasons a global bank headquartered in Singapore relies on us for its TPRM needs.

Choosing the Right TPRM Tool

Even with everything above checked, are there other things to consider before choosing an enterprise TPRM platform?

There are, so let’s discuss them.

1. Adaptability

This one goes both ways.

As much as vendors need your organization’s business, your organization also needs vendors to stay competitive. The implication of this is that a TPRM platform must be adaptable to both parties.

On the one hand, it should streamline your team’s processes of managing risks posed by vendors. On the other hand, it should also streamline the steps vendors need to answer security assessment questions and provide necessary compliance evidence.

No party should feel like it’s extra work.

2. Interoperability

Third-party risk management is crucial. But it is one piece of risk management in the overall enterprise governance, risk management, and regulatory compliance (GRC) pie:

Consider this when choosing a TPRM solution. Because if you choose a point TPRM tool, you’d also need to spend hard-earned resources on other tools for cybersecurity governance and compliance. In addition to wasted spend, point cybersecurity solutions have other downsides.

Says Matt Kapko of CybersecurityDive:

To avoid these issues, seek a platform where your team can tackle vendor risks in the context of your company’s security governance, overall risk management, and regulatory compliance, all in one place.

This is why interoperability is crucial and should be prioritized.

3. Value

While price is a major consideration with any enterprise software purchase, what you really want to focus on is the value you’d get. And staying with the need for interoperability over a point tool, it makes sense to prioritize a TPRM solution with full-fledged capabilities for tackling interrelated, enterprise cybersecurity needs.

Some things to look out for are:

Beyond TPRM, does it provide a centralized solution suite for addressing other cybersecurity concerns from one place?

Is there unlimited access, so your core security team and employees can collaborate in tackling cybersecurity?

Can you integrate all tools and services across your organization for continuous scanning for threats and cyber risks?

Can you customize the platform, per your organization’s specific cybersecurity needs?

Is the platform enterprise-ready and built to scale as teams across your organization, cybersecurity, regulatory compliance, and vendor risk management needs grow?

The correct answers to these questions varies from one company to another and will ultimately depend on a company’s unique needs. So to get the most value out of a TPRM solution, it’s best to reach out and see if it can be tailored to your needs before talking about pricing.

Try Cyber Sierra, the Interoperable TPRM Platform

All TPRM solutions aren’t created equal.

Most are built to be pure-play or point TPRM tools. As stressed in this guide, the downside is that your team can end up with more vulnerabilities if a tool doesn’t work well with other tools in your tech stack. This is why to get the most value, consider a comprehensive, interoperable cybersecurity platform with full-fledged enterprise TPRM capabilities.

If that sounds inviting, here are just two reasons to try Cyber Sierra.

First, our TPRM suite has a holistic vendor inventory directory that automatically updates once a new 3rd party enters your vendors’ ecosystem. This capability enables authorized persons in your team and across the company to filter specific vendors at any time, using various filtering options like location, vendor type, status, and so on:

Second, and this is crucial, is how our platform removes lots of back and forth when managing and remediating vendor risks. Automating the various processes involved in selecting and onboarding vendors is usually pre-built into most TPRM tools. But even with this, most tools still require you to send back and forth emails, requiring vendors to do their bit in staying compliant or remediating threats and cybersecurity risks.

Not with Cyber Sierra.

In many, if not all, cases, managing and remediating risks requires vendors to adjust internal systems outside your team’s control. This requires real-time collaboration whenever the need arises. And to be effective, communication should be streamlined and in-context of specific risk-remediation tasks.

Our TPRM comments’ feature enables that:

There are other reasons to consider an interoperable, cybersecurity suite with enterprise TPRM capabilities like Cyber Sierra.

But the two reasons shown above is why a global bank in Singapore relies on us for its extensive TPRM needs:

Read their success story here.

If that sounds inviting, give Cyber Sierra a try:

Pramodh Rai

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Third Party Risk Management

Top 7 Enterprise Risk Management Software in 2024

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Introduction

Organizations constantly face unique risk challenges while adapting to industry demands. 76% of organizations prioritize their enterprise risk management programs, showcasing the increasing recognition of ERM’s role in ensuring the organization’s success.

However, resource constraints, siloed operations, and ineffective tools often hinder security and risk management teams, jeopardizing timely threat detection and response. Choosing the right ERM solution can dramatically improve efficiency and response times, empowering organizations to address potential threats proactively.

This blog post will explore the top 7 Enterprise Risk Management software solutions. Each solution is designed to streamline processes, enhance decision-making, and align risk management with overall business objectives, ultimately driving organizational success.

What is Enterprise Risk Management software?

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) software is a specialized tool that enables organizations to comprehensively identify, evaluate, and manage operational risks across its operations. It provides a centralized, holistic view of an organization’s exposure to a wide range of risks – strategic, financial, operational, compliance-related, and more – and how these different organizational risk factors intersect and impact one another. This integrated approach allows companies to align their overarching risk management strategies with their core business goals and objectives.

ERM software streamlines collecting and analyzing risk data, conducting risk assessments, generating reports to aid in decision-making, and monitoring adherence to pertinent regulatory mandates. The value proposition is clear – 52% of risk management leaders agree that organizations embracing an integrated methodology for identifying, evaluating, and responding to potential incidents will experience reduced overall risk exposure and superior outcomes.

Seven Best Enterprise Risk Management Tools in 2024

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) tools offer data analytics, customizable process workflows, and insights into user activity across the organization to monitor vulnerabilities and potential risks in near real-time.

Core capabilities common to enterprise risk management systems include reporting functionalities, advanced analytics, risk prioritization, audit management, threat visibility and monitoring, risk profile assessment, and compliance management.

The following enterprise risk management (ERM) software solutions stand out as the top choices in the market based on comprehensive user reviews, in-depth feature evaluations, and a rigorous assessment of their key capabilities. These powerful tools empower risk management professionals to tackle compliance requirements head-on, identify strategic risks with precision, and conduct thorough analyses of their potential business impacts:

Here is a list of the top ERM software that have been stringently evaluated based on user reviews, feature evaluations, and an assessment of their key capabilities. These solutions empower risk professionals to not only meet the compliance requirements but also proactively identify strategic risks and analyze their potential business impacts:

Cyber Sierra

Cyber Sierra is an enterprise-grade cybersecurity platform engineered to empower security professionals by streamlining security controls, risk assessments, and vendor relationship management. By leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities, Cyber Sierra delivers comprehensive insights into risks, vulnerabilities, and compliance postures, enabling proactive, data-driven decision-making.

Cyber Sierra tackles the complexities of cyber risk, simplifying security for businesses. Their intelligent platform delivers actionable insights into risks, vulnerabilities, and compliance. With their platform, you’ll rapidly identify critical threats, allowing you to protect your organization proactively.

Key Features

Unified Governance	Facilitate compliance with globally recognized standards such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, MAS Outsourcing, HKMA, and PDPA.
Threat Intelligence	An all-encompassing security solution offering to improve the organization's cybersecurity. It is conducive to receiving key insights about security conditions, scanning for vulnerabilities in internal networks, and managing them.
Cybersecurity Risk Management	Identify and contextualize security risks about your organization's assets.
Employee Awareness Programs	Provides the latest knowledge, skills, and resources necessary to identify and prevent potential attacks. This includes interactive quizzes, simulated campaigns, and continuous updates.
Third-Party Risk Management	Streamline the process of vendor security assessments and enable continuous risk monitoring in a unified platform.
Two-factor authentication (2FA)	Incorporates 2FA verification beyond just the password to access applications.

Strengths

Unified & Interoperable Platform	Combines governance, risk, cybersecurity compliance, cyber insurance, threat intelligence, and employee training capabilities in a single platform.
Continuous Control Monitoring	Provides near real-time monitoring of controls, enables risk assessments, and supports proactive threat management.
Seamless Third-Party Risk Management	Streamlines management of third-party vendors' risks with continuous monitoring.
Improved Compliance and Controls Management	Receive a deep monitoring and evaluation of the potential challenges that may impact your company. Additionally, get the proper measures to reduce the effect of the recognized problems.

Best For:

Cyber Sierra is best suited for established enterprises and mid-to-late-stage startups grappling with regulatory compliance requirements, data security challenges, and compliance issues.

The platform is also immensely effective for enterprises seeking to consolidate their cybersecurity, governance, and insurance processes from multiple vendors into one intelligent platform. Book a free demo here.

Duo Security

Duo Security, incorporated into Cisco, is a cloud-based security platform that safeguards users, data, and applications from emerging threats. It verifies users’ identities and assesses the security posture of their devices before allowing application access, aligning with stringent business unit security and compliance mandates.

Key Features

Two-factor authentication (2FA)	By providing a secondary form of verification beyond just the password, Duo improves the security of accessing networks and applications.
Device Trust	Device Trust scrutinizes every device attempting to access applications, ensuring it adheres to predefined security benchmarks before access is permitted.
Adaptive Authentication	By utilizing adaptive policies and machine learning, Duo tailors access security based on nuanced user behavior and device-specific insights.
Secure Single Sign-On (SSO)	Duo's SSO provides users with a streamlined, secure pathway to multiple applications, enhancing the user experience without compromising security.

Strengths

User-Friendly	Known for its intuitive interface and ease of deployment, Duo simplifies the user experience.
Robust Security	The platform’s reliance on two-factor authentication effectively minimizes the likelihood of unauthorized access.
Extensive Integration Capabilities	Duo integrates with various VPNs, cloud services, and network infrastructures.
Responsive Customer Support	Users frequently commend Duo for its proactive and helpful customer support team.

Best For

Companies with various applications and devices will particularly benefit from Duo’s security framework.

Wiz

Wiz is a Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) platform that scans your cloud stack to uncover hidden vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and emerging threats.

Key Features

Comprehensive Visibility	Gain a complete, centralized understanding of security risks across your multi-cloud landscape.
Actionable Remediation	Receive clear guidance to address vulnerabilities and strengthen your security posture proactively.
Team Collaboration	Empower seamless cooperation between DevOps, security, and cloud infrastructure teams.
Real-time Insights and Monitoring	Detect new threats and misconfigurations as they arise for rapid response.

Strengths

Holistic Security	Benefit from a unified assessment across all major cloud platforms.
Powerful Automation	Streamline security processes with intelligent automation and intuitive dashboards.
Rapid Deployment	Experience fast setup and minimal configuration for quick time-to-value.

Best For

Wiz is the choice for organizations operating in multi-cloud environments seeking a comprehensive cloud security solution.

Vanta

Vanta is a security and compliance management platform designed to streamline SOC 2 compliance. By continuously monitoring your technology stack, Vanta automates many tedious tasks in achieving and maintaining SOC 2 certification, saving you time and resources.

Key Features

Continuous Monitoring	Ensures ongoing compliance with SOC 2 standards through real-time vigilance.
Automation	Simplifies and speeds up compliance processes, accelerating your path to SOC 2 certification.
Seamless Integrations	Connects effortlessly with cloud platforms like AWS, GCP, and Azure for a centralized view of your environment.

Strengths

Rapid Compliance	Reduces the time and effort needed to achieve and maintain SOC 2 compliance.
Easy Integration	Works seamlessly with your existing tech stack for straightforward implementation.

Best For:

Vanta can be considered for mid-sized to large businesses, especially those in tech, healthcare, or finance, where strict security compliance is paramount.

AuditBoard

AuditBoard is a platform that streamlines the entire audit process, from planning and execution to reporting. It allows teams to manage compliance confidently, reduce risk, and minimize costly incidents across your organization.

Key Features:

Centralized Control	A single dashboard provides a real-time, comprehensive view of auditable entities, risks, and key metrics.
Efficient Risk Assessment	Conduct risk assessments and pinpoint potential gaps in compliance coverage.
Seamless Issue Management	Track issues, assign ownership for remediation, and generate reports quickly and efficiently.
Standardized Workflows	Create audit templates and automate processes to ensure consistency and timely completion.

Strengths

Better engagement and response	Equips risk owners with insights to power up risk management across the company.
Scale Risk Management	Receive information about the risk environment from your organization's front line. Recognize operational weaknesses before challenges arise.

Best For

Mid and large-scale companies looking for a solution to mitigate risks.

LogicGate

LogicGate is a solution that allows businesses to manage risk by streamlining and automating compliance processes proactively. Its centralized platform consolidates risk management, controls, and evidence collection, eliminating redundancy and boosting efficiency.

Key Features:

Eliminate Silos	Connect internal controls across multiple frameworks to uncover gaps and overlapping compliance requirements, reducing wasted effort.
Automate Evidence Management	Automate control evaluations, notify relevant stakeholders, and securely link cloud-based evidence for streamlined documentation and reporting.
Increased Collaboration	Facilitate stakeholder engagement and demonstrate audit readiness by sharing progress and corrective action plans.
Audit Preparation	Continuously evaluate and optimize your governance, risk, and control programs to ensure a smooth audit cycle.

