In this post, we’ll cover 12 Hyperproof alternatives —revealing their key features, pros and cons, and how they’ll help with your InfoSec programs.

Despite being a top-notch GRC tool, Hyperproof has a few significant drawbacks, especially for teams with limited budgets:

• No-inline policy editor: There is no in-line editor in Hyperproof for editing policies available on the platform. This means if you want to change or update any of your policies, you need to change it outside the platform and then upload it back on the platform.
• No audit logs for policy updates: Since there are no audit logs, it is difficult to track what changes were made in different versions of the policies. 
• Weak audit management capabilities: The audit process can be time-consuming as you cannot invite your auditor to the platform. You need to share all the artifacts (policies doc, evidence, controls, etc.) separately where the context is lost. 
• Missing certain risk management features: For example, risk to standard mapping feature is not available.
• No support for employee security training: Hyperproof doesn’t have in-built employee security training courses, unlike other GRC platforms like Scrut. Thus, you need buy it separately.
• Lack of customization for notifications: The tool does not support the ability to configure and customize notifications, thus you would get alert for everything leading to alert fatigue. 

In this post, we’ll compare 12 of the best alternatives to Hyperproof, and explore how the alternatives address these disadvantages of Hyperproof.

12 Alternatives to Hyperproof 

Now, let’s discuss the 12 best Hyperproof alternatives in detail starting with Scrut, our own GRC platform.

1. Scrut smartGRC

Scrut smartGRC platform provides a single window for all compliance-related tasks. You can start developing your compliance program immediately with a library of 50+ policies created and vetted by our InfoSec experts.

Let’s see how Scrut helps you with implementing and monitoring an effective information security program.

You can get a quick glance of over InfoSec program on the dashboard. You can see the critical issues, which requires your most attention. 

Furthermore, you can book a VAPT, and finally when ready, you can schedule an audit directly from the dashboard.

Scrut keeps you updated on the status of your overall governance, risk, and compliance setup. 

This is very useful when you have to be compliant with multiple frameworks.

How Scrut eases the implementation of InfoSec program

1. Pre-built policy templates

The Scrut smartGRC platform gives you pre-built policies that have been examined by InfoSec experts and are in line with widely used industry frameworks. 

Note that you can create custom policies as well.

Additionally, you can use the built-in inline editor to customize these policies to suit your business requirements.

2. Hassle-free controls setup

With Scrut smartGRC, you can create controls that align with your risks and define custom controls to reflect the particular requirements of your business. These controls help you reduce InfoSec incidents, such as data theft, systems breaches, and unauthorized changes to your systems. 

You can use pre-built control mapping to map those controls against the compliance frameworks you require. 

Furthermore, once you have selected the controls applicable to you, Scrut shows you the status of all the controls in a single place. 

Ultimately, these controls help you build a strong information security posture.

Additionally, these controls can be mapped with multiple frameworks. This prevents duplication of efforts when going for multiple frameworks.  

3. Automated evidence collection

Using data from over  70 integrations, Scrut smartGRC automatically collects evidence eliminating manual effort and saving a lot of time. The platform maintains all evidence required for the audit in one place. 

On the other hand, if you use Google Drive, OneDrive, DropBox, etc for storing your documents, you would be required to spend countless hours taking screenshots and managing multiple folders.

Earlier, one of our customers was keeping the evidence in Google Drive in various folders and was losing track of the versions. With Scrut, that problem was immediately solved.

Scrut eases the audit process for your auditor as well, as they don’t have to look at multiple places for evidence.

You can check the updated list of all the integrations here. 

4. Task management and workflows 

The platform allows you to assign tasks to team members and monitor their status. You can stay informed about the most recent progress on each task by getting updates via email and Slack. 

Further, you can send reminders to different task owners for any pending tasks. These people would be responsible for renewing the policy at regular intervals set by you.

Note that task owners (Assignee) can only make changes to the policy, but cannot publish them. Only the admin can appove and publish the policies.

Similarly, you can assign ownership for any issues in your cloud in the test tab.

Further, you can assign sub-task owners.

Scrut smartGRC also gives the assignees a step-by-step guide to resolve all the misconfigurations.

5. Manage multiple audits easily

Scrut enables you to invite auditors directly to the platform to manage numerous complex audits without hassle.

It’s also easy for auditors to conduct the audit as they get access to all the artefacts related to the framework in one place. 

They can check any control for the associated policy, evidence task, tests,  and leave comments if they need clarification about anything. 

This ensures the audit process goes smoothly.

6. Establish trust early-on with Trust Vault

When discussing with our initial customers, we found that one of the major frustration was around the huge amount of time they had to invest in answering the same questions repeatedly as  security questionnaires, security certifications, and report requests. 

