Why Compliance With Sarbanes–Oxley (SOX) Needs SaaS Identity Governance Software?
Sarbanes-Oxley act of 2002 or SOX came into existence with Enron debacle. SOX ensures integrity of financial transactions and reporting. Section 302 is about controlling financial information so it’s consistent and reliable. Section 404 is about having external auditors validate management’s self-assessment. More specifically, section 404 mandates that adequate internal controls are in place, regularly tested and documented for financial reporting and governance. SOX does not stipulate or prescribe how to achieve this .COBIT is a leading framework that organizations use to define SOX enforcement program.
So how can a software address the issues with SOX compliance? Businesses, big or small, are transforming at a rapid pace. Cloud adoption, bring your own device (BYOD), internet of things (IOT) and remote work owing to pandemic or gig economy have all lead to proliferation of identities, accounts and entitlements. A software reduces risk and errors through providing centralized administration for access controls, user access reviews, enforce segregation of duties. Software makes implementation of authorization and access policy manage based on least privilege possible. A software can centralize management of access rights across disparate systems when users job function changes and role based adjustments. In addition a software can revoke user access upon termination.
So in summary, an Identity Governance Software reduces costs, automates the processes, prevents fraud and provides comprehensive auditing and reporting capability for external auditors. The main problem with legacy software’s used for SOX compliance is their high total cost of ownership.
Enter SaaS based IGA products. Using SaaS shifts all the IT cost of infrastructure to the provider thereby eliminating all the costs of IT administration, maintenance and support. SaaS IGA software also automatically upgrades and updates ensuring each organization works with the latest software version and most advanced functionality. So, SaaS IGA is a crucial for organizations looking to achieve compliance with SOX section 404. It provides many features that reduce the fraud risk and the high costs associated with legacy IGA products.
