Are you proactive in making your organization a hardened target for compliance? Are you aware of all the compliance requirements for all software across your organization’s environment? Are you using your SAM tool to reconcile installed software versions with their licenses? Have you considered and planned for non-software elements of compliance? If you answered no to any of these questions, keep reading. You must do your due diligence in all compliance matters in your ITAM Program. If you stop managing compliance once the threat of an audit subsides, the consequences could be more severe than you would think.

Software Compliance Ensures Regular Updates and Patches

Software Licensing Agreements (SLAs) often require organizations to use “supported versions of software,” which typically means your organization will be required to receive regular updates and security patches unless specifically stated otherwise in your Contract Terms and Conditions (Ts and Cs). This is a benefit for the organization’s security team because it provides an extra layer of commitment to proactively protect against the risk of vulnerabilities being left unaddressed long enough to be noticed and exploited by attackers. Compliance starts at acquisition. By having a strong Asset Selection Process we can ensure that we are acquiring, installing, patching, and using software in accordance with the publisher’s terms and conditions, which will help to reduce vulnerabilities and ensure that no obsolete or unlicensed software is being used. Unlicensed and free use software is more prone to security vulnerabilities due to lack of updates. Using only licensed software from reputable publishers and following their Ts and Cs is a great way to be proactive against security risks and threats in your IT environment!

Software Compliance Improves Incident Response

Organizations who have become a hardened target for compliance often have all of the documentation and data they need to prepare for audits, which typically includes having appropriate incident response plans in place for all software and servers storing, manipulating, or transmitting sensitive data. This also ensures that security incidents can be managed more efficiently and effectively. The thorough documentation of software use, configurations, and security incident management required for compliance preparedness aids in the investigation and remediation of security incidents.

Communication and Education on Software Compliance Issues and Responsibilities Encourages End-Users to Protect the IT Environment

Many compliance frameworks require organizations to provide training to all end-users on appropriate usage, security policies, and compliance requirements that the organization must follow. This education requirement facilitates in gaining the employees’ commitment to protecting the organization and supports the ability of the ITAM program to create and foster a culture of ITAM awareness and responsibility. With this culture of due diligence, employees become more interested in topics like phishing and social engineering awareness and committed to doing their parts to protect the organization from potential threats.

Your organization may be required to comply with Information Security Frameworks based on your industry or the data you store or transmit.

If the above points weren’t enough to make you rethink the level of involvement your security team has with ITAM Compliance, consider this: there are many information security frameworks with which your organization may be required to comply. If your organization stores, processes, or transmits Cardholder Data (CHD) or Sensitive Authentication Data (SAD), you’ll be required to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) to protect customer information like their name, Primary Account Number (PAN), card expiration date, PINs, CVVs, and magnetic strip data. This information cannot be stored after a transaction is authorized, making managing the inventory, data, and end-user elements of the ITAM program even more important. 

If your organization does business with the US Government in any capacity, you should comply with NIST SP 800-53, which govern access control, audit accountability, awareness and training, configuration management, contingency planning, identification and authentication, incident response, maintenance, media protection and personnel security. You’ll need to follow the NIST Cybersecurity Framework to ensure you are doing your due diligence in all steps that keep your data protected:

1. Identify: Take evaluation of your IT environment and identify the data and systems you need to protect.
2. Protect: Put security measures into place to safeguard this data. Ensure you have all tools in place to address common security concerns by gathering insights from stakeholders and end-users to ensure that everyone is committed and understands how to protect the sensitive data and systems. 
3. Detect: Design tools and policies to discover an incident when it occurs. You need a centralized view of your organization’s hardware, software, and networks and strong data management tools to fully detect issues in your environment. 
4. Respond: Devise a plan for responding to the issue including different methods and tools your security and risk management teams will use to mitigate the threat.
5. Recover: Ensure that you have a strong Disaster Recovery Process to follow in the event that an attack penetrates your network so that you can quickly recover data from backups, regain control of your organization’s workstations, and return to business as usual with as little downtime as possible. 

Of course, depending on the industry your organization is in, there could be other compliance regulations you are required to follow, such as Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and every organization in the US is going to have to follow EPA regulations when it’s time to dispose of IT assets. Compliance frameworks, standards, and regulations often require risk assessments and management strategies similar to the framework laid out by NIST and these help organizations to identify and mitigate security risks associated with their systems and data. 

Compliance is a crucial part of the organization’s security efforts. By ensuring that software is used in accordance with licensing agreements, regulatory standards, and organizational policies you can significantly enhance your organization’s Information Security and ensure a business culture of risk reduction and protection while also maintaining efficiency and productivity.