Strengths

Automate tedious tasks	Eliminate manual tracking and streamline compliance workflows.
Stay up-to-date on regulations	Receive alerts and updates on the latest compliance changes.
Reduce error	Minimize the risk of mistakes that lead to non-compliance.

Best for

It is suitable for various industries, including software, telecommunications, banking, insurance, and investment services.

Sprinto

This cloud-based platform is a governance, compliance, and risk management toolkit, helping organizations to mitigate risks seamlessly throughout their operational ecosystem.

Key Features:

Proactive Notification System	Notification triggers and flags for non-compliant actions direct to risk owners, providing deep insights into risk specifics, recommended actions, urgency, focal areas, and tailored data.
Integrated Risk Assessment	A function that delivers exhaustive risk data across the ecosystem, aiding teams in documenting acknowledged, transferred, and mitigated risks.
Risk Overview	A comprehensive risk overview for establishing compliance protocols, risk mitigation workflows, and ensuring thorough compliance.
Dynamic Risk Library Usage	Utilization of an extensive risk library for crafting a risk register, enabling the addition or removal of risks, application of numerous checks, and selection of tailored risk treatment strategies.

Strengths

Audit readiness support	Gather all the compliance directly from the platform and share it easily with the team. You can also include the auditor in the dashboard and share it for review.
Zero trust security	Offers to simplify and implement security compliant with the current security frameworks.

Best for

It is a cloud-based solution, making it a good fit for organizations requiring a similar enterprise risk management system deployed into their tech stack.

How to Choose the Right ERM for Your Business?

When choosing the right ERM for your business, you must consider the following critical attributes:

Evaluate your requirements
Explore niche solutions
Access the security
Request for references
User interface – Is it easy and intuitive to use?
Scope for customization
Integration capabilities

Selecting the right ERM solution for your business is critical for creating a successful risk management strategy. Additionally, with diverse enterprise risk management (ERM) software tools available in the market, choosing the right one can be challenging.

Now let’s take a detailed look at the critical attributes that you need to look for while deciding upon the right software –

Evaluate your requirements – Before looking for the right solution, you must be clear about your organization’s fundamental needs. Start with an extensive study or survey of all the requirements considering the organization’s different teams and their challenges and experiences. This would be beneficial in finding the right software that adheres to your organization’s particular needs.

Explore niche solutions – There is a wide range of risk management solutions available in the market. However, some tools cater to specific industries such as banking, energy, the construction sector, and so on. That’s why you must look for solutions that complement your niche, as they can offer focused features that might be helpful in managing the risks that your organization faces on a frequent basis.

Assess the security – Risk management often involves dealing with sensitive information, so choosing a secure solution that proactively protects your organization’s data privacy is non-negotiable. Always ensure the tool you select has robust security measures.

Request for references and opt for a trial – Before deciding upon the right tool, it’s a good idea to get references and have your organization experience it. This means be sure to go for a vendor that provides a trial period or demo to learn more about the tool. You can also ask the vendors for references from previous clients who have utilized the tool to learn about their experiences.

Apart from all the above-mentioned factors, you also need to ensure the solution has the following traits, which can help in making an informed decision –

User-friendliness and intuitive user interface – Simple navigation in the ERM solution is crucial as it aids in a successful user experience for the entire organization.

Scope for customization – The solution should adapt quickly to your company’s specific risk management needs and requirements.

Integration – The solution should seamlessly integrate with other existing systems and processes in the company.

How can Cyber Sierra help you?

Cyber Sierra is a unified and interoperable risk management platform that integrates smart GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance), third-party risk management, continuous control monitoring, and cyber insurance capabilities. It combines features such as automated security alerts, threat intelligence feeds, vulnerability scanning, expert guidance, and employee security training, equipping organizations with the necessary resources to fortify their security posture.

The platform flags control breaks, control gaps, deviations, and non-compliant actions to risk owners, offering suggestions for risk mitigation and transfer through cyber insurance. Automated evidence collection, documentation, and detailed audit logs streamline risk management processes for mid to large-sized enterprises using Cyber Sierra.

Explore how Cyber Sierra can alleviate your security challenges by scheduling a demo call today.

FAQ

Here are some of the most common FAQs on the topic of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Software:

What is Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Software?

Enterprise Risk Management Software is a specialized software solution designed to help organizations identify, assess, monitor, and mitigate various business risks across the entire enterprise. It provides a centralized platform for managing strategic, operational, financial, regulatory compliance, and other external risks in an integrated and holistic manner.

What are the critical features of ERM Software?

Standard features of ERM software include risk level identification and assessment tools, risk reporting and analytics, risk monitoring and tracking, compliance management, incident management, risk mitigation planning, and risk data aggregation from various sources. Advanced ERM solutions may also incorporate features like risk modeling, scenario analysis, and automated risk control testing.

What are the benefits of using ERM Software?

Key benefits of using ERM software include improved risk visibility across the organization, enhanced risk-based decision-making, better compliance with regulatory requirements, improved risk monitoring and early warning systems, centralized risk data management, and streamlined risk reporting. ERM software can also help organizations optimize risk management processes and resource allocation.

Who typically uses ERM Software?

Organizations across various major industries, including financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, energy, and more, use ERM software. It is commonly adopted by large enterprises with complex risk landscapes but can also benefit smaller organizations. Key users within an organization include risk managers, compliance officers, internal auditors, and senior executives responsible for risk oversight.

How is ERM Software deployed?

ERM software can be deployed in various ways, including on-premises (installed on the organization’s servers), cloud-based (hosted by the software vendor), or as a hybrid solution. Cloud-based deployments are becoming increasingly popular due to their scalability, accessibility, and reduced IT overhead. The deployment method chosen often depends on the organization’s IT infrastructure, data security requirements, and budgetary considerations.

Srividhya Karthik

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Governance & Compliance

A Guide to Hong Kong Monetary Authority Outsourcing Regulations

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It’s no longer news.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) updated its outsourcing regulations in December 2023. For enterprise security executives like you seeking to become compliant, a crucial first step is asking: Why did the regulatory body update it again?

Reviewing the recent documentation extensively, I sensed why this update and compliance to it became a necessity. The first reason is the increasing adoption of technologies by financial institutions (FIs). The second is the ever-growing reliance on third-party vendors.

Albert Yuen also echoed these:

Yuen isn’t just the Head of Technology at Hong Kong-based Linklaters. He’s a Counsel with over 20 years of experience, specializing in privacy and cybersecurity. As he pointed out, this update is the HKMA’s reminder to re-evaluate your governance systems and security controls for identifying and mitigating all third-party vendor risks.

To help you do that, let’s begin by dissecting…

The New Hong Kong Monetary Authority Outsourcing Letter

The letter’s title, ‘Managing Cyber Risks Associated with Third-party Service Providers,’ stressed the need to facilitate becoming compliant. A section of the letter’s introduction reiterates:

Imagine that as you read this, threat actors are busy targeting weak links in your organization’s supply chain. The HKMA observed this trend when it conducted thematic examinations. They found that cybercriminals are becoming more rampant and sophisticated in their attacks. To help security teams at financial institutions fight back, they updated their outsourcing regulations, outlining critical areas companies now need to prioritize when outsourcing to 3rd parties.

What the HKMA Outsourcing Regulations Entail

Sound cybersecurity practices.

Those three words sum up what the HKMA’s recent Outsourcing Regulations entail. Specifically, they expect security teams at all Authorized Institutions (AIs) to bolster resilience against cyber threat actors by putting effective cyber defense in place. An excerpt from the HKMA’s Outsourcing ‘Sound Practises’ section confirms this.

It reads:

To comply with the requirement of putting effective cyber defense covering in place, the HKMA outlined six areas that must be addressed. They are as follows:

Ensure risk governance framework has sufficient emphasis on cyber risks associated with third-parties
Assess, identify, and mitigate cyber risks throughout the third-party management lifecycle holistically
Assess all supply chain risks associated with 3rd parties supporting critical company operations
Expand cyber threat intelligence monitoring to cover key 3rd parties and actively share information with peer institutions
Strengthen the readiness to counter supply chain attacks with scenario-based response strategies and ongoing drills
Enhance cyber defense capabilities by adopting the latest international standards, practices, and technologies.

Out of these six areas outlined, the HKMA made a crucial recommendation when summarizing the sixth requirement.

It noted:

By encouraging organizations to adopt the technology that can automate and streamline processes, the HKMA clearly stated its importance in becoming compliant. For instance, with Cyber Sierra’s vendor risk management suite, you can automate critical third-party risk management processes and become compliant with the HKMA Outsourcing Regulations.

Before I show you how:

Becoming Compliant with the Updated HKMA Outsourcing Regulations

Three critical third-party risk management stages can be deduced from the HKMA’s six updated outsourcing requirements. Although the regulatory body didn’t spell this out, our team did this grouping to outline parts of becoming compliant that can be automated.

Third-party risk governance
Threat intelligence and remediation
Continuous preparedness against attacks:

As illustrated below:

1. Third-Party Risk Governance

The 1st and 2nd requirements of the updated HKMA Outsourcing Regulations go hand-in-hand. First, all Authorized Institutions (AIs) are mandated to involve relevant stakeholders when implementing a third-party risk governance framework:

Second, and this is more important. The implemented governance framework should enable your security team to identify all third-party risks.

According to the HKMA:

Two things we took from here:

You need a single pane where all stakeholders can collaborate on the third-party risk governance framework to be implemented.
You need a selection of third-party risk frameworks trusted for identifying all risks involved in working with third-parties.

You can achieve both with an enterprise governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) platform (like Cyber Sierra).

Specifically, the platform should be pre-built with templates of globally-accepted, third-party risk management governance frameworks such as ISO and NIST. You should also be able to invite your leadership team to jointly review, customize, and add custom questions to each. Finally, the platform should enable your organization to automate the many steps involved in implementing a holistic third-party risk management governance framework.

2. Threat Intelligence and Remediation

The HKMA now requires organizations to prioritize third parties and threats likely to pose the most risk. This is emphasized in the 3rd and 4th requirements of the updated HKMA Outsourcing Regulations.

According to the regulatory body:

A good way to do this is to segment the third-parties working with your organizations based on relevant criteria. For instance, when assessing third-party vendors, you can segment by:

Critical vendors sent custom security questionnaires
Assessee types (i.e., software, services, and so on)
Operating locations

Using these, your security team can easily filter and know what 3rd parties they need to conduct additional threat intelligence on. Also, by prioritizing risks from these critical vendors, they’ll know what threats and risks to prioritize when remediating.

A smart GRC platform helps your team automate parts of this process in two ways. First, you can enforce segmenting third-parties when sending initial security assessments. Second, your security team can easily filter and track 3rd parties that need more scrutiny based on the segmentation criteria outlined above.

3. Continuous Preparedness Against Attacks

The threat landscape is always evolving. As such, it has become difficult, if not impossible, to know all new ways threat actors will attack your organization through third-parties.

Even the HKMA knows this:

One way to strengthen preparedness against attacks is through continuous employee security awareness training. When the push comes to shove, your people —security team, other company employees, and partners— are your last line of defense.

By continuously training employees with scenario-based response strategies and lessons from previous supply chain incidents, you equip them with the know-how for countering attacks.

To achieve that:

Launch new third-party breach cybersecurity defense training as the need for them arises
Continuously monitor training progress to ensure employees are completing them and equipped to counter attacks.

HKMA Outsourcing FAQs

Below are answers to some frequently asked questions.

Who does HKMA Outsourcing Regulations apply to?

The HKMA Outsourcing Regulations, as the name goes, apply to banks and financial institutions, referred to as Authorized Institutions (AIs), operating in Hong Kong. The regulator emphasizes those digitalizing financial operations and relying on third-party vendors to facilitate service delivery. The rules also apply to those based out of Hong Kong but whose operations are used by consumers and other institutions in Hong Kong.

What is the HKMA regulatory approach?

The HKMA’s regulatory approach provide digitalized banks and financial institutions operating in Hong Kong with a balanced and proportional risk-based approach to counter third-party risks. The regulatory body’s approach has three principles: risk differentiation, proportionality, and “zero failure” regime. These principles apply equally to all financial institutions in Hong Kong.

When was the release date and compliance deadline of the latest HKMA Outsourcing Regulations?

The latest version of the HKMA Outsourcing Regulations was released in December 2023. Although the regulator didn’t give a deadline for becoming compliant, with the increasing onslaught of threat actors, financial institutions are advised to comply to protect themselves and avoid being breached.

How many requirements are in the updated HKMA Outsourcing Regulations?

