Compliance Search
Compliance Search is a specialized function within security tools that enables security and compliance professionals to actively locate and examine digital assets and activities to assess adherence to specific regulatory requirements, internal policies, and industry standards. It allows for targeted investigations to ensure that an organization meets its compliance obligations.
Here's a breakdown of what Compliance Search typically involves:
Scope: Compliance Search can cover a wide range of digital assets and activities, including:
Data storage locations (databases, file shares, cloud storage)
Communication records (emails, chat logs)
User activity logs
System configurations
Access control settings
Software installations
Search Criteria: Security and compliance professionals employ specific criteria to conduct Compliance Searches, such as:
Keywords related to regulated data (e.g., "PII," "PHI," "credit card number")
Access permissions for sensitive data
System configuration settings related to security controls
Audit logs of user activity
Records of data processing activities
Objectives: The primary objectives of Compliance Search are to:
Identify potential compliance violations
Gather evidence for audits and assessments
Demonstrate compliance with regulators and stakeholders
Assess the effectiveness of compliance controls
Support internal investigations related to compliance issues
Outcomes: The results of a Compliance Search can inform various compliance-related actions, such as:
Remediation of compliance gaps
Modification of security controls
Changes to data handling procedures
Employee training on compliance requirements
Reporting to regulatory bodies
Compliance Search is a targeted investigative process that empowers organizations to seek and verify compliance with applicable rules and regulations within their digital environment.
ThreatNG's capabilities can be applied to various compliance-related investigations. It enables searching for data and security configurations relevant to different compliance requirements.
ThreatNG's external discovery helps establish the scope of assets relevant to compliance.
It is "able to perform purely external unauthenticated discovery using no connectors". This means ThreatNG can identify all external-facing assets where compliance needs to be assessed.
Example: ThreatNG discovers all web applications, cloud services, and exposed databases that might store or process data subject to compliance regulations (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA).
Complementary Solutions:
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Tools: DLP tools can complement ThreatNG by providing detailed discovery and classification of sensitive data, which is crucial for compliance searches.
Configuration Management Databases (CMDBs): CMDBs can provide information about system configurations, which can be relevant to compliance requirements (e.g., security settings).
ThreatNG's external assessments provide data that can be used to search for compliance-related issues.
ThreatNG can perform all the following assessment ratings:
Data Leak Susceptibility: Helps identify potential sensitive data exposures, a key concern for many compliance regulations.
Cloud and SaaS Exposure: Assesses the security of cloud and SaaS usage, which is essential for compliance in cloud environments.
Examples:
The "Data Leak Susceptibility" assessment can help locate potential violations of data protection regulations by identifying systems that might expose sensitive information.
The "Mobile App Exposure" assessment can discover if mobile apps expose sensitive data or credentials, which can be a compliance concern.
Complementary Solutions:
Security Audit Tools: These tools can provide detailed assessments of security controls, which are often required for compliance.
Privacy Assessment Tools: These tools can help assess compliance with privacy regulations by analyzing data handling practices.
3. Reporting
ThreatNG's reporting features can be used to document and present findings from compliance-related searches.
It offers various reporting formats, including reports that detail vulnerabilities and security risks.
Example: ThreatNG's reports on "Data Leak Susceptibility" and "Mobile App Exposure" can provide evidence of potential compliance violations related to data handling.
Complementary Solutions:
Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) Platforms: GRC platforms can use ThreatNG's data to track compliance activities, manage risks, and generate compliance reports.
Audit Management Systems: These systems can use ThreatNG's findings to support audit processes and document compliance evidence.
ThreatNG's continuous monitoring helps ensure ongoing compliance by detecting changes that might introduce new compliance risks.
ThreatNG provides "Continuous Monitoring of external attack surface, digital risk, and security ratings of all organizations".
Example: ThreatNG's continuous monitoring can detect new external systems or changes in data handling practices that might violate compliance regulations.
Complementary Solutions:
Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) Platforms: Based on ThreatNG's findings, SOAR platforms can automate compliance monitoring and response activities.
User Activity Monitoring (UAM) Tools: UAM tools can provide detailed logs of user activity, which can be relevant to compliance investigations.
ThreatNG's investigation modules provide detailed search and analysis capabilities to support compliance searches.
The "Advanced Search" feature facilitates detailed discovery and assessment results investigations. Users can use search parameters and filters to quickly find specific data, extract intelligence, and identify risks on their external attack surface.
Examples:
The "Domain Intelligence" module can help investigate domain-related compliance issues, such as unauthorized use of domain names or non-compliance with email security standards.
The "Sensitive Code Exposure" module can help locate exposed code repositories containing sensitive data or code that processes data in a non-compliant way.
Complementary Solutions:
eDiscovery Tools: These tools can provide advanced search and retrieval capabilities for electronic data, which can be helpful for compliance investigations.
Data Classification Tools: These tools can automatically classify data based on sensitivity, which can help identify data subject to compliance regulations.
ThreatNG's intelligence repositories provide context and information that can be relevant to compliance searches.
These repositories ("DarCache") include information on:
Dark Web: Provides intelligence on data leaks and compromised credentials, which can be relevant to data protection compliance.
ESG Violations: Provides data on ESG-related violations, which is relevant to compliance with ESG reporting requirements.
Example: The "DarCache Dark Web" repository can help identify if data subject to compliance regulations has been exposed on the dark web.
Complementary Solutions:
Legal Research Databases: These databases can provide access to legal and regulatory information, which can help define compliance search criteria.
Industry-Specific Compliance Databases: These databases can provide information on compliance requirements specific to certain industries.
ThreatNG offers a range of capabilities that can support Compliance Search activities. By providing external discovery, assessment, reporting, continuous monitoring, investigation modules, and intelligence repositories, ThreatNG enables organizations to actively search for and identify compliance-related issues within their external attack surface. The potential to work with complementary solutions can further enhance the effectiveness of these compliance searches.