This increased the timeline for deal closures with customers and partners alike. Moreover, this requires their development and engineering teams to get involved in the sales process to answer these questions, as salespeople were not aware of these deeply technical security questions. 

Trust Vault freed up their time, and now they can happily do their core job—building products.

Scrut’s Trust Vault lets you  showcase your real-time security and compliance posture to customers. 

It helps you display your certifications and attestations, such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, GDPR, and HIPAA, which are frequently requested by customers and partners.

You get a host this report on your website (trust.yourdomain.com) where your customers can request access to it. 

To your customers, it would look like this. 

Once you approve the request, they can view it after signing an NDA.

Check out our own Trust Vault here. 

Customer Rating

• G2- 5/5

2. ZenGRC

Reciprocity’s ZenGRC platform provides a unified, integrated experience that identifies information security risks throughout your organization. The tool streamlines audit and compliance management by providing a complete view of control environment, access to program evaluation information, and continuous compliance monitoring to address critical tasks.

ZenGRC’s customized workflows support cross-team collaboration, thus, you can automate critical tasks like evidence collection, data sharing, and notifications.

Furthermore, it identifies gaps in your program, regulations, and frameworks to compare your security posture to that of your peers and the industry.

Pros

• It provides an intuitive dashboard, heatmaps and consolidates all risks and regulations in one place.
• The tool can cross-link objects to each other, such as linking to several frameworks, like HiTrust, SOC2, etc.
• With ZenGRC, you can change ownership of several tasks. 

Cons

• Users cannot customize some settings, such as request screen and notifications settings.
• You cannot assign more than one auditor to review the audit process. 

Customer Rating

• G2- 4.4/5

3. Drata

Drata is a real time security and compliance management software that helps you achieve SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR, and CCPA compliance. 

Drata’s autopilot system bridges the gap between siloed tech stacks and compliance controls. It eliminates the need to check dozens of systems to provide evidence to auditors manually.

It gives visibility into your security posture and control over your compliance by providing actionable insights, reports, and alerts.

Pros

• The platform provides all the required information related to issues in one place and helps to take action to remediate issues.
• With the platform’s upload document feature, users can properly communicate with the auditor. 
• It provides centralized visibility of all personnel and assets, allowing the user to get a detailed overview of which compliance requires attention.

Cons

• With this tool, some integrations don’t work correctly such as GCP and Checkr.
• It doesn’t support the duplicative evidence upload feature.
• It is not easy to customize existing security programs with Drata.

Customer Rating

• G2- 4.9/5

4. Vanta

Vanta assists businesses in scaling security practices and automating compliance with the industry’s standards, such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR, and other popular security and privacy frameworks.

Vanta provides a centralized location for tracking progress and monitoring top security and privacy frameworks. The tool provides the guided scoping, policies, controls, automated evidence collection, and continuous monitoring required to prepare for an audit or prove attestation in the shortest time for each framework.

Pros

• The ownership of alerts enables the distribution of the monitoring of various areas among various individuals. For example – policies can be monitored by a different person.
• It connects to all development systems, such as GCP and GitHub, which significantly reduces the amount of manual testing and logging required.
• The platform provides a policy template feature to create policies from scratch.
• The platform automates up to 90% of the work required to prepare for an audit. It saves time and avoids the headache that comes with manual security audits.

Cons

• The risk management feature only provides valid output against technical controls or a few policy controls, not accounting for all BAU risks of an organization.
• The platform provides no information about the expectations of the auditor.

Customer Rating

• G2- 4.7/5

5. ServiceNow

ServiceNow is a GRC platform that breaks down silos to manage risk and improve organizational compliance.

With ServiceNow GRC, you can use dynamic dashboard and continuous monitoring to get a real-time compliance overview across your entire extended enterprise.

Pros

• It provides an efficient audit facility with a complete history of events.
• It provides an efficient GRC program with customized workflows and can be integrated with the SOC tool for automating service request generations.
• It provides a centralized location where users can track all the tickets and provide support accordingly.

Cons

• The tool is inefficient in handling complicated logic.
• It has limited reporting capabilities.
• It has complex functionalities that are difficult for users to understand to use the tool properly.

Customer Rating

• G2- 4.3/5

6. JupiterOne

JupiterOne allows you to automate your compliance processes quickly. It assists you in the development and automation of robust policies, procedures, and controls that link security requirements to specific cyber assets in your digital environment.

JupiterOne supports all major compliance frameworks, such as SOC 2, NIST, CIS, PCI, ISO, and HIPAA. Furthermore, it provides custom frameworks and policies to meet your specific governance and compliance requirements.

Pros

• It provides efficient integration and allows users to add evidence for assessing SOC, HIPAA, GDPR, and other compliance requirements. 
• It provides continuous instrumentation and monitoring of cloud environments and controls.
• It provides automated reporting and evidence collection for compliance.