There are six requirements organizations must comply with in the updated HKMA Outsourcing Regulations.

How does the HKMA recommend organizations to facilitate becoming compliant with its updated outsourcing regulations?

According to the regulatory body, “AIs are encouraged to adopt technologies to refine, automate and streamline their third-party risk management and cybersecurity controls.”

As stated, prioritize technology that enables your team to facilitate the entire process from a single pane. This will reduce the various mundane tasks involved in the initial implementation phase, as well as for staying compliant.

And that’s where Cyber Sierra’s interoperable, enterprise cybersecurity platform comes in. For instance, Cyber Sierra’s vendor risk management Assessments’ suite is pre-built with globally-accepted third-party risk management templates. So in just a few clicks, you (and your team) can customize any to your specific HKMA Outsourcing Regulations implementation needs:

This, among others, automates many steps involved in becoming and staying compliant with the HKMA Outsourcing Regulations.

And it’s why an Asian-based global bank relies on Cyber Sierra for automating its third-party risk management processes:

Read the bank’s success story here:

Pramodh Rai

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Governance & Compliance

Top 7 GRC Tools You Should Consider in 2024

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Data breaches, regulatory nightmares, compliance headaches – running a successful business can feel like navigating a minefield. Managing modern-day risks that are complex, interconnected, and constantly evolving can be equally challenging.

To successfully navigate these challenges, you need to implement robust Governance Risk, and Compliance strategies. The right GRC tools can help streamline operations, ensure adherence to regulatory requirements, mitigate risks, and drive long-term business growth.

By automating Governance Risk, and Compliance processes, GRC software can help companies come up with a robust plan to address security vulnerabilities, prevent reputational damage, and avoid insane fines attributed to failure to protect critical customer data.

In March 2024 alone, the EU data protection authorities imposed approximately €4.5 million in fines due to breaches of the General Data Protection Regulation(GDPR).

But how do you choose the software you can trust from the host of GRC solutions out there?

This guide unveils the top 7 GRC tools that can help you conquer risk, ensure compliance, and focus on what matters the most – growing your business.

But before that, let’s get the basics straight.

What are GRC Tools?

GRC tools, or Governance, Risk, and Compliance tools are software applications that provide organizations with a centralized platform to manage risks, and compliance requirements, and implement security best practices effectively.

They are an essential component in today’s complex regulatory environments. Some of the key functions of a GRC platform include the consolidation of information from various departments into a unified data environment.

GRC tools also automate processes, eliminating the need for manual processes and scattered spreadsheets. This reduces errors and saves money and time.

By implementing these software solutions, organizations can gain near real-time visibility into their compliance status, enabling them to make informed decisions, improve efficiency, and reduce the risk of fines and penalties.

GRC tools cater to a wide range of organizations across various industries. They are particularly beneficial for large enterprises with intricate regulatory obligations as they help navigate complex compliance landscapes efficiently.

Similarly, small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can leverage GRC tools to streamline their business processes and ensure compliance without the need for extensive resources.

Overall, GRC software provides a host of benefits to businesses including:

Better decision-making
Enhanced risk management
Efficient compliance management processes
Improved operational efficiency
Robust governance and strategic alignment
Streamlined policy management

Best GRC Tools to Simplify Compliance and Boost Efficiency

Let’s dive into the details of each GRC system.

1. Cyber Sierra

Best for: Small to large enterprises looking for a robust GRC solution to manage all parts of their GRC program in one place.

Cyber Sierra’s GRC solution is a premier tool for seamlessly managing all GRC needs via automation. The software is designed to help organizations of all sizes manage all aspects of their GRC program (compliance, risk management, auditing, controls management, and more) in one place.

It integrates cutting-edge technology to streamline GRC processes and ensure regulatory compliance effortlessly.

Through automation, the tool simplifies tasks, reducing manual efforts and enhancing operational efficiency. This enables organizations to allocate resources more strategically and focus on core objectives.

One of the key strengths of Cyber Sierra’s GRC system lies in its adaptability to evolving regulatory frameworks. The software continuously updates its algorithms to align with the latest compliance standards, keeping organizations ahead of regulatory changes. This ensures that businesses remain compliant and mitigate risks effectively, thereby safeguarding their reputation and financial integrity.

Moreover, this tool prioritizes security, employing robust encryption protocols to safeguard sensitive data. For instance, it offers role-based access control, limiting access to authorized personnel and protecting against potential breaches. This commitment to security instills confidence in users, assuring them of the platform’s reliability and trustworthiness.

Furthermore, the software enhances collaboration across departments, fostering seamless communication and alignment of objectives. To facilitate cross-functional teamwork the platform provides a centralized repository for documentation and workflows. This promotes transparency and accountability, enabling stakeholders to make informed decisions and drive organizational success.

Key features

Here are Cyber Sierra’s standout features that make it the ultimate solution for organizations of all levels:

Intuitive user interface: Cyber Sierra’s GRC software offers a user-friendly interface that simplifies navigation and enhances user experience.

Customizable workflow automation: Unlike other GRC tools which may offer limited customization options, the software provides extensive capabilities for tailoring workflow automation to specific organizational needs, allowing for greater efficiency and adaptability.

Comprehensive risk assessment: Cyber Sierra’s GRC software stands out for its robust risk assessment module, which enables thorough identification, evaluation, and mitigation of risks across the enterprise, providing organizations with a clearer understanding of potential threats.

Real-time monitoring and reporting: Cyber Sierra’s software offers real-time monitoring capabilities coupled with advanced reporting features that allow organizations to proactively identify and address compliance issues as they arise, rather than reacting to them after the fact.

Scalability: It is designed to accommodate the evolving needs of organizations of all sizes. It is best suited for small businesses to large enterprises, with scalability built into its architecture to support growth and expansion without compromising performance.

Advanced analytics and insights: The GRC system distinguishes itself with its advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, leveraging data-driven insights to help organizations make informed decisions and optimize their governance, risk, and compliance strategies effectively.

Pricing

Cyber Sierra offers three different pricing plans. Their prices are available upon request based on your chosen plan.

2. SAP GRC

Best for: Large enterprises seeking comprehensive governance, risk management, and compliance solutions integrated with SAP systems for real-time visibility and control over business risks.

SAP GRC platform is a comprehensive suite of management, auditing, and compliance tools designed to streamline and enhance organizational governance processes.

With the software, enterprises can navigate regulatory landscapes effectively while mitigating risks and ensuring compliance adherence.

At its core, the platform offers robust management tools that facilitate seamless oversight of various aspects of governance, risk, and compliance within an organization. They include auditing tools that enable comprehensive assessment and monitoring of internal controls, ensuring adherence to regulatory requirements and industry standards.

For compliance management, the GRC system employs a broad range of functionalities aimed at proactively addressing regulatory obligations and mitigating security risks.

SAP GRC also provides users with real-time visibility into compliance efforts, enabling them to make data-driven decisions based on insights derived from the platform’s predictive analytics.

The platform’s workflow management features streamline processes enabling efficient collaboration and coordination across departments. This is particularly crucial in enterprise risk management and compliance where timely responses to emerging threats are vital.

Utilizing user access control management capabilities, SAP GRC helps organizations safeguard sensitive information and prevent unauthorized access.

Additionally, by identifying and addressing security vulnerabilities, enterprises can boost their defenses against potential breaches and ensure regulatory compliance.

Furthermore, the platform caters to the evolving regulatory landscape by offering tools tailored to meet the requirements of government agencies and regulations. This facilitates seamless alignment with regulatory frameworks, reducing compliance-related complexities and enhancing operational efficiency.

While powerful, its high cost, complex setup, and need for SAP expertise make it less ideal for smaller businesses.

Source : G2

Key features

Enterprise risk compliance and management: Enables organizations to identify, assess, and mitigate various types of risks across different business processes and functions.

International trade management: Streamlines global trade compliance to ensure minimal trade risks.

Cybersecurity and data protection: SAP GRC continuously monitors cyber threats, safeguarding sensitive data.

Identity and access governance: Ensures proper access controls, reducing security vulnerabilities.

Integrated solutions: The software integrates seamlessly with existing systems for streamlined risk management.

Pricing

SAP GRC costs anywhere from $500 to $15,000 per license. Free demo available.

3. MetricStream GRC

Best for: Organizations requiring a scalable, integrated GRC platform with flexible and customizable modules for various compliance needs.

MetricStream is a cloud-based GRC platform that offers a variety of robust features to help organizations manage their enterprise risk management (ERM) program. They include internal audits, internal controls, and compliance with internal policies and external regulations.

The platform’s auditing tools can automate many internal audit processes such as risk assessments, control assessments, and incident management. This can help organizations streamline internal audits and improve audit efficiency.

Its centralized repository allows organizations to store audit trails and other audit documentation, which can facilitate collaboration between internal audit teams and other departments.

As a compliance management solution, MetricStream GRC can help organizations automate compliance tasks such as regulatory reporting and compliance training.

The platform also provides a way to track compliance activities and identify potential gaps in compliance. This can help organizations reduce their risk of non-compliance and associated fines or penalties.

MetricStream’s user-friendly interface makes it easy for users with varying levels of technical expertise to navigate the platform and complete GRC tasks.

Additionally, it offers robust integration capabilities, allowing it to connect with other enterprise systems such as ERP and CRM systems. This can help organizations streamline data collection and reporting for GRC activities.

Overall, MetricStream appears to be a comprehensive GRC platform that can help organizations improve their risk management, compliance, and internal audit processes.

Note that the specific features and benefits of MetricStream may vary depending on the specific needs of your organization.

A drawback to note is that its advanced customization may lead to complexity. Besides, it has a hefty license fee and requires ongoing maintenance costs.

Key features

Intuitive reports and analytics: The platform provides built-in analytical dashboards and reports with rich visualizations and real-time insights to enable stakeholders to make informed decisions promptly.

Integrated risk management: The GRC platform offers comprehensive risk management capabilities, allowing organizations to identify, assess, mitigate, and monitor risks across the enterprise.

Audit management: It offers capabilities for managing internal audits and assessments efficiently.

Pricing

MetricStream GRC pricing is available upon request.

4. StandardFusion

Best for: Ideal for small to mid-sized businesses looking for a user-friendly GRC platform with easy deployment.

Compliance can be a complex process for organizations but StandardFusion makes it simple to understand.

StandardFusion stands out as a comprehensive GRC platform, offering a reliable solution for organizations seeking an integrated risk management solution.

This cloud-based platform excels in providing source solutions for risk management, audit management, compliance management, vendor management, policy management, privacy management, and compliance automation.

With a user-friendly interface, StandardFusion enhances the management of internal controls and fosters a risk-aware culture within organizations.

One of the key strengths of the software is its diverse deployment options, catering to the needs of organizations at different stages of growth.

Besides, it streamlines the compliance process by centralizing internal policies and procedures, making it a valuable tool for business users across various industries.

The platform’s robust features make it a complete security solution, ideal for audit purposes and ensuring adherence to multiple standards like ISO, SOC 2®, NIST, HIPAA, GDPR, and more.

StandardFusion’s emphasis on being a single source of truth for all compliance-related activities sets it apart, offering a seamless experience for users to manage their governance processes efficiently.

Its ability to adapt to organizational growth, coupled with its user-friendly design and focus on internal controls, makes it a top choice for organizations looking to enhance their risk management practices and maintain a strong compliance posture.

A downside of the software is that it may lack advanced features for complex GRC requirements. Also, it provides limited scalability for larger enterprises.

Key features:

Unified data environment: Organizations can use the tool to consolidate data from various sources to get a holistic view of internal controls, and compliance processes, and launch effective risk management strategies.

Simplified compliance management: The platform breaks down compliance requirements into manageable steps, allowing businesses to track progress and identify any gaps.

Scalability and flexibility: StandardFusion offers various deployment options to cater to organizational growth. Whether you’re a small startup or a large enterprise, the platform can adapt to your specific needs.

Risk-aware culture: StandardFusion helps foster a risk-aware culture by making risk management a more accessible and collaborative process. It allows for easy identification, assessment, and mitigation of potential threats.

Complete security solution: The software prioritizes data security with robust features to protect sensitive information. This ensures all GRC data is stored securely and meets audit purposes.

Pricing

Pricing starts from $1,500 per user, per month.

5. ServiceNow

Best for: Automation-focused approach to GRC, ideal for IT-heavy organizations.

With ServiceNow’s GRC software organizations get a comprehensive solution for managing compliance processes and mitigating potential risks by breaking down silos.

Designed to streamline auditing purposes, this cloud-based platform provides organizations with the tools necessary to safeguard their digital assets effectively.

One of the standout features of ServiceNow’s GRC software is its ability to offer insights into risks that could potentially impact organizational growth.

