While every framework (SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, etc.) has its quirks, they often share a common DNA. They're all trying to achieve similar goals: protect data, manage risk, and ensure systems are secure and available. This means you'll see recurring themes and controls popping up across different standards.

Understanding these common elements is a huge win. It means you can build foundational security practices that help you meet multiple compliance requirements at once, rather than treating each framework as a completely separate beast.

Shared Security Controls (RBAC, Logging, Encryption, etc.)

No matter the specific framework, expect to deal with controls like these:

• Access Control:
  
  • Least Privilege: Users and systems should only have the minimum permissions necessary to do their jobs. No root access for everyone!
  • Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Grouping permissions into roles to manage access systematically.
  • Authentication: Strong passwords, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and secure credential management are almost always required.
• Data Protection:
  
  • Encryption: Encrypting sensitive data both at rest (in databases, storage) and in transit (over networks using TLS).
  • Data Minimization: Only collecting and retaining data that's strictly necessary for its purpose.
  • Secure Disposal: Properly deleting or anonymizing data when it's no longer needed.
• Logging and Monitoring:
  
  • Audit Trails: Logging significant events (logins, configuration changes, data access) to track who did what, when.
  • Monitoring: Actively monitoring logs and systems for suspicious activity or failures.
  • Alerting: Setting up alerts for critical security events.
• Vulnerability Management:
  
  • Regular Scanning: Using tools like SAST, DAST, SCA, and CSPM to identify vulnerabilities in code, dependencies, and infrastructure.
  • Patching: Having a process to promptly fix identified vulnerabilities.
• Change Management:
  
  • Documented Processes: Having a formal process for making changes to production systems, including testing and approvals.
• Incident Response:
  
  • Plan: Having a documented plan for how to respond to security incidents (breaches, outages).
• Risk Assessment:
  
  • Identification: Regularly identifying potential security risks and vulnerabilities.
  • Mitigation: Implementing controls to address identified risks.

These aren't exhaustive, but they represent the core building blocks you'll encounter frequently.

What Auditors Will Ask

Auditors aren't just looking for fancy tools; they're looking for proof that your controls are actually working as intended, consistently over time. Expect questions like:

• "Show me your process for granting and revoking access." (Access Control)
• "Can you demonstrate that only authorized personnel can access sensitive customer data?" (RBAC, Least Privilege)
• "Provide logs showing access attempts to critical systems for the past 90 days." (Logging)
• "How do you ensure sensitive data is encrypted in your database?" (Encryption at Rest)
• "Walk me through your vulnerability scanning process. How often do you scan? Show me the latest results." (Vulnerability Management)
• "What's your patching policy? How quickly do you fix critical vulnerabilities?" (Patching)
• "Show me the change request and approval for the last major production deployment." (Change Management)
• "Do you perform regular backups? Can you demonstrate a successful restore?" (Availability, Disaster Recovery)
• "How do you ensure developers follow secure coding practices?" (SAST, Training)
• "Where is your incident response plan documented? When was it last tested?" (Incident Response)

They want to see policies, procedures, and the evidence (logs, reports, configurations) that proves you're following them.

Common Audit Evidence Requirements

Translating auditor requests into developer reality means providing tangible proof. Common evidence includes:

• Configuration Screenshots/Exports: Showing firewall rules, RBAC settings, encryption configurations.
• Log Files: Audit logs, access logs, system event logs (often needing to be retained for 90 days or more).
• Scan Reports: Results from SAST, DAST, SCA, CSPM tools showing vulnerabilities found and fixed.
• Policy Documents: Written policies for access control, data handling, incident response, etc.
• Change Management Tickets: Records from systems like Jira showing change requests, approvals, and deployment details.
• Training Records: Proof that developers have completed security awareness or secure coding training.
• Penetration Test Reports: Results from third-party security assessments.
• Meeting Minutes: Records of risk assessment reviews or incident response debriefs.

The key is having this evidence readily available and demonstrating consistency over the audit period (usually 6-12 months).

Audit Preparation: Documentation and Evidence Collection

Waiting until the auditor knocks is a recipe for panic. Preparation is key:

1. Document Everything: Clearly write down your security policies and procedures. If it's not written down, it doesn't exist to an auditor.
2. Automate Evidence Collection: This is crucial. Configure your tools (CI/CD, scanners, cloud platforms, logging systems) to automatically generate and store the evidence needed. Manually collecting screenshots for 6 months is hell.
   
   • CI/CD pipelines should log build steps, scan results, and deployment approvals.
   • Security tools should generate timestamped reports.
   • Centralized logging systems (like Splunk, Datadog) should retain logs for the required period.
3. Centralize Evidence: Store documentation and automated evidence in a predictable location (e.g., a dedicated Confluence space, shared drive, or compliance automation platform).
4. Conduct Internal Mock Audits: Practice walking through common auditor requests using your collected evidence. This reveals gaps before the real audit.
5. Assign Ownership: Make specific teams or individuals responsible for maintaining certain controls and collecting related evidence.

Think of it like instrumenting your code for observability, but for compliance.

Unified Implementation Strategy

Since many controls overlap, tackle them holistically. Instead of setting up logging just for SOC 2 and then again for ISO 27001, implement a robust logging system that meets the requirements of both.

• Map Controls: Identify common controls across the frameworks you need to comply with.
• Implement Once: Build foundational security capabilities (like solid RBAC, centralized logging, automated scanning in CI/CD) that satisfy multiple requirements.
• Use Flexible Tools: Choose tools that can adapt to different framework requirements and provide comprehensive reporting. (Aikido integrates various scanners, helping consolidate evidence).
• Focus on Fundamentals: Strong security hygiene (patching, secure configurations, least privilege) goes a long way towards meeting many compliance goals.

Cross-Framework Automation Opportunities

Automation is your best friend in compliance. Areas ripe for automation across frameworks include:

• Vulnerability Scanning: SAST, DAST, SCA, IaC scanning in the CI/CD pipeline.
• Secrets Detection: Automated scans in repos and CI.
• Cloud Configuration Monitoring (CSPM): Continuously checking cloud environments against security benchmarks.
• Log Aggregation & Analysis: Using tools to collect and analyze logs for security events.
• Evidence Generation: Configuring tools to automatically output reports in formats suitable for audits.
• Policy Enforcement (Policy-as-Code): Using tools like OPA to enforce configuration standards automatically.

By automating these common tasks, you reduce manual effort, ensure consistency, and make evidence collection much less painful.

TL;DR: Frameworks share core security principles like access control, logging, and vulnerability management. Auditors need proof these controls work, requiring documented processes and automated evidence collection. A unified, automated approach to implementing common controls is the most efficient way to tackle multiple compliance requirements.