Cons

• There is a steep learning curve to understand the tools’ overall potential as it provides many features.

Customer Rating

• G2- 5/5

7. AuditBoard

With AuditBoard, you can effectively adhere to compliance activities while reducing expensive violations.

The platform provides a centralized view of all of your auditable entities with crucial metrics and risks linked. It performs risk assessments flexibly and identifies coverage gaps across these entities to develop a more impactful audit plan.  

You can use AuditBoard templates to ensure consistency and save time on recurring compliance audits.

Pros

• This GRC tool helps organizations in building different frameworks and streamlines control management, testing, and external auditing.
• It efficiently prepares documentation and reviews paperwork for operational audits and SOX testing.
• It integrates with different modules and enhances your data-driven decision-making capabilities.

Cons

• It provides many features that create confusion for users as it increases the complexity of the learning curve.
• The tool doesn’t have all the auditing capabilities and needs to add data analytics and automate the process for a better user experience.
• Doesn’t have intuitive task management for managing compliance tasks.

Customer Rating

G2- 4.7/5

8. Tugboat Logic

With Tugboat, you can effectively manage your compliance frameworks and achieve compliance quickly with evidence cross-mapped for maximum effectiveness.

There are a variety of integrations and a library of ready-to-use content for each framework in Tugboat Logic. Additionally, everything is interconnected, allowing you to keep tabs on your progress and compliance status at all times.

The platform assists you in conducting a risk assessment by comprehending your strategic goals and advising you on the IT and security risks to consider. Furthermore, it demonstrates how to reduce these risks and automatically monitors the efficacy of risk-reduction measures.

Pros

• It provides easy-to-read and updated policies that help you to manage controls. 
• With this tool, you can collaborate with auditors, manage security questionnaires and automate evidence collection using integrations.
• It provides SOC 2 readiness modules, templates, and built-in policies and procedures for complying with standards such as ISO 27001, GDPR, etc.

Cons

• The tool doesn’t have a standardized risk format and needs improvement in reporting and requires efficient security, and compliance dashboards for better understanding.
• The tool doesn’t have SOC 1 component for compliance.

Customer Rating

• G2- 4.6/5

9. Onspring

Onspring is a GRC management platform that unifies the entire business ecosystem with coordinated strategies and effective procedures.

Onspring offers real-time reporting right out of the box. You can connect your data and see immediate results. Then, to curate specific insights, you can filter and slice your data.

The platform creates multi-path or single-path workflows and provides real-time data reporting. 

Pros

• The tools allow you to customize your requirements efficiently.
• It provides efficient reporting and admin features, and you can automate tasks and use APIs and security controls around your organization.

Cons

• It is challenging for users to send issues to auditors to have their input during compliance auditing.

Customer Rating

• G2- 4.8/5

10. LogicGate

LogicGate platform provides pre-built applications that transform GRC management. It combines content and service with easy, no-code technology. The tools help you stay compliant with relevant policies, laws, or regulations to protect your assets and avoid violations, legal penalties, and fines.

Pros

• It provides a centralized location to keep critical risk information across different functions and business units.
• LogicGate’s robust and flexible GRC tool allows you to create customized workflows and processes for maintaining your required regulatory compliances.
• You can accurately identify and access third-party related risk using its reporting capabilities and continuous monitoring.

Cons

• It has a steep learning curve as it provides many features that can confuse the users to understand their full utilization efficiently.
• It lacks data-based calculation capabilities as users find it difficult for themselves to calculate based on the existing data field.

Customer Rating

• G2- 4.6/5

11. LogicManager

LogicManager provides GRC solutions to improve performance & drive efficiency in your organization. It provides an intuitive and flexible GRC program to manage your business’s compliance and risks. It includes a comprehensive matrix of solutions that accelerates your risk management efforts.

It offers built-in controls and control suggestions with intelligent insights to reduce your compliance burden.

You can use the custom profile and visibility rules to configure the GRC program.

Pros

•  You can easily create libraries, workflows, surveys, and questionnaires using this tool.
• It provides a centralized location for risk, compliance, and auditing programs.

Cons

• It requires additional cost to implement new data protection tools if you’re EU based.
• It doesn’t handle risk assessments and due diligence requirements efficiently.

Customer Rating

• G2- 4.4/5

12. VComply

Vcomply allows you to centralize your compliance process and automate compliance programs across multiple functions.

You can launch your compliance program in 30 mins and automate alerts, follow-ups, and reporting to analyze gaps to take corrective actions for mitigating compliance-related issues.

You can effectively track and manage compliance-related obligations concerning GDPR, ISO 27001, vendor compliance, policy and risk, and more.

Pros

• It sends automated email and non-compliance notifications and provides monthly non-compliance reports that help users to take action against any 0ccured compliance risks.
• The tool is very effective in compliance automation and can assign tasks to individuals with reminders and provides a supporting document updating facility.
• GRC management is efficient because of its interconnected modules.