By centralizing compliance tools within a single platform, businesses can assess and address potential risks more efficiently, ensure regulatory compliance, and protect sensitive data.

The platform’s cloud-based GRC tools enable organizations to manage their compliance processes more effectively with greater flexibility and scalability. With the ability to automate various tasks, such as risk assessments and policy management, businesses can reduce the burden on their resources while ensuring continuous compliance.

The GRC software also offers a complete security solution that helps organizations identify and mitigate potential risks to their digital assets. With real-time visibility into compliance status and potential vulnerabilities, businesses can proactively address security threats before they escalate.

One downside to note about this software is that its initial setup and customization can be time-consuming. May also require additional modules for full GRC functionality.

Key features

Integrated risk management: ServiceNow helps users identify, assess, and prioritize risks across the organization and develop plans to mitigate them.

Third-party risk management: The platform helps to reduce risk, and improve organizational resilience, and compliance by taking control of the third-party risk lifecycle.

Business continuity management: It helps organizations plan for and recover from disasters

Policy and compliance management: The software can automate and manage policy lifecycles and continuously monitor for compliance. This can help reduce errors and costs associated with manual processes and improve focus on higher-value tasks.

Pricing

ServiceNow pricing is available upon request.

6. Fusion Framework System

Best for: Organizations prioritizing risk management and business continuity planning. Provides comprehensive data visualization for clear risk insights.

Fusion Framework System is a comprehensive solution for enterprise risk management. With a robust risk management plan, it addresses security, compliance, and critical risks effectively.

The platform’s dashboard reporting provides real-time insights into risks, aiding informed decision-making.

The platform’s integrated risk management features streamline the risk management process, enhancing efficiency.

Fusion’s focus on third-party risk management ensures thorough risk assessment across all business relationships. It also helps users mitigate compliance risks through tailored solutions, ensuring adherence to regulations.

The platform excels in predictive risk analysis which enables proactive risk mitigation strategies. Its emphasis on critical risks ensures timely identification and response to potential threats.

Additionally, the dashboard reporting feature provides clear visibility into risk exposure, facilitating strategic planning. Fusion’s approach to risk management fosters a culture of proactive risk identification and mitigation.

With its comprehensive suite of tools, Fusion’s platform empowers organizations to manage risks effectively. It offers tailored solutions for diverse industries, ensuring relevance and applicability.

Note that the software relies on existing GRC tools for data input and may require additional integration efforts.

Key features

Access controls/permissions: Organizations can use the software to manage user privileges and ensure data security and regulatory compliance.

Activity tracking: It can monitor user actions and system events for compliance and risk management.

Assessment management: It allows users to conduct and track risk assessments to identify and mitigate potential threats.

Audit trail: Users can maintain a comprehensive record of system activities for accountability and compliance purposes.

IT incident management: Fusion allows users to manage and resolve IT incidents efficiently to minimize disruptions and risks.

IT risk management: With the software, users can identify, assess, and mitigate IT-related risks to protect assets and operations.

Pricing

Pricing is available upon request.

7. SAI360 GRC

Best for: Third-party access control and monitoring.

SAI360’s Integrated GRC Solution offers a cutting-edge approach to operational risk management, governance, and compliance.

It provides a comprehensive view of risks, empowering risk managers with valuable insights into risks for informed decision-making. The platform excels in corporate governance, facilitating the management of governance processes effectively.

With a focus on internal auditing and controls, SAI360 ensures robust internal controls and seamless third-party risk management. It stands out in regulatory compliance, helping organizations meet regulatory requirements effortlessly.

The platform’s policy management tools enable efficient creation, distribution, and enforcement of corporate governance policies. Additionally, the software streamlines incident management and conflict of interest processes.

SAI360’s GRC software is a powerful tool that integrates industry-leading technology to deliver efficiency and security. It features tailored modules that address disruptions proactively, safeguarding businesses across various sectors.

The platform’s advanced reporting and analytics capabilities enable quick risk assessment and opportunity identification, supporting data-driven decision-making.

A downside to note is that the software primarily focuses on third-party risk and may also require additional tools for additional GRC needs.

Key features

Pre-configured modules: The software comes with pre-built modules for common risk management areas like operational risk, IT risk, and internal audit. This saves you time and effort in setting up the system and allows you to get started quickly.

Robust reporting and analytics: SAI360 GRC provides comprehensive reporting and analytics tools that help you gain insights into your risks. This information can be used to identify trends, track progress, and make better risk management decisions.

Industry-leading technology: The platform leverages advanced technology to streamline and secure risk management processes. This can include features like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation.

Pricing

Pricing is available upon request.

How to Choose the Best GRC Tool

Knowing the best GRC tools is one thing but determining the right software for your business is another.While there are tons of GRC solutions on the market, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for all businesses.

Here are key considerations to help you choose the best GRC software for your specific business.

i. Identify Your Goals and Requirements

Clearly define your organization’s GRC objectives to ensure the chosen tool aligns with your specific needs and goals. Your goals may include regulatory compliance, risk management, policy enforcement, and more. This helps in selecting a solution tailored to address your unique challenges effectively.

ii. Consider Usability

Prioritize user-friendly GRC tools with intuitive interfaces and streamlined workflows to enhance adoption rates and facilitate efficient usage across your organization. Ease of navigation and accessibility features contribute to maximizing productivity and minimizing training requirements.

iii. Consider Customer Support

Assess the quality and responsiveness of the platform’s customer support services. Consider their availability, response times, and expertise levels, to ensure prompt assistance and resolution of any issues or inquiries that may arise during tool usage.

iv. Evaluate The Cost

Compare pricing models, including subscription fees, licensing options, and additional charges for features or support services. This will help you determine the overall cost-effectiveness of the GRC tool within your budget constraints while considering long-term scalability and ROI.

v. Consider Scalability

Choose a GRC tool capable of scaling alongside your organization’s growth and evolving needs. Ensure the tool can accommodate increased data volumes, user expansion, and additional functionalities without compromising performance or stability.

vi. Consider Customization Capabilities

Look for GRC solutions that offer customization options to tailor features, workflows, and reporting capabilities according to your organization’s unique requirements. This will help to ensure flexibility and alignment with specific business processes and compliance frameworks.

vii. Deployment Options

There are three types of deployment options for most GRC tools namely, cloud-based, on-premises, and hybrid. Consider how you want to access the software and assess its suitability based on factors like security, infrastructure preferences, etc.

viii. Integrations Capabilities

Prioritize GRC tools that offer seamless integration capabilities with your existing systems, applications, and data sources within your organization’s ecosystem. This will allow smooth data sharing, automation, and interoperability to streamline workflows and enhance efficiency.

How Cyber Sierra Can Help You

While most popular GRC tools manage risk and regulatory compliance, you need a robust and enterprise-wide tool that will help your organization manage all your GRC requirements in a centralized dashboard like Cyber Sierra does.

Cyber Sierra’s GRC offers unique features such as advanced risk analytics, customizable compliance frameworks, integration with emerging technologies like AI and machine learning, and more.

Additionally, the software focuses on specific industries as well as compliance standards which provide tailored solutions to meet diverse organizational needs.

Besides, it’s easy to use for both beginners and experts alike. Anyone in your team can use Cyber Sierra without prior technical knowledge.

Here is how you can automate your GRC processes with Cyber Sierra:

Identification and assessment: Cyber Sierra’s GRC helps identify and assess all of your risks across all asset categories. This means you can get a comprehensive picture of your vulnerabilities from data to infrastructure.

Control development and implementation: Once the risks are identified, the software then helps develop and implement controls to mitigate those risks. These controls can be anything from security policies to technical safeguards.

Continuous control monitoring: Cyber Sierra’s GRC doesn’t stop at just identifying and mitigating risks. It also continuously monitors the effectiveness of those controls. This ensures that your controls are still working as intended over time.

Reporting: Finally, Cyber Sierra’s GRC allows you to report on your GRC activities to stakeholders. This means you can easily generate reports that demonstrate your compliance posture to auditors, regulators, or other interested parties.

Automate your GRC processes and take complexity and guesswork out of compliance with Cyber Sierra today!

Srividhya Karthik

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Governance & Compliance

An Ultimate Guide to Regulatory Compliance

Table of Contents

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Have you watched the movie Titanic? Of course, you have. What could have changed the dreadful climax of all time? If only the Captain had a proper monitoring system to realize the ship needed more lifeboats and a thorough understanding of the icebergs along the route.

Now, imagine your business as a ship navigating treacherous waters. Regulatory compliance requirements are the map, navigation tools, and safety standards that guide you along the journey, steering you clear of hazards and toward safe harbors. But the waters keep changing, and that’s why this comprehensive guide will provide you with complete awareness of regulatory compliance management and how to ace it like a pro!

What is Regulatory Compliance?

Regulatory compliance refers to an organization’s adherence to the laws, regulations, guidelines, and business practices relevant to its industry and countries of operation. It also includes complying with the organization’s specific procedures, standards, and guidelines.

Regulatory compliance management and regulatory compliance requirements vary significantly depending on the industry, vertical, jurisdiction, and business geography. For organizations with a global footprint, it becomes increasingly important to comply with regulatory compliance requirements across the wide range of geographies they operate. Also, certain industries, such as financial services, information technology, and healthcare, include more complex regulatory risk management. The reason is simple: the impact of these industries on aspects of the economy, business, and infrastructure is significant.

According toNavex Global’s 2023 Definitive Risk & Compliance Benchmark Report, 76% of risk and compliance professionals stated that ensuring their organization builds and maintains an ethical culture of compliance was a very important or absolutely essential consideration in its decision-making processes.

Importance of Regulatory Compliance

Regulatory compliance has become more important than ever, as businesses are now more susceptible to cybersecurity breaches. Moreover, the significance of regulatory compliance is indispensable for the following reasons:

Upholds the integrity of the business. Everything gets lost when there is no integrity.

Protects and strengthens stakeholder and public interest.

Allows the company to operate ethically and fairly and circles back to brand reputation.

Helps you conquer more clients and business partners. When goodwill and trust increase, it is obvious!

As a byproduct of the above, the brand perception increases, and so does profitability.

Helps with steering clear of criminal liability and other major fraudulent crises that can topple not only businesses but even governments. Ask about the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008!
Helps avoid loss to finance and reputation in case of non-compliance

In a nutshell, be future-ready to manage and mitigate risks when regulatory compliance management is in place.

Challenges in Regulatory Compliance

Adhering to regulatory compliance is not that easy. Going back to the Titanic example, even when the rescue team wanted to help, they faced many challenges. Rose jumped back onto the deck (she was crazy and in love, of course!), passengers grew agitated, clashes broke out, and more. Similarly, regulatory compliance management comes with its own set of obstacles.

Just as the Titanic crew had to navigate tumultuous situations amidst the sinking ship, businesses must steer through turbulent waters to achieve and maintain compliance. Changing regulations, complex requirements, data management issues, and resource constraints can all act as icebergs threatening to derail your compliance efforts.

However, just like the bravery of the Titanic crew inspired hope, a comprehensive plan can guide your organization safely through compliance challenges. With the right map, tools, and expertise, you can chart a course towards fully adhering to all relevant rules and standards governing your industry.

When Regulatory changes keep changing

Regulatory compliance requirements have experienced a surge in recent years, posing significant challenges for compliance teams across various industries and regions. Major regulations worldwide have undergone substantial revisions and upgrades, such as Singapore’s Compliance Code of Practice (CCoP) 2.0, Hong Kong’s Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) guidelines, the United States’ Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations, and Australia’s Comprehensive Income and Risk Management Program (CIRMP).

These evolving regulatory requirements demand continuous adaptation from compliance professionals to stay abreast of the latest standards and requirements. As regulations become more stringent and complex, compliance teams face mounting pressure to maintain comprehensive knowledge and effectively manage their organization’s compliance obligations. Failure to keep pace with these changes can result in substantial risks, including financial penalties, reputational damage, and potential legal consequences.

When finance and technology joined hands

The integration of technology into financial services brings undeniable benefits, but it necessitates increased collaboration between fintech and traditional institutions. This collaboration is essential to address potential overlaps and gaps in regulatory compliance requirements. Regulatory authorities face the challenge of understanding and regulating the combined characteristics of these entities from both financial and technological perspectives. As a result, there’s a growing need for new regulatory guidelines, particularly concerning anti-money laundering (AML) and privacy, to safeguard consumer security.

When cybersecurity and data privacy risks became common

Increasing global footprints and digital transformations have made all of us heavily rely on third-party technologies. There is a rise in cyber-attacks and data privacy issues when there is a third party involved. Third-party risk management is one of the top things to achieve in regulatory compliance management for every regulator. Proper data management and cybersecurity practices are the need of the hour.

