Streamlining Compliance Audits With Sprinto: The Power of Automated Evidence Collection

Evidence collection process involves maintaining dozens of spreadsheets, rolling deadlines, missing data, gathering data from siloed systems, managing checklists, implementing tools, and numerous back-and-forth conversations with auditors can be chaotic and eat away at your productivity. Juggling everything at once may seem achievable until you drop one ball, and your project spirals into chaos. 

Automated evidence collection software helps you ensure that all parts of collecting evidence move in harmony without breaking things. This article explores why you should automate the process and how a tool like Sprinto helps run audits smoothly. 

What is automated evidence collection?

Automated evidence collection is the process of gathering, documenting, and organizing proof of compliance against one or more regulatory frameworks. The proof of evidence includes data like system configurations, corrective actions, implemented controls, risk assessments, screenshots, policies, and training completion certificates. 

Why should you automate the evidence collection process?

There are three ways you can collect evidence. The first one is semi-manually by internal infosec teams using tools like calculators and spreadsheets. The second method involves hiring external audit consultants to oversee the end-to-end processes. Finally, the fully automated method involves using a tool like Sprinto. 

Here’s why a fully automated tool has more advantages than the other two options. 

Faster

Audit preparation takes months and may stretch to a year, depending on the complexity of your infrastructure, employee count, and number of frameworks. Missing the deadline is not uncommon, especially if you are doing it for the first time. 

While adhering to the timelines is not necessary in most cases, it can be a deal breaker if the certification is critical to unlock new sales deals or a government regulation requires you to meet certain criteria within a particular date. 

When you automate the end-to-end process, you eliminate the burden of manual testing, collecting evidence, and organizing it for subsequent review. Eliminating the manual bits reduces the overall time required to audit from months to weeks. 

Cheaper

The first two methods involve multiple touchpoints to get to audit readiness. Internal infosec teams managing audits, especially for the first time, must purchase antivirus tools, vulnerability scanners, and training systems. Combine these with consulting costs and you end up with quite a hefty bill. 

Evidence automation tools like Sprinto combine all these within a single dashboard. This ensures that compliance becomes a cost saver rather than a burden in the long run. 

Correctness 

Humans err, machines don’t. Given that audits have a long checklist, it is not uncommon for teams to overlook blind spots, which may escalate into an audit remark. When you have a deadline to meet, you cannot afford to miss critical evidence, causing the certification to be postponed. 

Evidence automation tools help you ensure that the collection process is correct and comprehensive. Tools like Sprinto integrate with cloud setup to monitor the environment in real-time so you never miss important evidence. 

What type of evidence can be collected automatically? 

If you use a compliance automation tool, these types of evidence can be collected automatically:

• System screenshots: captures and stores screenshots from systems, document configurations, settings, or activities that demonstrate compliance. This includes scheduled or triggered captures based on specific events or criteria.
• Implemented policies: stores digital versions of implemented policies, tracks versions, approval dates, and changes. It pulls metadata from policy management systems to show how and when policies were adopted. 
• Training completing evidence: integrates with learning management systems (LMS) or HR platforms to automatically collect completion certificates, attendance records, and progress reports for employee training sessions.
• Corrective actions: documents corrective actions by tracking tasks in project management systems or through direct input from compliance teams. It can record the nature of the issue, steps taken to address it, and the outcome, ensuring a clear audit trail
• Risk assessment reports: collects risk assessment data, compiles reports that show identified risks, assessment dates, mitigation plans, and risk owners. Effectively illustrate risks, controls, and overall risk posture with comprehensive reports. 
• Incident history: integrates with incident management systems to log and retrieve historical data on security incidents like details of the incidents, corrective actions, and resolution status. It documents all incidents for make it accessible for review. 
• Effectiveness of controls: collect data on the effectiveness of controls by aggregating metrics, audit results, and performance data from various monitoring tools. Track control testing schedules and outcomes, providing evidence of continuous monitoring and improvement.

How Sprinto helps you automate different compliance framework evidence collection

Sprinto helps you reduce audit prep work by at least 90 percent using responsive automation. The tool enables your infosec teams to manage control implementation, evidence collection, and evidence sampling. The platform helps you: 

Maintain an updated asset inventory: The tool integrates seamlessly with 200+  applications and resources deployed across your cloud stack. This helps you build an asset inventory consisting of codes, people, and controls. A comprehensive view of the asset inventory aids in determining the necessary controls to meet compliance criteria. 

Implement the right controls: Automatically map policies and controls to the compliance criteria based on the framework(s) requirements. This tracks the effectiveness of the controls and monitors the health of each control on a dashboard. You can collect time-stamped evidence to maintain a clean and thorough audit trail.

How Recruit CRM embraced compliance automation for seamless, multi-framework security audits

Responsive automation: Sprinto is powered by highly responsive integrations and rule-based workflows. This enables infosec teams to aggregate controls better and test controls in a reliable way. Moreover, custom APIs help to significantly reduce the level of manual intervention to a negligible level.

Gather auditor-grade evidence: Implement any security framework of your choice and gather auditor-grade evidence continuously, correctly, and comprehensively. Sprinto runs effectively without consuming much system resources, accessing the minimal configurations to assess controls and capture evidence. 

Collect evidence for multiple audits: Plan, prepare, launch, and run multiple audits without interrupting other everyday business operations. Define a time period for each framework, location, or business unit to collect evidence and monitor controls for each of them. Isolate access to any audit for a defined period and communicate with your auditor from a single dashboard. 

How CareStack used Sprinto to streamline compliance and organize multi-framework audit in 3 months

FAQs

What are the types of techniques used to gather evidence?

Common techniques for gathering compliance evidence include conducting inspections, observing processes, interviewing employees, reviewing records, and utilizing automated tools for evidence collection.

What are the guidelines for collecting evidence for frameworks like SOC 2 and ISO 27001?

There are no specific guidelines for collecting evidence for any security frameworks. It boils down to the regulatory body’s requirements and deadlines. 

What are the best tools for collecting compliance evidence automatically?

Based on user feedback and popularity, some of the top tools for compliance evidence collections are Sprinto, Drata, Hyperproof, AuditBoard, and OneTrust.