Monitoring or Reporting, Inside or Out?

About this interactive

Laws, regulations and agreements mostly ask for actions that go on all the time, not a one-off. So compliance needs monitoring, checking that those actions are still being carried out, and reporting, turning the results into reports of how the company measures up. Both come in two directions. Internal monitoring is the company checking itself. Internal reporting goes to people inside the company, usually up: a committee, the board of directors, the owners or shareholders, or a department; key performance indicators and good audit results can even go to everyone. External monitoring is someone outside checking the company: a customer's own auditors, a regulator's examiners, or most often a third party that specializes in it, such as an assessor who examines a large merchant's card systems for PCI DSS or a defense contractor's systems for CMMC. External reporting goes out: to a regulator because the law says so, or to a customer, vendor or partner because the agreement says so. The lesson's levels of assurance build on this. A simple acknowledgement that the standards are followed is the most basic report. Reports backed by the company's own monitoring are more. External monitoring, usually a third party's attestation, is the most. To sort a card, ask two things: is this checking or telling? And is it the company itself, or someone outside?

What you'll learn

Tell compliance monitoring, checking that the required actions are still being carried out, from compliance reporting, turning that into reports for someone
Tell internal monitoring and reporting, done within the company and reported up through it, from external monitoring and reporting, done by or for a customer, partner, regulator or third party

Aligned to

CompTIA Security+

5.4 Summarize elements of effective security compliance.

5.5 Explain types and purposes of audits and assessments.

Key terms

Continuous Compliance Monitoring: The ongoing process of observing and evaluating an organization's activities to ensure sustained adherence to applicable standards and regulations.
Compliance Reporting: The process of generating reports that measure and communicate how well an organization is adhering to applicable standards, laws, or regulations.
Attestation: The process of providing evidence or formal certification that a set of standards is being followed, either through self-reported documentation or third-party verification.
Third-Party Auditor: An independent external organization, such as a CPA firm, engaged to objectively assess and verify an organization's compliance with established standards.
Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard: A set of security requirements mandated by major credit card brands that organizations must follow to process, store, or transmit cardholder data. PCI DSS covers controls such as encryption, access restriction, and regular security testing.

Topics

Compliance Monitoring Compliance Reporting Attestation Interactive Categorize

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