Cost of compliance management

Besides the significant fees and penalties of non-compliance, budget constraints are a very important challenge for many businesses when it comes to regulatory compliance. While the costs associated with compliance are undeniable, it’s crucial to recognize that a strategic, enterprise-wide approach can not only mitigate these expenses but also unlock long-term benefits.

Building a proactive compliance culture

Establishing a strong culture of compliance is crucial for promoting good employee conduct, especially with the rise of remote and hybrid work models after the pandemic. Amidst these changes, the growing importance of culture and conduct risks highlights the need for compliance teams to encourage proactive reporting. However, achieving this goal presents numerous challenges. From effectively communicating regulatory updates to instilling a sense of caution regarding compliance management risks, compliance teams face the difficult task of ensuring that every employee is well-informed and engaged. Overcoming these obstacles and emphasizing the significance of regulatory compliance across the organization emerges as a formidable challenge for compliance teams.

Regulatory Compliance by Industry

The nature of regulatory compliance management and regulatory compliance requirements vary depending on different industries. Certain industries require heavy regulations compared to others.

Regulatory compliance for financial services

The financial services industry demands a tailored approach to compliance management due to the comprehensive and complex nature of regulations it is subject to. These regulations are designed to uphold stability, transparency, and consumer protection within the sector.

Regulatory bodies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) , the Federal Reserve in the US, the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) across geographies, oversee compliance.

Regulatory compliance requirements mandate anti-money laundering (AML) regulations, know-your-customer (KYC) requirements, data security standards, including Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard – PCI DSS), and other financial reporting, regulatory standards such as Generally Accepted Accounting Principles – GAAP).

Furthermore, specific jurisdictions like Singapore (Monetary Authority of Singapore – MAS), India (Reserve Bank of India – RBI, Securities and Exchange Board of India – SEBI), Australia (Australian Prudential Regulation Authority – APRA, Australian Securities and Investments Commission – ASIC), and Hong Kong (Securities and Futures Commission – SFC, Hong Kong Monetary Authority – HKMA) have their own unique regulatory frameworks governing the financial services industry.

Singapore: MAS regulates financial stability, AML/CFT, and cybersecurity.
India: RBI and SEBI enforce prudential norms, risk management, and securities laws.
Australia: APRA ensures financial stability, while ASIC focuses on consumer and investor protection.
Hong Kong: SFC and HKMA overseas market integrity, AML, KYC, and data privacy.

Regulatory compliance for energy suppliers

Regulatory compliance in the energy suppliers industry mandates regulations for safety and environmental protection. Regulatory risk management for this industry aims to ensure safety, environmental protection, and efficient operations. These include compliance requirements related to environmental regulations (e.g., emissions standards, waste management), safety standards (e.g., Occupational Safety and Health Administration – OSHA in the US), and industry-specific regulations governing energy production, distribution, and pricing.

Regulatory compliance for government agencies

Government agencies are subjected to strict compliance regulations. This mandate helps in achieving equality for everyone and encourages ethical staff behavior. Compliance management for the government sector includes federal, state/provincial, and local laws, as well as regulations specific to the agency’s mandate. These can be budgetary regulations, procurement laws, and administrative procedures acts. Ethical standards are indispensable, and regulatory complaint requirements here foster avoiding conflicts of interest, maintaining transparency and accountability, and adhering to codes of conduct and ethics guidelines.

Since government agencies deal with sensitive information, such as citizen data, financial records, and classified materials, compliance with data security and privacy regulations is crucial to protect this information from unauthorized access, disclosure, or misuse. For example, in the United States, you are expected to comply with laws such as the Privacy Act, in the European Union, you are expected to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

They are also required to ensure accessibility and non-discrimination in the delivery of their services and programs. This includes compliance with laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the United States, which mandates accessibility accommodations for individuals with disabilities.

Regulatory compliance for the healthcare sector

Healthcare companies require strict compliance laws. This is obvious as they store a lot of sensitive and personal patient data. Hospitals and other healthcare providers are built majorly on trust and reputation. This requires them to exhibit the necessary steps that they have taken to comply with certain regulations, such as patient privacy rules, including providing adequate server security and encryption.

How Does Regulatory Compliance Work?

Regulatory compliance works as a systematic process. It enables organizations to adhere to relevant laws, regulations, standards, and guidelines that govern its operations. Here’s an overview of the process it entails:

Identify applicable regulations:

The organization first identifies the necessary regulations, laws, and standards relevant to its industry, jurisdiction, and activities. This process requires thorough research and understanding of the regulatory landscape.

Assessment and analysis:

Now that the applicable regulations are identified, it’s time to conduct a comprehensive assessment to understand the specific regulatory compliance requirements and implications for its business operations. This is usually done by analyzing the regulatory provisions, assessing current practices, and identifying any areas of non-compliance.

Developing a compliance framework:

The assessment is done and the findings are ready; now the organization develops a compliance framework that clearly outlines compliance management policies, procedures, controls, and measures that will ensure adherence to regulatory compliance requirements. Now, the roadmap for achieving and maintaining compliance is ready.

Implementing controls and processes:

Kudos! The compliance framework is in place now, and the organization implements the necessary controls, processes, and systems to operationalize the outlined compliance requirements. This is usually executed by establishing protocols for data protection, implementing safety procedures, conducting employee training, and integrating compliance into everyday business operations.

Monitoring and review:

One thing that needs to be understood is that compliance is an ongoing process. It requires continuous monitoring and constant review to ensure that the controls are effective, that the regulations are being followed, and tracking any changes in requirements are promptly addressed.

Documentation and reporting:

Every organization should maintain detailed documentation of its compliance efforts, including policies, procedures, records, and reports. Regulatory compliance documentation not only serves as evidence of adherence to regulatory requirements but will also be required for regulatory inspections, audits, and reporting obligations.

Adapting to changes:

Regulatory requirements will keep changing due to new legislation, updates, and evolving industry standards. Here, the organization stays informed about changes in regulations relevant to its operations and immediately adapts its compliance efforts accordingly.

How to Implement a Regulatory Compliance Plan?

Congratulations! You’ve made the wise decision to establish a robust regulatory compliance plan for your organization. Navigating the complex landscape of industry regulations can be daunting, but fear not – Cyber Sierra’s proven 8-step framework will guide you through the process, ensuring an effective and rewarding implementation.

What are your goals?

The first step is simply to simply define your goals. Ask yourself what you wish to achieve with your regulatory compliance management plan. The goals can be diverse – you might want to cut down the hefty fines, penalties, and payouts of the company, save time and expense based on retrospective investigations, or work with everyone in the team to use complaints to increase growth or it could be even as simple as getting awareness on a new piece of incoming legislation that might affect your organization in the future.

Begin by clearly defining your objectives for the regulatory compliance management plan. Whether it’s reducing financial liabilities, saving time on retrospective investigations, fostering team collaboration for growth, or staying ahead of upcoming legislation, establishing clear goals is essential. Sit down with your team to map out a risk assessment and prioritize goals for the short and long term, setting achievable targets to work towards. It’s crucial to set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) targets to track progress effectively.

For example, if you head the operations of an international bank, the primary goal is to strengthen its regulatory compliance program to mitigate the risk of money laundering activities and ensure adherence to AML regulations. By implementing stricter compliance measures, you can aim to enhance your reputation, safeguard your assets, and maintain the trust of your customers and regulators.

What is your corporate culture?

Understand and draft what corporate culture your business falls into. When this is done, it is easier to align compliance with corporate culture. Aligning regulatory compliance with corporate culture makes it easier for everyone in the company to bring acceptance of your new policies. Ensure you outline the advantages of regulatory compliance management at each level of the company’s structure, and it will come a long way in making your employees understand its importance more clearly.

Identify and define the risks that compliance can help you avoid in each strategic area of the organization to build a strong case for your policy. Everyone in the company must be aware of your regulatory compliance management. Or your risk management efforts will turn out to be ineffective. For example, understand your bank’s corporate culture of integrity and transparency and encourage the compliance team to integrate AML compliance training into the organization’s values and mission. By emphasizing the importance of ethical conduct and regulatory adherence, you can foster a culture of compliance where every employee understands their role in preventing financial crimes.

What is your functional scope?

The scope of regulatory risk management is no longer a retrospective role. But it is more forward-facing and it only acts as a preventative function in the organization. If you want to foresee regulatory issues before they occur, you have to increase resources, and your compliance management plan needs to reflect that. Start at a basic level and gradually increase the scope over time.

Consider incorporating technologies like robotic process automation (RPA) and artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance efficiency and accuracy. Start with a foundational level of compliance and gradually expand the scope over time as resources allow. For example, by recognizing the proactive nature of regulatory risk management, you can allocate resources to enhance your AML compliance capabilities. Starting with basic transaction monitoring systems, you can gradually expand the scope to include advanced analytics and machine learning algorithms to detect suspicious activities and prevent potential money laundering risks.

What is the nature of your regulatory environment?

As discussed in the challenges already, the regulatory environment is always changing. This makes it essential for your team to stay on top of regulatory compliance trends at all times. Monitor legislative developments not only in your primary operating region but also in any other jurisdictions where your business operates. Thoroughly analyze proposed regulations to anticipate their impact on your operations. Break down regulatory requirements into actionable steps to ensure full compliance.

For example, your bank’s compliance team can stay vigilant in monitoring regulatory developments related to AML regulations globally. They can analyze updates to the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations to ensure CityBank’s compliance procedures remain up-to-date and align with evolving regulatory standards.

How to develop formal procedures, rules, and standards?

Now, you have a clear understanding of the prospective regulatory landscape. It’s time to develop the formal policies, standards, and procedures required to comply with the law. Though most of these procedures will closely follow the technical standards outlined in the legislation, you should also consider adding your own internal checks. This helps in identifying potential human or software errors and avoiding consequences.

For example, with a clear understanding of AML regulatory requirements, you can develop formal policies and procedures tailored to detect and prevent money laundering activities effectively. Collaborating with industry experts and regulatory authorities, you can establish robust customer due diligence processes and transaction monitoring protocols to comply with AML laws.

Have you trained your employees?

All your efforts will become null if your employees are not trained. Thorough training about your procedures is important, and making them understand the reasons behind them is mandatory to make sure that the business remains compliant. Train your employees to spot a compliance issue, report it accurately, and escalate it through the right means. At the next level, your management should be well-equipped to handle reports and take swift calls on what to do next, as well as how their operations with business partners are affected.

For example, you can conduct comprehensive AML compliance training programs for all employees, ranging from frontline staff to senior management. Through interactive workshops and scenario-based simulations, employees learn to identify red flags indicative of money laundering activities and understand the importance of reporting suspicious transactions promptly.

Do you practice accurate record-keeping?

Accurate record-keeping is crucial for demonstrating compliance with regulatory requirements and facilitating audits or investigations. Establish clear guidelines for documenting compliance-related activities and maintaining records securely. Regularly review and update record-keeping practices to adapt to changing regulatory landscapes.

For example, you can implement electronic record-keeping systems to maintain detailed transaction records and customer profiles, ensuring accurate documentation of AML compliance efforts and enabling timely reporting to regulatory authorities.

Do you monitor compliance consistently?

Continuously monitor and evaluate compliance performance to identify areas for improvement and ensure ongoing adherence to regulatory standards. Utilize analytics tools and metrics to track progress toward goals and measure the effectiveness of compliance initiatives. Regularly report findings to senior leadership to demonstrate the value of compliance efforts and secure support for future initiatives. You can use a digital tool such as CyberSierra to keep a central control repository, identify third-party risks, and automate data collection and risk assessment.

For example, you can continuously monitor your AML compliance performance using data analytics tools and risk assessment frameworks. By tracking key performance indicators such as transaction monitoring alerts and suspicious activity reports, you can assess the effectiveness of its AML controls and identify areas for improvement to strengthen your compliance program further.

Keeping a regular check on your goals on a quarterly or annual basis will help in evaluating your support compliance efforts. Present the results to your senior leadership and explain the benefits of an effective program. This motivates decision-makers to justify the efforts and investment in corporate regulatory compliance.

How does Cyber Sierra help you with regulatory compliance management?

Cyber Sierra understands business challenges and offers a comprehensive solution to simplify data collection, risk assessments, and compliance management. Our cutting-edge AI platform streamlines the entire process, making it effortless to gather, analyze, and interpret data, enabling you to identify and mitigate risks proactively.

Cyber Sierra automates data collection & risk assessments, helps with policies management, generates comprehensive reports and maintains detailed records for transparency and accountability. The platform also streamline compliance management across various regulatory frameworks using automation

Don’t let compliance complexities sink your operations. Take a proactive approach and experience the best regulatory compliance management for your business. Schedule a demo with Cyber Sierra today and unlock the power of automated, streamlined, and efficient compliance management.

FAQs

What is regulatory compliance management?