Cons

• Vcomply, due to its wide range of functionalities, creates a steep learning curve for its users and takes time for them to utilize the software fully.
• Created issues while transferring files, and you can’t assign ownership of files to multiple people.

Customer Rating

• G2- 4.6/5

AuditBoard is a cloud-based platform that transforms audit, risk, environmental, social, and compliance management. The platform assists organizations in managing compliance processes. It is not the only GRC tool available; other GRC platforms will better meet your needs. Based on our detailed review of the platforms in this article, you can select from various GRC platforms available in the market.

The AuditBoard platform assists in increasing risk visibility in your organization and driving risk-aware decisions to mitigate all risks. It automatically maps new framework requirements to your controls, allowing you to scale your compliance program quickly and keep up with changing regulations.

Let’s discuss the key features of AuditBoard.

Key features

Users can gain real-time visibility into open issues and track progress with AuditBoard. The platform automates findings management by identifying and creating issues during testing. It quickly assigns action plan owners and automates follow-up.

• Users can view all auditable entities in one centralized universe, with key metrics and risks linked.
• AuditBoard automates testing, issue remediation, and reporting with automatic workflow notifications and report generation capabilities, allowing your team to conduct more relevant and timely compliance audits.
• The platform streamlines communication with stakeholders by automating the distribution of audit surveys, evidence requests, and reminders. It maintains an easily accessible audit trail and keeps all communication in one location.
• The tool uses standardized risk templates to streamline the IT risk assessment process. It dynamically scores and ranks risks to determine their severity.
• The tool integrates seamlessly into your cloud ecosystem to automate and scale your audit, risk, ESG, and compliance programs.
• The platform saves time by automating vendor onboarding and combining third-party data into a single editable profile.

Drawbacks

The drawbacks of the tool are listed below:

• Access to archived data is restricted. For example, there is a barrier to accessing the previous year’s data.
• AuditBoard sync only allows users to view one file at a time and frequently times out.

• Users cannot see which tasks the team is working on each week.
• The platform does not offer a chat and screen share feature for clients.
• Within OpsAudit, the platform doesn’t provide any option to create an interactive RCM.

10 Best AuditBoard Alternatives

Below are some of the AuditBoard alternatives available: 

1. Scrut

Scrut is an all-in-one platform for all compliance-related policies, tasks, and evidence. The platform guides you through gathering the information you need to pass the audit and become certified. It gives you pre-built policies and controls mapped to these frameworks and guides you through gathering what you need to pass the audit and become certified.

Scrut supports the following frameworks: SOC 2, SOC 3, ISO 27001, ISO 27701, ISO 27017, ISO 27018, ISO 22301, ISO 20000-1, FERPA, HITRUST, FedRamp, GDPR, CMMC, CCPA, PCI DSS, CSA Star, CMMI – DEV, CMMI – SVC, HIPAA, GLB, NIST 800 171, and others.

You gain a unified, real-time view of risk and compliance with seamless integrations across your application landscape, providing the contextual insight needed to make strategic decisions that keep your organization secure and earn the trust of your customers, partners, and employees.

Pros

• Track multiple compliances simultaneously: The Scrut platform includes over 20 security and compliance frameworks. Due to overlap between frameworks, these controls are mapped with multiple frameworks. As a result, one control may satisfy the requirements of multiple frameworks. This eliminates the need for duplication of effort when using multiple frameworks simultaneously or in the future.

• Centralized record for all evidence: It includes a centralized record-keeping system for assigning ownership and storing relevant evidence across an organization.

• Smooth audit process: You can invite your auditor for various audit tasks on the platform. Auditors can easily find all audit-related artifacts on the platform, allowing them to complete audits more quickly.
• Automate cloud security monitoring: Scrut Automation helps you become compliant and keeps you compliant. The platform automatically tests your cloud configurations against 200+ cloud controls across CIS benchmarks to ensure a strong InfoSec posture.

Customer Rating

• G2- 5/5

2. Drata

Drata is a security and compliance automation platform that monitors and collects evidence of a company’s security controls in real time while streamlining workflows to ensure audit readiness. It streamlines the audit process with pre-vetted auditors and provides compliance support. Drata’s automated evidence collection engine allows you to achieve and maintain compliance with your frameworks without the hassle of developing overlapping controls.

Pros

• Drata provides helpful advice at every stage to help users resolve issues so they can resume their compliance processes.
• Users can see a detailed overview of which compliance requires attention through Drata’s centralized visibility of personnel and assets.

Cons

• In the platform, placeholders for policy templates are not provided.
• Additional charges for a feature like Trust Center.

