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Responding to a Security Audit

Context​

Olivier is the CIO at HealthData, a company that handles health data. An external auditor comes to check ISO 27001 and GDPR compliance. He asks to prove: who has access to what, how access is controlled, how departures are managed, and whether passwords comply with best practices.

  • Access rights are scattered across each application
  • No centralized tool to produce a complete inventory
  • Impossible to prove that former employees' access has been revoked
  • Password policy is theoretical — no way to verify its enforcement
  • The audit takes weeks of manual information gathering
  • No structured report to provide: everything must be compiled by hand
  • No centralized log of security events

Step 1 — Access Inventory (instant)​

Olivier opens the SmartLink dashboard. The auditor can see:

  • The complete list of users and their status
  • Referenced applications and security folders
  • Who has access to what, organized by folder and by team

Step 2 — Security Policies (verifiable)​

Olivier presents the configured access policies:

  • Device Access Policies define access conditions per application
  • Anti-phishing is enabled globally
  • VaultysID security levels are enforced for sensitive applications

Step 3 — Real-time Logging (provable)​

Olivier opens Logging (Audit Trail) — the centralized log of all security events. The auditor can:

  • Filter by event type: successful/failed logins, saved passwords, Shadow IT detections, Bastion approvals…
  • Search for a specific user, application, or device
  • Click on a user or application to filter contextually without leaving the page
  • View the log from a user profile, an application record, or a folder page

The auditor asks, "Show me all of Marc Dupont's logins this month." Olivier clicks on Marc's profile, Logging tab: the full history appears instantly.

Step 4 — Compliance Reports (one click)​

Olivier directly generates the reports requested by the auditor from the Reports menu:

  • Monthly CISO Report — access management, credential hygiene, security incidents, Shadow IT detections, access governance
  • Monthly CTO Report — platform adoption, application portfolio, access groups, license usage
  • ISO 27001 A.9 Report — provisioning/de-provisioning, authentication policies, password hygiene, access rights compliance

Each report is printable with charts and downloadable as a PDF. The auditor leaves with deliverables ready to be attached to the audit file.

tip

For additional frameworks (NIST CSF, SOC 2, GDPR, NIS2, DORA…), SmartLink offers integration with CISO Assistant from Intuitem, accessible from the Reports section.

Step 5 — Password Management (demonstrable)​

Olivier shows that:

  • Passwords are stored in an encrypted vault
  • Users do not know the passwords for critical applications
  • Authentication is via VaultysID (passwordless) or SSO

What changes​

Without SmartLinkWith SmartLink
Weeks of information gatheringData available immediately
Hard-to-provide evidenceComplete and exportable history
Theoretical policiesEnforced and verifiable policies
Stressful and costly auditSmooth and well-documented audit
No centralized logReal-time logging filterable by user, application, or folder
Manually compiled reportsCISO, CTO, and ISO 27001 reports generated in one click

Features used​

  • 📊 Dashboard — Overview of users, applications, and security
  • � Logging — Real-time log of all security events
  • 📑 Reports — Ready-to-print CISO, CTO, and ISO 27001 reports
  • �🛡️ Access Policies — Verifiable access rules
  • 🔒 Anti-phishing — Protection against phishing
  • 📬 Messages and Events — History of actions and notifications
  • 🔗 SCIM — User provisioning and traceability