Regulatory compliance management, in simple terms, is a company’s adherence to laws, regulations, guidelines, procedures, rules, and other necessary specifications relevant to its business processes, industry and country of operation. Not adhering to regulatory compliance results in legal punishment, including hefty federal penalties.

Is regulatory compliance management important?

Regulatory compliance management is very important. It goes beyond merely adhering to legal requirements; it serves as a cornerstone for establishing a credible brand reputation, fostering trust with partners, customers, and stakeholders, and safeguarding the organization from potential breaches. Non-compliance can have severe consequences, including financial penalties, reputational damage, loss of consumer confidence, and even the potential termination of business operations.

How can regulatory compliance management benefit your organization?

Regulatory compliance benefits businesses by identifying and mitigating risks associated with legal and regulatory obligations. A robust compliance framework, encompassing comprehensive processes and stringent security controls, equips organizations to proactively mitigate and circumvent non-compliance incidents, such as data breaches, workplace accidents, or environmental contraventions. Adherence to regulatory mandates not only safeguards organizations from substantial financial penalties but also fortifies their brand reputation and credibility within the industry.

How often should you create a compliance management plan?

The frequency of creating a compliance management plan varies based on factors like industry standards, regulatory requirements, and organizational needs. While there’s no fixed rule, it’s generally recommended to review and update the plan at least annually. This ensures that it remains aligned with evolving regulations, business changes, and emerging risks, helping to maintain compliance effectiveness and mitigate potential issues.

Can we use automation for compliance management?

Yes, you can use compliance automation technology, such as Cyber Sierra, to continually check your systems for compliance. Compliance automation helps automate workflows and removes manual processes. For example, Cyber Sierra’s smart GRC automation helps in streamlining Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) processes, saving time and effort in data collection, analyses, and reporting.

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Governance & Compliance

GRC Framework: What is it and Why is it Important?

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In the rapidly changing and ever-demanding business scenario, organizations face huge pressure to successfully navigate the complexities while simultaneously ensuring compliance with various cyber security standards and regulations. The more disorganized the structure, the higher the chance for scattered data, mismanaged human resources, lack of risk visibility, and inadequate audit trails. The solution to these issues lies in the adoption of a GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance) framework which aligns with your business objectives to achieve a well-managed set of functions. Let’s delve deeper and understand what the GRC framework is, how to implement it, its associated key components, and its benefits.

What is a GRC Framework?

The GRC framework, or Governance, Risk, and Compliance Framework, is a well-designed and structured model that leverages timely information on data, risks, policies, and compliance to reduce compliance risk.

It is more than a mere checklist that enables organizations to align their everyday operations with planned strategic objectives while managing risks and complying with relevant regulations. When adopted well, a GRC framework can help organizations integrate best practices and process day-to-day operations to effectively manage its IT and security risks, reduce costs, and meet compliance requirements.

Key components of GRC framework

The GRC framework comprises three important components. Each of these components has its own nature, and mastering all three is important for a rewarding GRC framework.

Governance

Governance, in simple terms, is about the set of rules, policies, and processes that help an organization plan its everyday activities and align them to support and enable its business goals.

Good governance in the GRC framework

includes ethics, procedures, resource management, accountability, stability, and management controls.
enables the top management to guide and take control of what happens at every level of the organization.
helps every business unit in the organization be directed and aligned with the defined corporate goals and overall customer needs.
makes employees feel empowered, though their behavior and resources are controlled, but not in a negative way.
focuses more on being well-coordinated and heavily controlled.
aims to achieve accountability for conduct and results.
defines employee roles based on lines or sectors of the business.
evaluates employees based on their performance and results achieved, not on their job responsibilities.

Governance in the GRC framework predominantly aims to balance the interests of multiple stakeholders in the organization. These include top management, employees, contractors, freelancers, suppliers, and investors. It also provides control over available facilities and infrastructure.

How does governance help in maintaining balance? Here’s a GRC framework example – an organization encompasses multiple internal and external stakeholders. The contracts between these stakeholders need to be intact so that there is a proper sharing of responsibilities, rights, and rewards. It also includes well-defined procedures for reconciliation in cases of conflicting interests among stakeholders. Also, structured policies aid in supervision, control, and data flow functions, including a system of checks and balances.

Risk Management

Right on cue comes risk management. The ignored middle child of the GRC framework turns out to be a headache later. Risk management is the process of identifying, evaluating, analyzing, and mitigating or transferring different risks. These risks can be financial, legal, process-oriented, strategic, and security-related and threaten an organization’s operations.

Risk management

reduces the risks faced by an organization through an effective IT governance and compliance framework.
effectively monitors, controls, and reduces the impact of negative incidents on the organization.
focuses on maximizing the impact of positive events.
creates objectives that are in line with an organization’s values. Based on this, it builds a system of people, processes, and technology.
aims to achieve the objectives of an organization while refining its risk profile and securing value.
works on identifying threats and risks related to cybersecurity and information security.

For example, a risk management program within the GRC framework will include an assessment of the technology used and the identification of operational and technological failures, as these will impact the core business. It will also monitor the risks involved with infrastructure and the potential failure of networks and find ways to control them.

A risk assessment program needs to adhere to internal, contractual, legal, ethical, and societal objectives and keep track of any new rules pertaining to technology and cybersecurity. A company can safeguard itself from uncertainty, cut expenses, and raise the possibility of success and business continuity by concentrating on risk and allocating the resources required to control and mitigate risk.

An effective risk assessment program

should be in line with the different objectives of an organization, such as legal, contractual, internal, social, and ethical.
stay on top of the new technology-related regulations, and government regulations and monitor them to ensure compliance.
will allocate resources accordingly and help businesses safeguard themselves against uncertainty.
helps in effective risk control that results in cost reduction and enhances the likelihood of business continuity and success.

Compliance

Here comes the last one on the cue, the most spoiled one of the lot: compliance. Compliance management deals with adherence to rules, procedures, policies, and laws laid down by an organization, government, agency, and more. Non-compliance leads to a lack of performance, hefty fines, penalties, and lawsuits.

Regulatory compliance also encompasses external laws, regulations related to jurisdiction, and industry standards that are mandatory for functioning. On the other hand, internal compliance deals with different aspects such as rules, regulations, and management internal controls decided by an individual company. Both the internal compliance management program and external compliance requirements need to be integrated for the smooth functioning of an organization.

An effective compliance program

helps in understanding the areas of greatest risk and allocating more resources to those areas.
focuses on developing, implementing, and communicating policies to employees to overcome those risk areas.
offers guidance for employees and vendors. This makes the process of following compliance policies easier.

Types of GRC Framework

The key components of the GRC framework are clear now. Let’s learn more about the types of GRC frameworks.

Integrated GRC Framework

In an integrated GRC framework, governance, risk management, and compliance functions are unified under a single overarching structure. This approach promotes synergy and efficiency by streamlining processes and fostering a holistic view of organizational risks and compliance requirements.

Modular GRC Framework

A modular GRC framework consists of distinct but interconnected modules for governance, risk management, and compliance functions. Organizations can customize and implement individual modules based on their specific needs and priorities, allowing for greater flexibility and scalability.

Specialized GRC Framework

Specialized GRC frameworks cater to organizations operating in highly regulated industries or facing unique compliance challenges. These frameworks are tailored to address specific regulatory requirements or industry standards, offering targeted solutions for governance, risk, and compliance management.

Benefits of GRC Framework

Implementing the GRC framework makes your life easier. Period. No other way to argue about it. So, what are the benefits of the GRC framework? Read below:

Improved operational efficiency

GRC framework helps automate common mundane processes. Continuous monitoring of controls, risks involved, and KRIs leads to this. So, organizations learn better and more efficient ways to run operations.

Better quality information

The GRC framework brings an integrated approach, and now your management team can have a complete 360-degree view of every piece of data. This helps with informed decision-making.

Cost reduction

With the GRC framework, you can build a roadmap of business rules, better reviews, and consolidated controls. This leads to better use of resources and reduces the cost of implementation.

Automation

The GRC framework reduces manual efforts by eliminating the need for spreadsheets, documents, emails, and direct calls to manage everyday functions. This leads to a shift in reduced manual efforts and eliminates redundant tasks, processes, workflows, and more.

Transparency

Siloed functions come with the GRC framework, and this helps provide full visibility into processes. In this scenario, every department works independently. So, you get visibility for all involved parties.

Efficiency

GRC frameworks bring all the processes related to risks, internal audits, and compliance into a centralized system, which makes managing time-consuming, complex processes easier.

Risk and security

Businesses can manage, implement, track, monitor, and automate risks with the aid of GRC frameworks. This gives upper management the ability to decide more wisely, define objectives that match shifting market demands, and allocate resources to reduce risks.

How to Implement GRC Framework

There is no right or wrong way to build your GRC framework. But the starting point is to bring together all your business components and unify them from a bottom-up approach to implementation.

1. Determine the Benefits of Putting a GRC Platform in Place

The first step is understanding, analyzing, realizing, and accepting the value of GRC framework implementation in your business. Only this will help you identify wide range GRC strategies that can be beneficial for your organization.

Identify existing processes that are working just fine and need not be changed. These can be retained and added to your unified system.
Identifying irrelevant data, technologies, and assets that are redundant reduces value and can even complicate your unification process.
Now, you have the most profitable assets in your hands, and these can be used to enhance your GRC strategy.

2. Create a GRC Project Roadmap

To understand your strategy’s scope, outline the purpose clearly and summarize the main functions of the GRC framework. This has to be accurately done with ongoing collaboration between all stakeholders. Only then will the product result align with the needs of each department without contradictions. Knowing the potential benefits of the GRC framework can help identify desired outcomes for every department here. This helps in the cybersecurity GRC framework and the IT governance risk and compliance framework.

3. Conduct a Gap Analysis

A crucial step in the compliance assessment process is gap analysis, which acts as a diagnostic tool to find differences between an organization’s current procedures and the ideal level of compliance.

During gap analysis, determine the following for each:

Process maturity
Data quality
Operational gaps

Keep these factors in mind when you conduct a gap analysis:

Finding any duplicate or missing data
Finding any redundant or duplicate processes
Finding ways to automate processes or reduce the manual ones

4. Establish and Match Expectations with Stakeholders

Ensure your entire organization is on board with the GRC framework and its implementation. This is often overlooked. The GRC framework involves every department, and all your key stakeholders should have their voices heard about the proposal.

The main steps in achieving organizational alignment are:

Align executive team members with important considerations, like budget and roll-out dates. Before moving forward and making any necessary changes, you must ensure the leadership is on board with your plan before you notify the rest of the organization.

Use a top-down strategy. After receiving executive permission, you must establish practical and well-communicated change management procedures throughout all other business divisions. For instance, it’s reasonable to anticipate that your suggested modifications will encounter some opposition. Long-standing internal policies, external policies, and procedures within departments will probably need to be phased away gradually.

You should provide each team with frequent, educational updates explaining the pertinent changes and how they will impact their duties to facilitate a smooth transition. Establish an open channel of communication for team members to share any worries, recommendations, or other insightful comments that might change your approach.

5. Create a Solid Base for Your GRC Strategy

Get the proper groundwork done. Make sure your GRC system is practical and adaptable. This plays a significant role in the IT governance risk and compliance framework given the increased risk of cyber threats and vulnerabilities and the disastrous impact of data breaches. It is also important to pay closer attention to check if your GRC framework is adaptable to ever-changing regulatory changes.

6. Join Forces with a GRC Solution Supplier

There are a lot of moving components involved in implementing a GRC program from scratch, such as merging information silos, maintaining updates, and employing manual procedures like spreadsheets. Many of these pain points can be streamlined by a smart GRC platform, freeing up your implementation time for higher-level work.

You must exercise due diligence, just like you would with any third-party vendor, to make sure your selected GRC technology complies with regulations and doesn’t put your company at serious risk for security breaches.

Through time and money savings, the appropriate GRC technology should provide a return on investment (ROI).

When selecting GRC software, consider the following crucial inquiries:

Is it simple to use and intuitive?
Is it using workflows that are automated?
Is customization possible? Custom reporting, for instance
Is it adaptable?
Do its features carry out actions?

7. Make Your GRC Strategy Uniform

The ability of a GRC strategy to meet the needs of the entire business is one of its key characteristics. Although every department will have unique needs, there ought to be a standard to work from.

8. Oversee and Update Your GRC Plan

Launching your GRC framework is not a one-time, set-and-forget endeavor. Once the implementation is over, it is your responsibility to ensure your strategy is adaptable and evolves with the changes in your business objectives.

Every team should keep up-to-date, precise records of its GRC requirements that are dated and include a note of any significant changes, including the introduction of new technology. A smart GRC platform can automate a good majority of this workflow.

