Tampa, Fla. – June 3, 2024 – A-LIGN, the leading provider in cybersecurity compliance, announced the release of its 2024 Compliance Benchmark Report. Data from nearly 700 business leaders and compliance professionals in the fourth annual report sheds light on the current state of compliance and offers insights into best practices for achieving compliance excellence.  

“The motivations and challenges revealed in this year’s survey validate that security and compliance leaders want to move beyond rubber stamp and check-the-box audits,” said Scott Price, CEO of A-LIGN. “That’s why we continue to prioritize high-quality reports that validate an organization’s security posture and build trust with customers. A-LIGN is uniquely positioned to continue to deliver a quality experience with our world-class audit teams who utilize technology to drive efficiencies throughout the process.” 

The key findings uncover four themes successful companies are focusing on to prioritize security and efficiently manage the audit process. 

Quality 

This year’s report highlights that companies are prioritizing trust through high-quality reports. 80% recognize differences in report quality among auditors, and 69% deem compliance report quality extremely important. 

Efficiency  

Audit efficiency is crucial as teams often lack dedicated staff and budget for compliance despite extensive audit preparation and execution time. Only 20% of companies have a dedicated compliance department and about 45% would switch audit providers for a more efficient process.  

Culture of security 

This year’s report showed a pivot towards prioritizing security with the top driving forces behind compliance strategy including regulatory requirements (24%), establishing trust with customers and stakeholders (24%), and validating IT controls (17%). 

Partnership  

Best-in-class companies prioritize experienced, technology-enabled auditors over one-off vendors offering cheap and surface-level audits. The most common top reason companies choose an auditor included an experienced team (32%), report quality (22%), and a tech-enabled audit (19%). 

To download the full report and for more information about A-LIGN, visit www.A-LIGN.com. 

About A-LIGN  

A-LIGN is the leading provider of high-quality, efficient cybersecurity compliance programs. Combining experienced auditors and audit management technology, A-LIGN provides the widest breadth and depth of services including SOC 2, ISO 27001, HITRUST, FedRAMP, and PCI. A-LIGN is the number one issuer of SOC 2 and a leading HITRUST and FedRAMP assessor. To learn more, visit a-lign.com.