Security Compliance Gaps

Security Ratings

In cybersecurity, Security Compliance Gaps refer to the discrepancies between an organization's required security controls (mandated by laws, regulations, industry standards, or internal policies) and the actual implementation and effectiveness. These gaps can occur due to various factors, including the complexity of IT environments, manual processes, the rapid adoption of new technologies (like cloud and SaaS), inadequate documentation, or the proliferation of "shadow IT."

From an external cybersecurity perspective, compliance gaps are particularly critical when they manifest as observable, exploitable weaknesses that could be identified by attackers or regulators looking in from the outside. The consequences of such gaps range from hefty regulatory fines (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS violations) to legal liabilities, data breaches, and severe reputational damage. The challenge is that many organizations focus solely on internal audits, missing the external reality of their compliance posture.

ThreatNG is designed to identify and help close these Security Compliance Gaps by providing an "outside-in" view of an organization's adherence to security mandates, focusing on visible and exploitable risks from the internet.

1. External Discovery: ThreatNG performs purely external, unauthenticated discovery without needing connectors. This is foundational for identifying all externally visible assets that fall under the compliance scope, including those undocumented or forgotten, which often represent significant compliance gaps.

  • Example: ThreatNG can discover an old, publicly accessible web server hosting customer data from an acquired company that was never properly decommissioned or secured according to current data retention or encryption policies (e.g., GDPR data minimization or encryption-at-rest mandates).

2. External Assessment: ThreatNG's external assessment capabilities quantify compliance posture based on observable external data, providing concrete evidence of gaps:

  • Cyber Risk Exposure: This score identifies exposed vulnerabilities (e.g., outdated TLS versions, open sensitive ports, unpatched software) that violate mandated security configurations (e.g., PCI-DSS requiring strong encryption, NIST guidelines for vulnerability management).

    • Example: ThreatNG could assess a public-facing application and find it's still using TLS 1.0, flagging a critical compliance gap against PCI-DSS or HIPAA standards that mandate stronger encryption protocols.

  • Cloud and SaaS Exposure: This tool detects unsanctioned cloud services or misconfigured cloud storage buckets (e.g., publicly accessible AWS S3 buckets, unsecured Azure blobs) that store sensitive or regulated data.

    • Example: ThreatNG might identify a publicly readable S3 bucket containing personally identifiable information (PII) or protected health information (PHI), directly indicating violations of GDPR's data access controls or HIPAA's data privacy mandates.

  • Data Leak Susceptibility: Assesses the risk of data breaches by finding exposed sensitive information in public code repositories (e.g., hardcoded credentials) or unsecured online shares, directly violating data protection and secure coding compliance.

  • ESG Exposure: ThreatNG explicitly evaluates "ESG violations" by analyzing "sentiment and financial findings" and "media coverage sentiment." These findings can include regulatory fines or compliance violations related to environmental, labor, or governance issues.

    • Example: ThreatNG could detect negative news sentiment or publicly reported fines against a company due to environmental non-compliance, which, while not directly a "cyber" gap, reflects a broader regulatory compliance issue that impacts the company's overall risk profile.

  • Supply Chain & Third-Party Exposure: ThreatNG assesses vendor security posture based on their external digital footprint. This is crucial for compliance frameworks that extend responsibility to third parties (e.g., NIST SP 800-171, CMMC, GDPR's data processor requirements).

    • Example: ThreatNG could identify that a critical third-party vendor handling client data has publicly exposed administrative panels or outdated software versions that violate the client's contractual security mandates, thus presenting a compliance gap in the supply chain.

3. Reporting: ThreatNG provides clear, verifiable reports for auditors, compliance officers, and internal stakeholders:

  • Security Ratings Report: This report offers an objective, overall score for the organization's external security posture, serving as a high-level indicator of compliance health.

  • Prioritized Report: This report highlights specific external compliance violations (e.g., exposed PII in a misconfigured cloud asset, weak email authentication) as high-priority findings, aiding immediate remediation and audit response.

  • U.S. SEC Filings (via DarCache 8K): This provides context for financial institutions by linking publicly declared cybersecurity incidents or financial strains to their observable external posture, which is relevant for SEC compliance and disclosure requirements.

4. Continuous Monitoring: ThreatNG monitors external attack surface, digital risk, and security ratings. This ensures ongoing compliance, moving beyond static audit snapshots to real-time vigilance.

  • Example: ThreatNG can continuously detect if an exposed cloud resource storing regulated data (e.g., HIPAA-protected health information) becomes publicly accessible due to an inadvertent configuration change, triggering an immediate alert. It could also identify a new subdomain hosting outdated software with known compliance-impacting vulnerabilities.

5. Investigation Modules: ThreatNG's investigation modules allow deep dives into specific compliance-related external issues:

  • Cloud and SaaS Exposure: Precisely identifies the SaaS instance, vendor, and specific misconfigurations (e.g., public access settings) of a cloud service storing sensitive data, providing granular evidence for a compliance violation.

  • Sensitive Code Exposure: Pinpoints hardcoded credentials or API keys in public code repositories, which would be a direct violation of secure coding practices mandated by many compliance frameworks (e.g., OWASP Top 10 integration, PCI-DSS requirements).

  • Domain Intelligence (especially DNS Intelligence): Identifies weak email authentication (e.g., missing DMARC or SPF records) that violates mandates for protecting communication channels and preventing email spoofing (e.g., financial regulations, brand protection guidelines).

  • Mobile Application Discovery: This process identifies mobile apps and assesses their security, including uncovering exposed credentials. It is crucial for compliance if mobile apps handle sensitive data or fall under specific regulatory scopes.

6. Intelligence Repositories (DarCache): ThreatNG's DarCache repositories provide external context and threat intelligence to frame compliance risks, including:

  • DarCache 8K: Integrates U.S. SEC Form 8-Ks to provide critical financial context. This can reveal publicly declared cybersecurity incidents or material events directly relevant to compliance reporting and risk assessment.

  • DarCache Vulnerability (NVD, EPSS, KEV): This indicator informs on the severity and real-world exploitability of vulnerabilities found externally. If an external system violating compliance also has a KEV (Known Exploited Vulnerability), the compliance gap is exploitable and poses an immediate risk.

  • DarCache Dark Web: Monitors for mentions of data breaches or compromised credentials relevant to an organization, indicating potential compliance failures.

Complementary Solutions:

ThreatNG's external insights create powerful synergies with other security and compliance tools:

  • GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance) Platforms: ThreatNG's external audit findings (e.g., identified exposed data, misconfigured cloud assets, vendor vulnerabilities) can be directly fed into GRC platforms. This enriches risk registers, audit workflows, and compliance dashboards with objective, externally verified data, providing a holistic view for compliance officers.

  • Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) Tools: ThreatNG's discovery of exposed cloud assets (sanctioned or unsanctioned) or misconfigurations can validate or augment CSPM findings. While CSPM focuses on internal configurations, ThreatNG identifies the external visibility of those misconfigurations, ensuring that compliance checks cover the full cloud footprint from both internal and external perspectives.

  • Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) Platforms: ThreatNG provides continuous, objective external security ratings and specific risk findings (e.g., exposed APIs, outdated tech stack) for vendors. This complements questionnaire-based TPRM and helps organizations ensure their third parties adhere to necessary compliance standards, particularly for data processors (GDPR, HIPAA).

  • Security Auditing Tools: ThreatNG's comprehensive external asset inventory and vulnerability assessments can guide internal security auditing tools, helping auditors pinpoint specific external components that require deeper, authenticated internal review for compliance validation.