How CISOs Can Master Operational Control Assurance — And Why It Matters

Chief Information Security Officers are facing rising pressure to ensure robust security and compliance across globally distributed environments. Managing multiple security tools and platforms while avoiding inconsistencies and gaps in coverage is an ever-growing challenge.

Digital transformation and the shift to the cloud introduces even more areas of concern. With sensitive data distributed across multiple cloud providers, CISOs struggle to maintain visibility into these complex and ephemeral environments. As both the technology and threat landscapes continue to change, it’s all but impossible for CISOs to manage security and risk using traditional, manual approaches.

Dynamic operational control assurance offers a way forward. It’s an approach that offers both automation and visibility into different security controls and management areas across the distributed environments. It’s particularly valuable in complex, rapidly changing environments where traditional methods just aren’t sufficient to address evolving risks and diverse compliance requirements.

Below, we’ll explore in depth how dynamic operational control assurance makes it easier for CISOs to manage security, risk, and compliance effectively.

First, What Is Dynamic Operational Control Assurance?

Dynamic operational control assurance is an approach that leverages both AI capabilities and Open Security Controls Assessment Language (OSCAL) to implement compliance as code in the continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline, ensuring operational readiness and legal defensibility.

Dynamic operational control assurance offers several key benefits, including:

• Real-time monitoring and assessment of control effectiveness
• Integrated security measures throughout the dev lifecycle
• Proactive risk management through continuous controls monitoring (CCM)
• Visibility across the enterprise, empowering CISOs to make data-driven decisions

Essentially, dynamic operational control assurance enables organizations to identify risk-relevant events during runtime, aggregate information to meet local or global requirements, and assess the system’s security capabilities. This enables security teams to optimize security and compliance and act proactively instead of reactively.

How To Implement Dynamic Operational Control Assurance

To adopt a dynamic operational control assurance approach, organizations must embed compliance as code (the practice of codifying compliance controls into machine-readable formats) into their CI/CD pipeline. This in turn will help them achieve proactive risk management, increased visibility, and stronger security.

1. Adopt OSCAL

First, CISOs need to adopt OSCAL. OSCAL provides a standardized, machine-readable format for data in order to facilitate consistent communication across various platforms and tools. By representing security controls, profiles, implementations, and assessments in standardized formats (XML, JSON, and YAML), OSCAL makes it possible to automate security control documentation, implementation, and assessment tasks.

Implementing OSCAL also improves interoperability among security management and assessment tools, streamlining compliance with a wide variety of cybersecurity frameworks and standards. It’s an essential step for any successful dynamic operational control assurance plan.

2. Map Controls and Update Rules

To effectively manage different frameworks — for instance, FedRAMP, GDPR, and PCI DSS — companies must be able to map compliance controls easily. OSCAL can help with this, enabling automation and improving consistency.

Having a clear process for mapping controls will in turn make it faster and easier to update code-based rules when compliance requirements change, and it will help CISOs adapt quickly to evolving regulations. It also establishes a clear, machine-readable audit trail that demonstrates ongoing compliance for auditors and other stakeholders.

3. Implement Compliance as Code

Implementing compliance as code transforms traditional manual compliance checks into automated, repeatable processes that can be integrated directly into the CI/CD pipeline — which in turn enables continuous validation of security and regulatory requirements at each stage of software development. By embedding compliance checks into their pipeline, organizations can also reduce the risk of non-compliance and minimize the costly, reactive work that’s often required when compliance is treated as a separate, end-of-cycle activity. This approach not only accelerates the development process but also ensures a consistent approach to maintaining security standards across different projects and teams.

Additionally, by incorporating compliance checks into Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) templates, organizations can also be sure that newly provisioned resources will meet security and compliance requirements. The result? Automated enforcement, reduced manual work, and consistent compliance across an organization’s entire infrastructure and application landscape.

4. Leverage AI

While OSCAL and compliance as code play essential roles in automating compliance, AI is also integral. AI and machine learning (ML) power advanced threat detection systems that can identify patterns and potential risks more quickly and accurately than traditional methods. These systems are able to detect and respond to compliance risks in real-time, making it easier to maintain security and compliance standards.

AI also enables predictive modeling, which allows organizations to anticipate and mitigate potential threats before they materialize. This proactive approach enhances overall security posture and strengthens compliance efforts.

Coupled with OSCAL and compliance as code, AI will help CISOs build a more robust, adaptive, and efficient security ecosystem from code to cloud.

Operational Readiness and Legal Defensibility

Many CISOs are concerned about operational readiness and legal defensibility in distributed environments — and rightly so. Luckily, dynamic operational control assurance provides real-time visibility into control effectiveness through continuous monitoring, allowing organizations to swiftly identify and address compliance issues.

D operational control assurance also enables evidence-based decision-making and ensures that compliance with all relevant regulations is documented. This makes it simpler to demonstrate compliance and justify security choices, strengthening defensibility for a CISO and their organization. It also increases operational readiness and minimizes risk and liability for organizations faced with a compliance issue or lawsuit.

Maintain Robust Security from Code to Cloud

The bottom line on dynamic operational control assurance? It’s a way for CISOs to maintain robust security from code to cloud by implementing and automating comprehensive security and compliance measures throughout the entire software development lifecycle.

Dynamic operational control assurance also integrates security practices from the initial planning and design stages to deployment and maintenance, guaranteeing that security is a fundamental component of the development and deployment process. By leveraging automation tools and integrating security checks into CI/CD pipelines, CISOs can ensure consistent application of security measures across all environments.

Ultimately, dynamic operational control assurance results in more secure software and infrastructure, as well as improved security posture and compliance. It might even return some of those weekends and late nights to resource-strapped GRC teams. And who wouldn’t want that?

About the Author

Dale Hoak is a seasoned Cybersecurity and Technical Operations Leader with a distinguished career in the U.S. Navy, where he designed secure, mission-critical systems. Currently the Director of Information Security at RegScale, Dale built RegScale’s security program from the ground up, enhancing compliance, risk management, and operational effectiveness. Recognized for his excellence in building Security Operations Centers and Threat Intelligence programs, Dale’s tactical leadership has led to significant achievements, including disaster recovery and business continuity planning for the DoD, rapid deployment of communication packages for Navy Seal Teams, and the creation of training programs for system administrators. His hands-on approach and commitment to efficiency have made regulatory compliance faster and more accessible. Dale can be found on LinkedIn here.