Effective management of governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) processes will help your organization mitigate the risks of cybersecurity threats—and data breaches. One way to do so is to leverage GRC tools to ensure your assets remain fully protected. Read on to learn about the best GRC tools available to you.
How to Find the Best GRC Tools
When looking for the best GRC tools that will meet your security needs and protect assets across your infrastructure, it helps to consider:
- The applications and benefits of using GRC tools
- How you can successfully implement GRC tools
- How to choose the right GRC platform for your needs
You can maximize your security ROI with governance, risk, and compliance management by partnering with a GRC services provider—like RSI Security—who will point you to the best GRC tools for your specific cybersecurity needs and ensure you get the most out of them long-term.
What is a GRC Tool?
A GRC tool is any software-based platform that enables you to manage your company’s cybersecurity risks without compromising business operations.
The best GRC tools function via three core components within a GRC model:
- Governance – To successfully manage security risks and remain fully compliant with regulatory frameworks, you must have strategic oversight of all the safeguards you implement. GRC tools guide governance by tracking the effectiveness of the security policies you implement across your organization.
- Risk management – Faced with various risks to your organization’s security infrastructure, you must strategically manage them before they can develop into full-blown threats and attacks. A GRC tool helps streamline the identification of threats and vulnerabilities so you can promptly address them.
- Compliance – As more organizations rely on technology and digital environments to conduct their business operations, regulatory compliance remains fundamental to keeping sensitive data safe from cyberattacks. GRC tools help track compliance across security frameworks.
In principle, the best GRC tools augment your existing governance, risk management, and compliance processes and help make them more efficient in the long run.
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The Benefits of Using GRC Tools
When you leverage GRC tools to meet your governance, risk, and compliance management goals, you will benefit from:
- Compliance tracking at each step of the process so you remain up-to-date with your security posture
- Streamlined preparation for internal and external audits, helping you remain audit ready
- Automated threat and vulnerability scans to promptly detect threats
- Integrated compliance workflows across multiple security frameworks
Using the top GRC tools to optimize governance, risk management, and compliance will help secure your sensitive digital assets. Even more, these tools will help you effectively comply with the broad requirements of regulatory frameworks like HITRUST.
What Industries Typically Use GRC Tools?
Typically, organizations that handle sensitive data benefit the most from using GRC tools. The best GRC tools can help secure sensitive data in industries such as:
- Healthcare – GRC tools help organizations within and adjacent to healthcare safeguard the privacy of the protected health information (PHI) they collect, process, or store. By streamlining HIPAA compliance, these tools enable these organizations to meet the standards required by HIPAA to keep PHI intact.
- Financial services – Organizations that take card payments can also benefit from applying GRC tools to keep cardholder data (CHD) safe from cybersecurity threats. Here, compliance with the PCI DSS helps these organizations implement robust controls that align with industry governance, risk management, and compliance standards.
But regardless of industry, organizations that collect, process, or store sensitive data can use GRC compliance tools to secure these data from cybersecurity threats.
Common Features of GRC Tools
Most GRC tools comprise the following features:
- Automated workflows that enable users to perform tasks, such as:
- Evidence collection in preparation for compliance audits
- Reporting on risk management and control implementation
- Databases secured with industry-standard encryption
- A scalable platform to expand compliance as needed
- Customizable dashboards for managing compliance
- Integrations with other software tools across your IT infrastructure
A GRC tool that contains the above features will help streamline your compliance workflows and help you remain compliant throughout the year.
What Other Tools Can Be Integrated with GRC Tools?
When using scalable GRC tools, you can expand their capabilities by adding various integrations, including:
- Multifactor authentication (MFA) to control access to sensitive data storage
- Cloud storage to backup evidence collected for compliance reporting purposes
- Tools to pull reports from disparate data sources across your organization
In most cases, the tools you integrate into a GRC platform will depend on your specific business or security objectives.
How to Successfully Implement GRC Tools & Software
Once you have GRC tools up and running, you might be wondering how to successfully implement them and keep your sensitive digital assets safe from threats. Even with the best GRC tools, you still need to ensure sufficient oversight over their implementation. A GRC tool is only as effective as the processes that run it.
For successful GRC tool implementation, you can consider:
- Outsourcing the services of a virtual Chief Information Security Officer (vCISO) to oversee broader governance, risk management, and compliance
- Conducting routine security awareness training to empower your staff to be cyber vigilant in identifying potential cybersecurity threats
More importantly, the GRC tool you choose must be up to standard with the requirements of the security frameworks that apply to your organization or industry.
What to Look for in a GRC Tool and Software Provider
Considering the volume of GRC tools available on the market, here’s how to find a software provider who will offer the right tool to meet your needs:
- Mode of software hosting – Depending on your intended applications for the GRC tools, you may need to inquire about the hosting of the GRC software. Specifically, you should ask whether the tools are hosted on-premise, on the cloud, or in a hybrid model.
- Platform security – It is also critical to ask about the encryption standards the GRC software provider uses to secure data handled by the tool. A secure GRC platform translates into a lower risk for exploitable security vulnerabilities.
- Technical support – Your ideal GRC software provider should also be available to provide 24/7 support if any technical difficulties or troubleshooting needs arise.
Although it can seem overwhelming and time-consuming to find the right GRC software provider, it is worth the investment to keep your IT assets more secure.
How To Choose a GRC Tool That’s Right For You
There are several considerations for choosing the right GRC tool to meet your organization’s security needs.
The best GRC tools will:
- Track compliance processes step-by-step, ensuring that any gaps in compliance implementations are promptly identified.
- Streamline compliance across your entire organization by standardizing the processes for:
- Reporting on risk and the compliance controls implemented across assets
- Integrating data collected from separate functions within the organization
- Simplify the management of overall GRC processes internally (with your staff) and externally (with vendors, partners, etc).
Ultimately, the decision for a GRC tool will depend on factors such as your budget, business and security needs, and industry. Partnering with an experienced GRC specialist will help identify the right GRC tools for you.
Are GRC Tools Worth Investing In?
Yes, GRC tools are worth the investment.
As cybersecurity threats grow in complexity, there is an increased risk of your organization being targeted by cybercriminals. Building an IT infrastructure compliant with regulatory frameworks will help defend your sensitive digital assets against these threats.
Investing in GRC tools will guide this process and help optimize your current security controls to the standards required by regulatory and risk management frameworks.
How RSI Security Can Help
A GRC approach to cybersecurity will help optimize your security posture in the short and long term, especially when you choose the best GRC tools. In partnership with a GRC services provider like RSI Security, you will be well-equipped to find the right tools to navigate the complex requirements of regulatory frameworks and effectively manage risk across your IT assets. To learn more, contact RSI Security today!