It's not enough to put controls in place to address your security risks — you have to prove they're working with evidence.

Implementing controls to address your company's security risks is indeed a critical step, but it's not enough on its own for several reasons. One key reason is that controls may not always function as intended, or they may become less effective over time due to changing threats, vulnerabilities, and/or regulations. That’s why it’s essential to prove that your controls are working with evidence.

In this post, we’ll take a look at why gathering evidence is so important, why it can be such a hassle, and how Strike Graph's comprehensive compliance platform integrates seamlessly with your tech stack to gather evidence automatically. Let’s dive in.

The importance of gathering evidence

Without evidence, you can’t be sure that your security controls are achieving their intended purpose. Collecting evidence allows you to identify weaknesses or areas where controls aren’t working optimally. This information is crucial for making necessary adjustments and improvements to enhance your organization’s overall security posture. And, seeing as security budgets are often limited, evidence helps in justifying investments in security controls and ensures that resources are allocated to the most critical areas.

In a similar vein, evidence-based security controls also help with better risk management. By analyzing data and evidence, organizations can make informed decisions about where they should prioritize security efforts. It can also help in the early detection of security incidents — with anomalies or deviations from expected behavior serving as early warning signs — allowing security teams to respond swiftly and mitigate potential threats. And, in the event of a security breach, having evidence of control effectiveness can be crucial for demonstrating due diligence and potentially reducing legal liability.

Having evidence also enables effective communication about security matters within the organization. It also maintains confidence with the board of directors, executives, and stakeholders that the organization's investments in security are justified and effective, and builds trust with third-party vendors, partners, and/or clients who require proof of security measures.

Solving the hassle of gathering evidence

While gathering evidence is incredibly important, it can also be an incredibly tedious, time-consuming process for humans.

That's why Strike Graph's comprehensive compliance platform integrates seamlessly with your tech stack to gather evidence automatically. Here's how Strike Graph can help streamline your entire compliance process.

Strategic automation

Strategic automation saves you time where it counts, allowing you to reduce the need for manual data entry, document handling, and repetitive tasks like evidence collection. This leads to improved efficiency and reduces the risk of human error, which is particularly crucial in compliance where precision is essential.

Low-code integrations

Low-code integrations with over 50 common business tools provide valuable assistance during the compliance process because they work with your existing tech stack. That means not only do you not have to worry about any kind of incompatibility, you’ll also have the peace of mind that these integrations are more secure and less vulnerable to security threats. 

They also allow you to gather any type of evidence from your existing systems so you can automate collection quickly, easily, and efficiently, empowering everyone on your team to participate in the data collection process.

Multi-framework mapping

Since compliance often involves adhering to multiple frameworks — each with its own set of controls, requirements, and documentation — multi-framework mapping allows you to supercharge your compliance journey by streamlining the evidence collection process. After identifying commonalities among these frameworks — instead of duplicating efforts to address similar requirements separately — organizations can focus on collecting evidence once and demonstrating its applicability to multiple frameworks. One and done!

Strike Graph is here to supercharge your compliance

Strike Graph is committed to making your compliance journey as pain-free and streamlined as possible. That’s why we’re committed to continuing to develop new features like our automated evidence collection, multi-framework mapping, low-code integrations, Strike Graph Teams, and more.