Customer Rating

• G2- 4.9/5

3. Vanta

Vanta assists businesses in automating compliance with the industry’s most sought-after standards, including SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR, and other critical security and privacy frameworks. It reduces risk to your business by continuously monitoring critical tools and services to ensure that once compliant, you remain compliant. The platform provides real-time alerts, allowing users to address problems as they arise. Vanta’s custom controls will enable you to reduce risk as your company grows.

Pros

• The tool provides automated test features for detecting vulnerabilities in cloud infrastructure.
• Vanta’s task-based methodology allows customers to locate right-away work on the platform.
• It provides complete visibility into third-party policy sharing.

Cons

• There were some items that Vanta misreported. Evidence collection, for instance, has a few exceptions that the user must work around.
• There are no clear scopes and feedback loops between SOC 2 controls, available policy choices, and auditors’ opinions.

Customer Rating

• G2- 4.7/5

4. ZenGRC

The Reciprocity ZenGRC platform provides your security and compliance teams with a unified, integrated experience that identifies information security risks throughout your organization. The platform simplifies audit and compliance management by providing complete views of control environments and continuous compliance monitoring to address critical tasks at any time. ZenGRC dashboards increase visibility into critical security program metrics and demonstrate progress to key stakeholders.

Pros

• With ZenGRC, users can quickly create a Sarbanes-Oxley program using template import and the GUI features.
• It facilitates the mapping of an organization’s frameworks, programs, risks, and vendors.

Cons

• Evidence storage solutions are not fully integrated.
• Users have to add custom fields in the model risks functionality.

Customer Rating

• G2- 4.4/5

5. Secureframe

Secureframe is a GRC platform that automates and streamlines the end-to-end compliance process, allowing you to become compliant as soon as possible. The tool centralizes information for easy assessment, allowing you to manage and mitigate regulatory, legal, and financial risks.  The platform’s automated alerts and reports notify users of a critical vulnerability, allowing users to fix it quickly and remain compliant. 

Pros

• Integrations with the platform allow data to be pulled automatically.
• This tool simplifies the compliance process by dividing complicated requirements into manageable tasks.
• It provides an easy-to-use reports tab to make your organization compliant with privacy frameworks.

Cons

• The tool provides no instructions for resolving errors. For example, it reports a problem with the X Amazon tool in a region but fails to specify which regions are affected.
• It does not provide high-level priority order of events.

Customer Rating

• G2- 4.6/5

6. Logic Manager

LogicManager is a SaaS-based Enterprise Risk Management software enabling businesses to improve their performance through strong governance, risk management, and compliance. The platform’s built-in controls and control suggestions provide insights into existing controls, allowing users to reduce the number of controls that must be tested. It offers customizable workflows enabling users to send automated tasks to decision-makers, eliminating the need for constant email chains.

Pros

• The owner can create forms without the assistance of an expert.
• With Logic Manager’s monthly updates and webinars, users can improve vendor, compliance and audit programs.

Cons

• Some of the locked fields do not meet the needs of users in terms of reporting.
• The reporting module does not reflect recent real-time changes.

Customer Rating

• G2- 4.4/5

7. Hyperproof

Using Hyperproof, you can automate workflows and unify your compliance and risk management processes, so you can focus on the things that matter most to you.

It is an all-in-one platform for understanding compliance requirements, implementing and managing internal controls, defining your ideal compliance processes, and monitoring and reporting your compliance posture. With Hyperproof, you can define the controls your organization requires and how they should be managed, as well as automate evidence collection and control testing from a single platform.

Pros

• Hyperproof frameworks allow users to create the right control set.
• This tool allows users to integrate controls into multiple frameworks and link them seamlessly.

Cons

• Deactivated uses accounts appear in the module because platform security controls are not being inherited.
• Some features of the platform are not compatible with all browsers. For instance, downloading already uploaded artifacts through Firefox does not work properly.

Customer Rating

• G2 – 4.5/5

8. Sprinto

Sprinto is a simple software that automates any security compliance program. It integrates seamlessly with your cloud environment to consolidate risk, map entity-level controls, and fully automated checks. It goes to great lengths to ensure compliance and prompt remediation – all in real-time. The platform complies with the most security standards of any software. It is designed to easily layer and monitor multiple compliance programs on top of one another.

Pros

• The tool integrates with major services such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and other HR management software.
• It provides all the next steps and monitoring processes in one location.  

Cons

• This software requires desktop installation, a difficult and time-consuming task for users.
• The platform doesn’t include login with the SSO provider such as Okta.

Customer Rating

• G2- 4.9/5 

9. JupiterOne

JupiterOne provides a consolidated compliance solution to your cybersecurity and governance team. It supports all major compliance frameworks, including ISO, SOC 2, NIST, CIS, HIPPA and PCI, and HIPAA. The tool provides custom frameworks and policies to meet your governance and compliance requirements. It enables you to collect data automatically to meet compliance requirements and prepare for your next audit.