These reports are the reference for your regular stakeholder meetings. Based on these recordings and meetings, you can ensure that your whole organization is aligned with the overall strategy. Another best practice is to conduct an audit at least annually to maintain regulatory compliance management. Any compliance issues identified should then be prioritized for remediation.

How does GRC automation work?

GRC automation software works by seamlessly integrating with your existing systems and processes, streamlining governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) procedures. This integration allows for efficient data collection, analysis, and reporting, ultimately saving time and effort.

Data Integration:

GRC automation integrates with various systems like ERP, HRIS, etc., to automatically collect data, eliminating manual entry and reducing errors.

Automated Workflows:

Predefined workflows and rules process data, aligning with policies and regulations. Automated tasks include risk assessments, control testing, issue management, and compliance monitoring.

Real-time Monitoring and Reporting:

Continuous monitoring assesses adherence to policies and regulations, enabling prompt identification and resolution of risks and violations.

Centralized Dashboard and Reporting:

Consolidated dashboards provide a comprehensive view of GRC posture. Automated reporting tailors information for stakeholders, promoting transparency and informed decision-making.

Scalability and Flexibility:

GRC automation solutions adapt to growth and evolving requirements, incorporating new data sources, workflows, and reporting needs for ongoing compliance and risk management.

What are the advantages of GRC automation?

Efficiency and Time Savings:

Automating data collection, analysis, and reporting processes streamlines GRC procedures, saving significant time and effort compared to manual methods.

Reduced Human Error:

By minimizing manual interventions, GRC automation lowers the possibility of human error, ensuring consistent and trustworthy compliance management.

Proactive Risk Identification:

Real-time monitoring capabilities enabled by automation allow organizations to quickly recognize and resolve potential business risks before they escalate.

Scalability and Adaptability:

GRC automation solutions are easily scalable and can adapt to evolving compliance requirements as businesses grow and expand, ensuring ongoing regulatory adherence.

Centralized Visibility:

Automated GRC platforms often provide centralized dashboards, offering a comprehensive view of an organization’s governance, risk, and compliance posture, promoting transparency and informed decision-making.

Consistent Application of Policies and Regulations:

Automated workflows and rules ensure that policies, regulations, and risk management frameworks are applied consistently across the organization, reducing the risk of non-compliance.

Audit Trail and Reporting:

GRC automation solutions maintain detailed audit trails and generate customized reports tailored to specific stakeholders, such as executives, auditors, and regulatory bodies, facilitating compliance demonstrations and regulatory reporting.

Resource Optimization:

By automating repetitive and time-consuming GRC tasks, organizations can reallocate human resources to more strategic and value-adding activities, optimizing resource utilization.

How can Cyber Sierra’s Smart GRC automation help?

Cyber Sierra’s platform goes beyond traditional GRC frameworks by offering an all-inclusive AI-enabled platform. It encompasses features such as control mapping, automated checks, risk unification, staff training, and streamlined access control, effectively turning compliance into a seamless and integrated process.

Here’s a look at the top features:

Automated Data Collection and Risk Identification:

Cyber Sierra automates data collection and analyses from various sources for effective risk identification and mitigation.

Near Real-time Compliance Monitoring:

Cyber Sierra’s Continuous Control Monitoring (CCM) feature enables real-time monitoring of processes and activities, ensuring ongoing compliance with relevant regulations and internal policies. It proactively identifies and flags any instances of non-compliance, allowing organizations to promptly address issues before they escalate.

Comprehensive Reporting and Auditing:

The platform offers you in-depth reporting tailored to stakeholders, and detailed audit trails promote accountability and transparency.

Multi-framework Compliance Management:

Cyber Sierra streamlines compliance across multiple industry regulations and standards such as ISO, PCI DSS, HIPAA, SAMA, CIRMP, MAS TRM, and HKMA, reducing non-compliance risks.

Proactive Risk Assessment:

It identifies and prioritizes potential risks based on impact and likelihood for strategic risk management.

Prioritization and Scoping

: The platform prioritizes compliance requirements, scopes risks and controls for efficient resource allocation.

Cyber Insurance:

The platform can also help you transfer risks through cyber insurance coverage.

If you are looking for a smart GRC solution, talk to our experts today to know how Cyber Sierra can help you reach your security goals.

Srividhya Karthik

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Third Party Risk Management

MAS Outsourcing Guidelines - What CISO Should Know in 2024 ?

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11th December 2024.

That’s the grace period the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has allowed before its new Notices on Outsourcing (658 and 1121) takes effect. Announced on 11th December 2023, the 12-month grace period also repeals the Outsourcing guidelines outlined in Notices 634 and 1108.

This means even if your organization was compliant with Notices 634 and 1108 last updated in 2018, you still have work to do. You’re probably here because you know that. So without much ado, in this article, I’ll:

Highlight who the latest MAS Outsourcing guidelines apply to
Discuss the key areas in the new MAS Outsourcing guidelines
Show you how to automate parts of the process of becoming (and staying) compliant with MAS’ updated regulations.

Who the Latest MAS Outsourcing Guidelines Apply to

According to the regulator’s official statements, Notices 658 and 1121 spells out compliance requirements for banks and merchant banks outsourcing relevant services to third-parties, respectively.

As illustrated below:

Both outsourcing guideline Notices are issued pursuant to section 47A(2), (4), (6), (7) and (12), as applied by section 55ZJ(1), of the Singaporean Banking Act 1970 (the “Act”) and applies to all banks and merchant banks.

The stated information confirms who the new MAS Outsourcing guidelines apply to: Banks and merchant banks. However, the responsibility of becoming compliant rests on the senior management, CISOs, and executives at such financial institutions (FIs).

You’ll see that as we proceed.

But before we proceed:

Key Areas in the New MAS Outsourcing Guidelines

Although there are dozens of requirements, key areas FIs must adhere to, to become compliant with the new MAS Outsourcing guidelines are:

Having a register of all outsourced service providers
Third-party risk governance and management oversight
Ongoing evaluation of 3rd (and 4th) party vendors
Continuous independent audits of third-parties

Register of All Outsourced Relevant Services

Under this requirement, MAS mandates all banks and merchant banks to have and keep a register that comprehensively records all:

More importantly, the regulator requires all FIs to update the register promptly and submit the same to the Authority semi-annually and at any time it is requested.

You can have and keep an updated register of outsourced relevant services like the one required by MAS through the good ol’ spreadsheet. But this will take a lot of manual data entry and maintenance efforts. A more optimal way is to leverage Cyber Sierra’s third-party risk management suite:

With our platform, an updated inventory of all third-party vendors and service providers are kept automatically. As shown above, you also get a database for your security team to quickly search and track how critical vendors perform relative to outlined MAS cybersecurity guidelines.

Third-Party Risk Governance & Management Oversight

In the new Outsourcing guidelines, MAS requires the implementation of an appropriate third-party risk management governance framework. They also require FIs to have an executive team to provide oversight of the same.

Two critical must-dos are:

To comply with these requirements, you can create a custom third-party risk management governance framework. A better option that helps in streamlining the compliance process is to adopt and customize globally-accepted governance frameworks like SOC and NIST.

Cyber Sierra helps with that:

Our platform is pre-built with customizable versions of the SOC and NIST governance frameworks used to assess 3rd parties worldwide. You also get a single pane to invite all stakeholders needed to collaborate, customize, and oversee any of the governance frameworks your team implements.

Ongoing evaluation of 3rd (and 4th) party vendors

In the updated Outsourcing guidelines, MAS requires FIs to properly evaluate third-parties before and after engaging them. The financial regulator also requires due diligence extended to the subcontractors (fourth-parties) a 3rd party service provider is working with.

This due diligence checks should be ongoing:

To become compliant with the ongoing evaluation of third-and fourth-parties, MAS expects third-parties working with FIs to provide evidence of meeting designated security assessment requirements.

Specifically, the expect that:

You can automate processes involved in collecting such evidence documents with Cyber Sierra. For instance, you can request and have third-parties upload required security assessment evidence from one pane.

Our platform also auto-verifies each uploaded evidence:

The ability to automate crucial third-party risk management processes like this is why financial institutions trust Cyber Sierra. Take one global bank based in Singapore:

Continuous Independent Audits of Third-Parties

The compliance requirements here is straightforward:

Working with independent auditors has many benefits. One is giving external, more experienced eyes a chance to assess 3rd parties that pose risks and can stop your company from becoming compliant. But because MAS requires that this is done on an ongoing basis, there’s a need to streamline the process for everyone.

For instance, you can give auditors a central place where they can search, easily review, and identify third-parties with unsatisfactory security measures in place.

Again, you can do this with Cyber Sierra:

Take the MAS Outsourcing Notices Seriously

Singapore’s threat landscape is always evolving.

To stay one step ahead, Notice 658 and Notice 1121 sets out updated measures necessary for protecting financial institutions from threat actors increasingly trying to strike through outsourced services. By taking the new MAS Outsourcing guidelines seriously and complying with them, you bolster your organization’s cyber resilience.

Another reason to take this seriously is the allowed grace period. MAS expects all financial institutions to become compliant with all new requirements before 11th December 2024. Depending on when you read this, that’s just a few months away.

To facilitate the process for your team, consider streamlining and automating the crucial parts of becoming (and staying) compliant. Of course, this is where a platform like Cyber Sierra comes in:

Pramodh Rai

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Third Party Risk Management

Third-Party Risk Management - A Comprehensive Guide 101

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In today’s rapidly changing business environment, success is often a matter of who you know – or in many cases, who you work with. Third-party relationships can be a boon, opening doors and enabling innovation. However, they can also be a complex web, a vast network that can introduce a host of risks, especially cybersecurity risks.

Understanding the gravity of these risks is crucial.The vulnerability of third-party connections presents a formidable challenge for organizations navigating the cybersecurity landscape.This underscores the critical importance of implementing a proactive and strategic Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM).

This TPRM blogpost will help demystify TPRM, explain why it’s important, and provide best practices to fortify your organization against these risks.

What is TPRM?

Third-party risk management (TPRM) is a proactive and strategic approach to identifying and mitigating the varied risks associated with an enterprise’s use of third parties (also known as vendors, suppliers, partners, contractors, or service providers) for its business requirements

TPRM helps organizations understand the third parties they work with, how they are used, and what safeguards the third parties have in place. The scope and requirements of TPRM vary from one organization to another based on industry, regulations, and other factors, but many best practices are universal. TPRM can be thought of as a broader discipline that includes vendor risk management (VRM), supplier risk management, and supply chain risk management. By implementing a robust TPRM program, organizations can reduce the likelihood of disruptions to their operations and protect their reputation, data, and assets.

Importance of TPRM in 2024

In 2024, Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) continues to be critical for organizations across various industries due to the evolving threat landscape, increasing reliance on third-party vendors, and rising regulatory scrutiny. According to Deloitte, last year 62% of global leaders identified cyber information and security risk to be the top third-party risk. At the same time, almost half (42%) of them believe that their third parties play a more important role than ever in driving revenue compared to three years ago. This highlights the significant challenges and responsibilities faced by third-party risk management and security teams in identifying, managing, and mitigating the varied risks associated with integrating them into their IT environment.

Increased regulatory scrutiny:

The increasing focus on data protection and privacy regulations like GDPR, MAS TRM, and CCPA has led to a greater scrutiny of third-party outsourcing. Regulators worldover, like those in the EU and the US, are demanding tighter governance and accountability, particularly in AI and cloud services. Rules like DORA, NYDFS, and NIS2 mandate mapping third-party assets, evaluating criticality, and adopting proactive risk management strategies, including third-party risk assessments. This shift requires organizations to ensure TPRM practices align with evolving regulations.

Evolving threat landscape:

With businesses increasingly leveraging cloud services, the potential attack surface has grown. TPRM is crucial in identifying and mitigating these emerging risks by implementing and monitoring effective cybersecurity measures. However, enterprises must consider the shared responsibility model of cloud infrastructure systems like AWS, which shifts certain responsibilities to SaaS providers. This shift complicates data security and can lead to vulnerabilities, as seen in the 2015 Uber breach. Companies must implement best practices and maintain strong oversight of their cloud services and third-party relationships.

Examples of Third-Party Risks

Organizations face various third-party security risks, some of which are mentioned below:

Cybersecurity Risk: The association with third parties can result in many kinds of cyber threats, including data breaches or even data loss. Routine evaluation of vendors and tracking of their activities is one of the measures aimed at minimizing this risk.

Operational Risk: Third-party initiatives and disruptions can prevent business operations from going normal. To eliminate this, companies usually implement SLAs (service level agreements) with vendors and prepare backup plans for the sustenance of business continuity.

Compliance Risk: Third-party activities can increase an organization’s risk of noncompliance with established standards or contractual agreements. This area is particularly sensitive for companies that operate in industries with a high degree of regulation, such as banking, telecom, government, and the health sector.

