Governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) have become buzzwords in cybersecurity. As governments and industry standards organizations respond to the data breach landscape by creating new compliance requirements, governance has become fundamental to creating an effective risk management program. Auditing governance requires organizations to communicate with internal and external stakeholders.

While most companies attempt to secure their data, many continue to fail their IT audits. When trying to determine whether your risk management program effectively mitigates risks, you need to find metrics that support your ability to comply with internal policies as well as external industry standards and regulatory requirements.

As organizations seek to evolve their risk management strategies to drive stronger compliance programs, they increasingly seek to automate their compliance documentation. In cybersecurity, however, traditional data collection methods fail since cybercriminals continuously evolve their threat methodologies.

The alphabet soup of cybersecurity includes standards and regulations such as ISO, COBIT, COSO, NIST, NY DFS, and GDPR. While some industries must meet regulatory compliance requirements, other businesses need to choose a standard to which they align their cybersecurity controls. With that in mind, you may want to select the most user-friendly information technology security standard to help management and your IT department create a risk-based program.