Pros

• Users can visualize the relationships to understand what is happening in their digital environment.
• The tool provides a query syntax feature for locating assets using filters.

Cons

• Some desirable data elements are missed in JupiterOne.
• There is a significant barrier to learning all the different features.

Customer Rating

• G2- 5/5 

10. ServiceNow GRC

ServiceNow GRC is a platform designed for a rapidly changing world, aiming to optimize processes, make work more intuitive, and create new value. The platform reduces risks by resolving issues before they become audit findings using real-time insights into compliance. It increases productivity through automated, cross-functional workflows, artificial intelligence, and user experiences similar to those of consumers.

Pros

• The tool generates real-time reports in a single dashboard, covering everything from end-user inquiries to control procedures.
• The platform’s configuration Item setup provides detailed information about an application/server/database.

Cons

• When updates are not saved, and notifications are not sent, there is a risk of missing the ticket.
• The available modules do not adhere to NIST standards.

Customer Rating

• G2- 4.3/5

NIST 800 represents the desired state for cyber resilience. Businesses can benefit from NIST by implementing a subset of its controls. NIST 800-53 and NIST 800-171 are the most crucial NIST 800 requirements.

Here, we will cover the top 11 NIST 800 automation tools. 

Intro

NIST’s 800 series publications, first published in 1990, present information that includes NIST’s cybersecurity guidelines, recommendations, technical specifications, and annual reports. NIST 800-53 and NIST 800-171 are the two specifications in focus of NIST 800. NIST 800-53 establishes security controls and privacy controls for businesses and organizations, except those involved in national security. The purpose of NIST SP 800-171 is to protect sensitive information residing with third parties, government contractors, or service providers.

Who must comply with NIST 800 series requirements?

Unless contractually obligated, entities outside the United States Federal Government may voluntarily adopt NIST’s SP 800-series publications. Compared to other standards, such as CIS and general security controls, NIST 800-53 and NIST 800-171  have many guidelines and cover many information security systems.

Senior management with prior experience with NIST may be more inclined to implement it in their organization. However, while NIST represents the desired state for cyber resilience, achieving it may not always be feasible. Instead, businesses can benefit from NIST by implementing a subset of its controls while avoiding those that aren’t as applicable or practical to implement.

Challenges in NIST 800 Compliance

Every NIST standard comes with its own set of challenges. With a focus on information security safeguards, NIST 800-171 primarily used to protects controlled unclassified information of non-federal systems and organizations. On the other hand, NIST SP 800-53 approaches cybersecurity from a low level; it uses precise instructions on applying particular controls.

• Integrating NIST 800 into Your IT Security Program:

NIST 800 is an evolving document, with each revision introducing updated requirements. NIST SP 800-53 focuses on the control aspect of risk management programs, with each control classified as low, moderate, or high impact. They are also divided into 18 distinct categories. The idea is that by categorizing controls, organizations can streamline control selection and specification.

Some examples of categories mentioned in NIST 800-53 include accountability and audit of access control, management of awareness and training configuration, identification and authentication in contingency planning, program administration, risk evaluation, etc.

• Ambiguity in the compliance requirements:

NIST 800-171 contains many ambiguous security controls. As a result of this ambiguity, there is a risk of breach of contract, and potentially false claims act liability for failing to implement these controls when required. Although there is no foolproof solution, NIST 800-171 is mapped to NIST 800-53, which provides more detailed information. Furthermore, most of the controls in NIST 800-171 map to only a few of the “control enhancements” categories in each control in NIST 800-53. Contractors may reasonably conclude that any control enhancements that are not expressly mapped are not required, thereby reducing the burden and ambiguity associated with implementing NIST 800-171.

How can automation help with these challenges?

Automation tools assist you in gaining the visibility you need to stay safe from threats and effectively communicate the impact of risk on critical business activities, all while documenting everything you need to pass the audit.

Automation tools for NIST 800 Compliance

There are many NIST 800 automation tools available in the market. Let’s discuss top 11 automation tools.

1. Scrut

Scrut is a risk-first GRC software solution that assists you with NIST SP 800-171 and NIST 800-53 framework controls. The tool allows you to continuously monitor your controls for 24X7 compliance and simultaneously manage multiple compliance audits and risks, all from a single window.

Scrut automatically compares your cloud configurations to 200+ cloud control across CIS benchmarks to ensure a strong information security posture.

You can use Scrut’s policy library, which includes more than 50 pre-built policies. Furthermore, you can customize these policies using the built-in editor and have them reviewed by our in-house compliance experts.

The platform displays the status of each cloud resource. And if any cloud resource does not meet your security requirements, you will see one of the following statuses:

• Danger – Issues that require immediate attention.
• Warning – Proceed to these after addressing the “danger” issues.
• Low – These are low-priority risks that can be dealt with later.

