In a cybersecurity world marked by constant threats and a lack of qualified experts to combat them, automated compliance scanners help.
With products like Nessus, Qualys, and Rapid 7, these tools are implemented primarily to scan systems for known patches, protocol, and port vulnerabilities. Otherwise, you’d have to do that manually, which is impossible for any sizable infrastructure. As a second duty, these products, along with Security Compliance Checker (SCC), also provide for compliance scanning. Unlike other vulnerabilities, most compliance settings can be remediated with the right automation. So, regarding compliance, scanners only do a small part of the job. At some point, configurations have to get fixed.
With cyber workforce shortages growing and the pace of attacks quickening, it’s time for a shift in mindsets. We can no longer depend on tools that only scan systems generically and produce reports. We no longer have the system engineering bandwidth to test and fix configurations manually. Assessments won’t get you compliant – only remediation. And you can remediate manually, or you can choose to automate the entire process. It’s time to graduate with a tool that does all your compliance work for you, not just the scanning.
Compliance scanners alone are not enough.
Compliance scanners—and all automation tools—work best on rules-based processes. Take Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs), for example. STIGs include items covering what to check, what constitutes an open or closed vulnerability, and how to remediate it. The same goes for the Center for Internet Security (CIS) and Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) compliance processes.
The checklist items follow the same rules for everybody, making them a perfect candidate for automation. Without a scanner, you would have to open the STIG and manually go through each checklist item, one at a time. On the other hand, some STIGs consist of hundreds of checklist items, so you can see how manual scanning can be a tedious exercise.
Automated scanners can reduce days of work to mere minutes. It’s a worthy endeavor to relieve your team from that burden.
Change your security tool and retool your security mindset.
Some organizations have an “automated scan, then manual fix” mindset. It is how they do it, and they are used to it. Others have siloed teams in which the group responsible for scanning does scanning. They may automate their part—the scanning—but don’t concern themselves with the fixing. Either way, these teams are leveraging less than half of the time- and cost-saving benefits they could receive from a complete solution that scans, remediates, reports, and performs continual remediation.
SteelCloud’s ConfigOS automates the entire compliance automation lifecycle, doing things scanners cannot. Scanners work fine, but you can’t get one inch of value regarding remediation, labor burden, and cost reductions. Scanners provide:
- No unified content scanning and remediation reporting
- No rollback capabilities
- No policy workbench
- No app hardening
- No waivers and no application
- No policy workbench
- No GPO conflicts
- No RMF acceleration
- No remediation customization
It’s not as if either task—scanning or remediation—is difficult; they are both rules-based and repetitive. It’s not as if either task—scanning or remediation—is complex; both are rules-based and repetitive. You have a choice; you can choose either a tool that automates the entire process or a tool that does a very small part of fixing the issue. To be in compliance, you must remediate. Think of your bank account and if you have ever been overdrawn. A message is sent every day, and you get the same outcome every day. You must fix it. Talented and experienced people are in short supply, and if they are manually doing the repetitive work, they will burn out fast—it’s time to rethink your approach.
After all, if you take the scanning and remediation away from them, they can work on backlogs and other RMF initiatives. Imagine: You could get ahead of the game and have a proactive security posture!
Graduate to a better compliance solution.
We all understand that despair one feels when being burned by software solutions that didn’t do what they are supposed to do. The tools break things. Remember, generic scanning produces generic results and does not get to the root issue and fix it. Everyone must remediate to get to compliance, which is why we built something better.
SteelCloud’s scanning and automation software tool is the top solution used widely throughout the DoD and among leading system integrators Our solution has been vetted and declared the best by both our customers and industry. Here are the claims you can bank on:
- Reduce your compliance efforts by 90% and your costs by 70%
- Create a secure baseline in about an hour
- Operate the bot with a lower-level employee and keep your big guns for strategic initiatives
- Gain near real-time visibility into your compliance posture with ConfigOS DashView and its Splunk “Big Data” platform, allowing you to respond quicker than ever before
- Enable continuous monitoring
- Prevent configuration drift
Challenge the status quo with ConfigOS.
“The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it. Influential people are never satisfied with the status quo. The riskiest thing we can do is just maintain the status quo,”
Bob Iger, former CEO of Disney.
Change is difficult. And cybersecurity issues change every day. The answer for compliance automation is not to get the next new scanning tool as needs are compounding too quickly to only automate half the job. There is no logical “why” behind the decision, only to automate half.
Change is difficult. Why not automate everything significant that can fix everything? The whole job, not part of the job; remediation, scanning, eMASS, DevOps, RMF. If you are a contractor and you may have to make a change, why not automate the rest of the problem? Don’t just install another scanner.
You can have a similar experience by scheduling a demo of ConfigOS for yourself. Then, it’s time to make a change. Make one that works harder for you, your workforce challenges, your budgets, and the security of your data. Graduate to ConfigOS’s complete compliance automation solution today.