Reputational Risk: Any organization working with third parties faces potential reputational risks from adverse incidents. Such incidents involve security failures, data breaches, or unethical behavior. They can damage customer trust loss, brand reputation, and overall business quality.

Financial Risk: Inadequate management of third-party relationships can also cause financial difficulties for companies. A third party with inadequate security measures may attract fines and legal fees, further damaging the company’s financial stability.

Strategic Risk: Furthermore, third-party risks can be detrimental to an organization’s strategic objectives. If not addressed adequately, they can impede business success.

These risks often converge – for example, a breach can lead to loss of customer data, posing simultaneous risks to operations, brand reputation, finances, and compliance

Third-Party Risk Management Lifecycle

1. Recognition and Categorization of Third-Party Risk

Effective third-party risk management starts with understanding and categorizing the risks posed by different third-party relationships. This involves creating a complete inventory of all vendors, suppliers, contractors, partners, and other third-party entities that an organization engages with. Here are several factors to consider when categorizing these relationships:

Determine access level: Providers with high levels of access to sensitive data or systems are the ones considered to be at high risk.

Relationship type: Providers that take a rather meaningful part in the enterprise are thought of as higher-risk ones.

Industry or sector: Particular industries or sectors could be more prone to risks, such as fraud or data breaches.

Regulatory compliance: Ensure clarity and alignment with regulatory expectations by categorizing third-party risks according to specific compliance mandates and industry regulations.

Financial stability: The providers with financial instability are likely to raise the risk levels of organizations.

Categorizing third-party relationships based on these factors can help organizations prioritize their risk management efforts and allocate resources more effectively to mitigate potential risks. It also provides a framework for ongoing monitoring and assessment of these relationships.

2. Risk assessment and Due Diligence

In the second stage of the TPRM lifecycle, organizations conduct a comprehensive risk assessment and due diligence to ensure the reliability and compliance of their third-party relationships with their security requirements.

Risk assessment involves:

Identifying the third-party risk associated with each outsourced relationship
Measuring the probability and potential impact of these risks, which may involve financial stability, operational resilience, regulatory compliance, and safe use of data.

Due diligence involves:

Assessing the provided information by the third parties for reliability and capabilities of the provider, which may include reviewing the financial data and documents, among others.
Creating policies and procedures for when outside parties are involved, such as making sure external agents are obligated to follow the security standards and provisions of the company, including data encryption and access controls.

This step of the TPRM lifecycle should be aimed at ensuring that the organization fully understands the risks that the third-party relationships will bring and acts in response to them, mitigating each to a possible minimum. It also serves as a reference for the constant monitoring and testing of the ties to guarantee that the actions are compliant and secure.

3. Risk Mitigation

After the assessment of risks and fulfillment of due diligence, the next step in the TPRM lifecycle is risk mitigation and management. This means that policies, controls, and processes must be developed to mitigate existing risks in the first stages of third-party risk management and expose the organization to lesser third-party risks.

Risk mitigation and control strategies may include:

Contractual clauses: Incorporating specific clauses that are meant to outline the duties of each party in the third-party agreement, the privacy, data security, compliance, and indemnification clauses.

Continuous monitoring: Developing the process of long-term surveillance of third-party actions to ascertain that they comply with the security requirements and conduct regular audits, activities, and periodic reports.

Data protection: Implementing enforcement measures, which include access restrictions, data encryption, and regular backups.

Incident response: Ensuring a quick response strategy focused on security incidents including protocols for alerts, incident management, and post-incident assessments.

4. Contracting Management

In the modern business landscape, organizations frequently look to external vendors for a whole host of services – financial services, marketing, and technology, for example. While these relationships can drive substantial benefits, they’re not without risk – risk that must be managed effectively. This is where contractual and relationship management practices come into play.

Establish SLAs: Service level agreements (SLAs) are contracts that set performance benchmarks and service level standards between an organization and a third-party provider. Critical services must have SLAs that include benchmarks for response times, availability, and the timeframe for resolving problems. These metrics should be frequently reviewed and adjusted as required to ensure they meet current business needs and goals.

Manage relationships: It is essential to have a dedicated relationship management team or point of contact to manage third-party partnerships effectively. This team or individual should be responsible for monitoring the third-party provider’s performance, addressing any issues or concerns, and ensuring that the organization’s expectations are being met. Establishing regular channels of communication, status updates, and conducting periodic evaluations are also critical.

Ensure compliance: Third-party providers must comply with all contractual obligations. This requires ongoing monitoring of the provider’s performance and ensuring that all service-level agreements and other contractual requirements are being met. Additionally, regular audits and assessments should be conducted to ensure compliance with relevant laws, regulations, industry standards, and best practices.

Perform regular review: Contracts with third-party providers should be reviewed and updated regularly to ensure they remain relevant and effective. This includes updating SLAs and other performance metrics to account for changes in business requirements or advancements in technology. Moreover, contracts should be reviewed to ensure they comply with all relevant rules and regulations.

5. Incident response and remediation

In the TPRM life cycle, incident response and remediation features are prominent since they are the safety nets for handling unknown cybersecurity risks. Although organizations use several preventive actions, security incidents can still turn up unexpectedly. Rapid acts of decisiveness are very important since they help mitigate the damage and avoid similar problems in the future.

Here are the key steps in handling security incidents:

Establishing incident response plans: All the parties involved should be well familiar with the roles analysis and the existing incident response plan. The plan should be detailed, identifying and addressing each task from start to finish, and should also cover communications with the key stakeholders and analysis of the incident aftermath.

Addressing third-party involvement: If it is a third-party provider that has been involved, steps should be retained to notify the provider and ascertain their part in the incident. This involves investigating the provider’s security policies and determining if they follow the compliance of any legal requirements and industry standards.

Implementing corrective actions: Once the situation is contained the organizations leverage corrective action to prevent similar incidents from happening again in the future. A new security framework may include: enhancing security measures, updating policies and procedures, and providing additional training and guidance to authorities.

Conducting post-event evaluations: It is essential to conduct a holistic review of the outcomes after the incident to identify areas of improvement. In this evaluation, the focus is on reviewing and improving the security measures, enhancing controls, and reinforcing employee education procedures.

Essentially the relationship between incident response and remediation is an integral part of the TPRM cycle as they function as reactive as well as proactive measures to avoid unexpected risks and secure the data and assets. The establishment of proper and effective incident response protocols can help to ensure the management of risks efficiently and maintain the company’s reputation as well as business continuity.

6. Ensuring Compliance

Compliance is an essential part of the Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) lifecycle. Compliance efforts ensure that all aspects of the TPRM program align with industry standards and provide a framework for continuous monitoring and improvement, helping organizations adapt to changing regulatory landscapes and emerging threats. This stage includes:

Monitoring and validating third-party compliance with contractual obligations, regulatory requirements, and industry standards.

Conducting regular audits and assessments to identify any compliance gaps or areas for improvement.

Implementing corrective actions or strategies to address compliance issues and improve overall compliance posture.

Providing ongoing training and support to third parties on compliance-related matters.

Reviewing and updating compliance policies and procedures in response to changes in regulations or industry standards.

Ensuring that all aspects of the TPRM program, including risk assessments, due diligence, and relationship management, adhere to compliance guidelines.

7. Monitoring of Third-party relationships

While third-party partnerships offer significant benefits, they also come with inherent risks that need to be managed effectively. This is where sound third-party relationship management practices come into play. This includes:

Establishing clear service level agreements (SLAs) to set performance expectations between an organization and its third-party provider. This includes defining response times, availability, and problem resolution timeframes.

Assigning a dedicated relationship management team or point of contact is essential for the effective management of third-party partnerships. They are responsible for monitoring the provider’s performance, addressing concerns, and ensuring that expectations are met.

Conducting regular audits and evaluations of contracts to ensure ongoing compliance with relevant laws and regulations, as well as alignment with organizational goals and standards.

Best Practices of Third-Party Risk Management

Segmentation

Divide third-party relationships into separate groups based on their risk levels, significance, data access, and regulation status.
Prioritize dealing with risks based on the profile of each group so as to use resources wisely.
Conduct ongoing and monitoring of high-risk groups while periodically reviewing low-risk ones.

Continuous Monitoring

Maintain an updated inventory of all third-party relationships, including vendors, suppliers, and contractors.
Establish a process for continuous monitoring of third-party relationships to ensure they meet security standards.
Regularly perform security assessments, audits, and compliance checks to identify and address emerging risks promptly.

Establish Clear Policies and Procedures:

Develop and enforce clear policies and procedures for managing third-party risks.
Identify the roles and responsibilities of the individuals who are part of maintaining the vendor relationships.
Review and refresh permissions when business needs and risks change.

Collaborate with Internal and External Auditors:

Collaborate with the internal and external auditors to build a strong third-party risk management program.
Get help and support from auditors and compliance experts to meet the industry standards and regulatory rules.
Form cross-functional teams of critical stakeholders and auditors from multiple departments to resolve issues and enhance third-party risk management processes.

Leverage automation for TPRM:

Utilize automation tools to streamline the collection, analysis, and reporting of TPRM data, enabling real-time insights into vendor risk profiles, compliance status, and performance metrics.
Implement customizable dashboards and automated reporting functionalities to visualize key risk indicators, trends, and compliance gaps, facilitating informed decision-making and strategic planning.

Challenges in Third Party Risk Management (TPRM)

Risk mapping: Organizations face difficulties in developing an overview of their vendor networks. This can result in a lack of visibility into risks and an increase in overall risks.

Dealing with risks: The risk landscape is constantly changing, requiring organizations to be adaptable and proactive in recognizing and handling emerging risks within their third-party partnerships. However many organizations struggle to keep pace with these changes, leaving them susceptible to threats.

Lack of preparedness for incidents: Despite having risk management strategies in place security incidents involving third parties can still occur. To minimize the impact, companies need incident response plans. Nevertheless, many organizations are not adequately prepared to respond effectively to incidents and lack readiness.

Implementation of ongoing monitoring: Most assessment methods used in TPRM offer a view of a vendor’s risk at a specific moment. This can be limiting. But there are some TPRM platforms, such as Cyber Sierra that allow for near real-time monitoring of the vendors’ security controls

Development of vendor risk management policy: Crafting a Vendor Risk Management (VRM) policy is essential for TPRM. This involves outlining compliance standards responsibilities in the event of a breach, acceptable vendor controls, response protocols, and oversight mechanisms.

Compliance: Ensuring compliance with regulations and industry frameworks is crucial for managing third-party risks. However, staying abreast of the evolving environment can pose challenges. It can get challenging for companies to guarantee that their third-party partnerships adhere to all the relevant regulations.

Integration: TPRM should be an integral part of an organization’s overall risk management strategy. However, companies often struggle to integrate TPRM into their existing business processes, leading to disjointed risk management efforts and potential gaps in risk coverage.

Leverage an Automated Third-party Risk Management program

In general, TPRM is one of the necessary components of a comprehensive risk management program. It helps organizations protect themselves, their customers, and their assets while meeting regulatory compliance, reducing cost, and improving efficiency. Through responsible policies and timely monitoring, organizations can reduce the impact of third-party risks. The right tools enable preparation and forge deals that stimulate growth and success. That said, while you can mitigate third-party risks, it is impossible to eliminate them completely.

This is where Cybersierra comes in. Our TPRM solution simplifies complex third-party relationships and strengthens an organization’s security posture. It provides a comprehensive view of the third-party ecosystem, identifies and prioritizes risks, and deploys targeted risk mitigation strategies. What’s more, it gives you a dashboard view of your vendor’s security posture at any time, instead of the static, one-time snapshot from traditional security questionnaires.

Schedule a demo now to see how Cybersierra can streamline your TPRM processes. Our platform effectively mitigates third-party risks so you can focus on driving business growth through strategic partnerships.

FAQs

Who falls under the category of a third party?

A third party or vendor can be broadly defined as an external entity with which an organization has entered into a contract or agreement to provide a good, product, or service. This can include suppliers, contractors, service providers, partners, or any other entity outside the organization’s immediate scope that contributes to or impacts its operations.

Why is third-party risk management important?

The importance of third-party risk management (TPRM) lies in safeguarding organizations from cybersecurity threats, supply chain disruptions, and potential data breaches that could lead to reputational damage. It’s not just a matter of best practice; it’s increasingly becoming a regulatory requirement.

Why is continuous monitoring of third-party relationships crucial?

Continuous monitoring of third-party relationships is critical because it allows organizations to identify and address emerging risks in near real-time. It provides ongoing insights into a vendor’s security posture and compliance, ensuring that the organization remains vigilant and proactive in managing potential risks associated with its third-party ecosystem.

Srividhya Karthik

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