Today almost every organization outsources at least some part (if not many parts) of its operations to third parties. That means those organizations must govern the risks of those third parties — but obtaining the assurance you want from your third parties is a daunting task.

ISO 27001 is an international standard specifying how organizations should develop and implement an effective information security management system (ISMS). Organizations can apply ISO 27001 to manage their information security risks and be certified as ISO 27001-compliant. The measures to achieve compliance are specified in Annex A of the standard; organizations should select and apply the necessary controls to safeguard their stakeholders based on their own company risk profile.

Modern organizations have huge demands for regulatory compliance, which means a huge amount of documentation that your business must generate and manage to show that it is fulfilling those compliance obligations. As such, a document management system is crucial for an effective compliance program. This article will review what document management systems should be able to do, common challenges in building a document management system, and how to get started with doing so.

When one looks at the marketplace of governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) software platforms, it’s clear that OneTrust has established itself as a key player in the field — and also that the quest for the right GRC solution is a nuanced exercise, depending on your organization’s specific needs and preferences.

Business continuity planning is essential for every organization, regardless of size or industry. You need a plan for potential disasters or disruptions to normal business operations. An effective business continuity plan (BCP) details the procedures and resources needed to respond and recover when adverse events happen.

Most businesses depend on their supply chains for success — but as the Covid-19 pandemic painfully demonstrated, few companies have a full grasp of their supply chain risk and know how to manage that risk well. One crucial issue is how you communicate with your vendors; vendor communication is a vital part of the procurement process. In this article we’ll explore several strategies for efficient and effective communication and how you can implement them.

Organizations are responsible for safeguarding sensitive data in their possession (including customer data) and maintaining a strong cybersecurity posture. One way to do this is by implementing the SOC 2 standard, developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) as a comprehensive framework to evaluate your internal controls for data security and privacy.

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a crucial security standard for protecting personal data during credit card transactions — and managing PCI compliance is essential for businesses that handle such data. The latest PCI DSS standard, Version 4.0, goes into effect March 2024. Organizations will need to adapt to new requirements and maintain compliance to safeguard sensitive information.

As businesses grow, they encounter more regulatory requirements — and soon enough, those requirements can feel like a straitjacket of overlapping obligations. The way to wriggle free from that straitjacket is to develop strong governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) capabilities. One important GRC capability is control mapping: mapping various regulatory requirements to specific controls your business does (or does not yet) have, so that you can see where you need to introduce new controls.

Complementary user entity controls (CUECs) are essential to any SOC 2 compliance project report. These controls help to confirm the service provider’s system is secure by outlining responsibilities that the client (that is, the user) must undertake as well. Developing strategies to identify, map, and monitor CUECs is crucial for organizations that rely on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers as part of their vendor management process. You won’t be able to manage privacy risks without them.