Scrut Risk Management module will identify risks throughout your environment. The tool analyzes your ecosystem for risks across the code base, infrastructure, applications, vendors, and employee access to automate risk identification.

Scrut prepares your risk register in minutes suitable for NIST 800. You can use the risk library that has already been pre-mapped. You can begin your risk assessments in minutes by eliminating the time spent creating and mapping risks and threats.

Scrut automates risk assessment by constantly monitoring your risk posture via continuous risk monitoring.

Features

• Easily manage evidence of compliance: The platform includes a module called Trust Vault, where customers can see your compliance posture in real-time without manual effort. Create and share an auto-populated company-branded security page with Scrut’s Trust Vault to highlight your information security posture. All evidence documentation required to demonstrate compliance can be stored and managed.

• Allows you to keep track of all compliance activities in one location: Scrut provides the visibility required to comprehend the status, efficacy, and impact of your information security activities on your compliance posture.

• A smooth auditing procedure: Scrut streamlines and automates time-consuming audit tasks, from planning to analysis. The platform streamlines collaboration with your auditors, increasing accountability and accelerating the completion of information security tasks while reducing manual work by up to 75%. It streamlines every audit-related task from audit readiness to examination. Furthermore, the customer success team will work directly with you to identify and resolve any open issues. Your journey will be nearly “zero-touch,” with the Scrut team accompanying you all the way to the finish line.

When you are ready for audit, you can schedule an audit directly from the platform, as shown in the screenshot below:

• Automated evidence gathering: Scrut eliminates the need to manually collect thousands of evidence artifacts by automating evidence collection across 70+ integrations across mapped controls.

Check out our customer reviews below:

To learn more about how to automate your NIST compliance with Scrut, schedule a demo.

Customer Rating

• G2 – 5/5

2. Hyperproof

Hyperproof is a GRC software solution that assists businesses in accelerating the installation and implementation of NIST 800 controls. Using Hyperproof, you can monitor the results of organization-wide risk assessments and show how risks are continuously managed.

Pros

• Role-based security helps keep individual users focused on their assigned tasks, and tasks can be viewed as either a Kanban board or a grid.
• The Jumpstart feature allows you to track the progress of current programs against other programs.

Cons

• The inability to right-click on particular controls, groups of controls, document upload information, or other interface elements causes users to become distracted from their current tasks.
• Lack of control over configuring and customizing the notification system results in noise.

Customer Rating

• G2 – 4.6/5

3. AuditBoard

Auditboard is a connected risk platform that integrates NIST 800, SOC 2, ISO 2700x, CMMC, PCI DSS, and other risk management standards across your organization. You can automate manual tasks, avoid duplicate assessments, and streamline reporting with automation and a single source of truth.

Automated notifications and reminders to stakeholders will eliminate the need for manual follow-ups, allowing users to evaluate a control only once and use the results to satisfy numerous requirements.

Pros

• The ability to create custom reports in Excel to observe data assists in analyzing data trends without having to make custom requests with the IT team.
• The platform eliminate the manual follow-ups with automated notifications and reminders.

Cons

• Because it was designed as a SOX tool, the compliance and risk modules are not well developed.
• Users cannot access prior-year details due to a lack of access options to archived data.

Customer Rating

• G2 – 4.7/5

4. ISMS.online

ISMS.online allows you to manage your NIST requirements, policies, and controls all in one place. ISMS.online has everything you need, including a Virtual Coach, the Assured Results Method, live customer support, and an in-built knowledge base.

Pros

• The system’s checklists and progress bar are useful and keep users motivated to continue making progress.
• The Corrective Action Requests (CARs) can be linked to the report to see everything at a glance.

Cons

• When it comes to the tool’s ability to modify policy packs, it is not very flexible.
• Users may find it challenging to use if they are not trained on how to use it.

Customer Rating

• G2 – 4.6/5

5. Apptega

Apptega can assist you with your ongoing cybersecurity needs, including NIST, with its audit manager, which streamlines your cybersecurity and compliance audits, saving your organization valuable time and money and simplifying cybersecurity compliance.

Harmony, Apptega’s intelligent framework cross-walking capability, combines thousands of sub-controls from Apptega’s entire framework library into a unified set of common controls and sub-controls, resulting in time, effort, and resource efficiencies.

Pros

• You can connect with consultants through the tool who can help you manage the costs associated with Cybersecurity program compliance.
• The UI and templates on Apptega are easy to use.

Cons

• To generate your plan of action and milestones, you must either have Apptega upload a task pack, which is an additional purchase, or manually create tasks for each unfinished item.
• Users cannot edit documents in the platform live, which eliminates the possibility of maintaining version control, review, and approval cycles.

Customer Rating

• G2 – 4.7/5

6. ZenGRC

ZenGRC is GRC software that aids in every aspect of NIST compliance management, including risk assessment, identifying NIST compliance gaps, advising you of the controls you need to put in place, and guiding you through the process step-by-step. With just a few clicks, it can perform unlimited self-audits and keeps all your audit records in one location. 

Pros

• Offers features for bulk editing tasks, such as bulk uploading audits and changing task ownership in bulk.
• Apart from existing vendor security questionnaires, risk assessment questionnaires, data audits, and so on, it allows you to create your questionnaires with branching logic.

Cons

• It is impossible to duplicate a request automatically without recurrence, and the parent request gets updated, but it does not affect the recurring requests that spin off from it.
• Vendor review requests submitted via Jira must be re-entered into the tool; they cannot be automatically copied.

Customer Rating

• G2 – 4.4/5

7. LogicGate Risk Cloud

LogicGate is a risk management solution that includes the most recent NIST Cybersecurity Framework version. A record for each subcategory includes the overall category and function to which it belongs, as well as informative references. Through LogicGate’s graph database technology, each NIST CSF subcategory can be linked to other common frameworks and regulations.

Pros

• The workflows are adaptable so that the privacy team can change them without technical knowledge.
• There is extensive content available as training for the average user.

Cons

• Currently, there is no global search function in the tool, so you must create custom reports and search that specific table for your information.
• In the testing and validation module, there is currently no way to evaluate the effectiveness of the controls.

Customer Rating

• G2 – 4.6/5

8. SureCloud

SureCloud is a cloud-based compliance platform that secures and centralizes all compliance management data, removing silos and providing your teams with unified, consistent workflows and tools to manage all activities baselined against 150+ global regulations, frameworks, and standards. The Cloud Security Alliance Cloud Controls Matrix (CCM) module is specifically designed to assist cloud vendors and potential cloud customers in determining the overall security risk of a cloud provider.

Pros

• Includes the ability to create custom scoring for each assessment question, custom tiers for third parties, and shelf assessments without additional integration support.
• The platform’s Data Privacy compliance module is simple, logical, and easy to scale.

Cons

• The steep learning curve for users transitioning from Excel to GRC or TPRM
• When creating new forms, loading larger forms, or dashboards, responsiveness may be slow due to the complexity of the form/dashboard being loaded or the dataset(s) underlying it.

Customer Rating

• G2 – 4.3/5

9. Ostendio

Ostendio is a platform for integrated security and risk management that enables you to assess risk, develop and manage crucial policies and procedures, deliver training on security awareness, and track ongoing compliance with more than 150 security frameworks. Organizations can build and manage activities simultaneously against more than 100 industry standards and regulations by utilizing the Ostendio MyVCM platform. Customers can choose NIST-800-53 in Ostendio MyVCM, and the software will automatically map each control to all other chosen frameworks.

Pros

• The ability to receive notifications about your current compliance status that reminds you to complete a pending module.
• MyVCM platform gives us the ability to build a Quality Management System.

Cons

• We must use the “quiz” feature in KnowBe4 to allow users to upload evidence of training completion, frequently resulting in the wrong piece of evidence being uploaded.
• Due to insufficient integration between MyVCM and KnowBe4, user training information is not automatically transferred to MyVCM.

Customer Rating

• G2 – 4.7/5

10. SecureFrame

Secureframe compliance monitoring software assists organizations that work with the federal government or handle federal data in becoming compliant quickly and easily. It includes dozens of policies developed and vetted by in-house compliance experts and auditors, including System Security Plan (SSP) and Plan of Action and Milestones (POAM) templates.

Pros

• You will have access to their customer support team through Slack and scheduled meetings as you get ready for your audit.
• Evidence that needs to be collected is broken down into clear deliverables.

Cons

• There is no real-time update; it takes 1-2 days to refresh the test results after the AWS resource is fixed. If an immediate update is required, only the SecureFrame can perform it.
• Because some of the jargon was difficult to understand, there is no clear appendix to provide a framework and context for tests.

Customer Rating

• G2 – 4.6/5

11. Tugboat Logic

Tugboat Logic is a compliance and security assurance platform with policies that meet the requirements of NIST 800-171 and include an entire library of editable controls for your framework. Those controls correspond to your evidence tasks, and any relevant evidence already part of your InfoSec program will automatically apply to your NIST 800-171. There is no need to repeat any work.

Pros

• The Tugboat “readiness check” feature is a good starting point for determining which controls are required for compliance.
• The tool includes evidence-collection reminders and filters for various periods such as annual, biannual, weekly, etc. 

Cons

• There are too many options available when creating an audit report or questionnaire, which can be difficult when it is enough to focus on particular questions.
• There is no bulk update feature for the onboarding and off-boarding review and approval processes.

Customer Rating

• G2 – 4.6/5