IT compliance audit checklist: 7 steps to follow

As IT threats and vulnerabilities continue to evolve, regulatory and compliance demands are growing in response. Many organizations today need to navigate multiple mandatory security frameworks and regulations. According to Vanta’s 2025 Trust Maturity Report, 90% of respondents cite compliance requirements as a top driver for investing in security.

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Maintaining compliance with the necessary frameworks requires continuous monitoring of your security posture and critical controls updates. IT compliance audits are an integral part of the process as they help organizations secure the necessary validations and support data-backed security decisions.

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Preparing for an IT compliance audit requires long-term planning and coordination. This guide will help you understand and optimize these audits so they’re not too time-consuming or resource-heavy. We’ll also share a seven-step audit checklist to help your team maintain IT compliance workflows and reduce potential overheads.

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What is an IT compliance audit?

An IT compliance audit is a formal evaluation of an organization’s adherence to cybersecurity requirements. Its primary objective is to review the people, processes, and technology of an organization to identify potential gaps and weaknesses, while evaluating alignment with selected IT frameworks and standards.

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Organizations can perform two types of IT compliance audits:

• Internal audits: Conducted by an organization’s internal audit teams. They review internal processes, controls, and risk management procedures with the goal of strengthening the organization’s security posture or reviewing it before an external audit.
• External audits: Conducted by independent, third-party auditors, often as a part of a formal certification or attestation process. They review your existing controls, processes, and policies to determine whether they meet predefined compliance requirements, which can be internally mandated or part of external standards or regulations.

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Common regulations and frameworks that require IT compliance audits include ISO 27001, SOC 2, and PCI DSS.

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Who needs IT compliance audits?

All organizations that create, store, or transmit sensitive information electronically should perform regular IT compliance audits to validate their safeguards. In heavily regulated and competitive sectors, regular audits are a mandatory part of compliance and business operations.

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Consult the table below for examples of industries that might require IT compliance audits:

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Even when a compliance audit isn’t mandatory, undergoing audits for recognized frameworks and standards demonstrates a proactive commitment to IT security and reinforces trust with customers and partners. 

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Key compliance areas covered in IT audits

Auditors typically focus on these key areas when conducting IT compliance audits:

1. Access and identity control: Ensuring user accounts are assigned to authorized individual stakeholders and have role-specific data restrictions based on the principle of least privilege
2. Data protection: Verifying that sensitive information is properly encrypted, classified, and secured—both at rest and in transit
3. Continuous monitoring of security posture: Evaluating if ongoing monitoring  procedures provide real-time visibility into access events and control status
4. Incident response: Reviewing protocols for detecting, recording, responding to, and recovering from potential and/or actual breaches involving sensitive information
5. Physical security: Assessing safeguards like surveillance, locks, and visitor controls that limit physical access to sensitive data and systems

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Your 7-step IT compliance audit checklist

IT compliance audits can cater to different risk appetites, organizational goals, and regulatory environments. However, these seven steps provide an efficient roadmap across most scenarios:

1. Determine applicable frameworks
2. Define audit scope
3. Perform a gap/readiness assessment
4. Address identified gaps
5. Conduct the internal audit
6. Engage a third-party assessor if needed
7. Maintain documentation of IT compliance audit workflows

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“

An effective compliance program shouldn’t be just a checklist to pass audits. The true value of compliance lies in its ability to strengthen your organization’s risk, privacy, and security posture.“

Evan Rowse

GRC Subject Matter Expert, Vanta

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LinkedIn

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Step 1: Determine applicable frameworks

Start by determining the relevant cybersecurity frameworks that apply to your organization. This step is critical because frameworks may have different goals, benchmarks, and control areas. The key is to figure out what technical and procedural alignments your organization is aiming for to guide the rest of the audit.

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Identifying applicable frameworks typically depends on your industry, business size, and geographical region(s) of operations. You may want to consult legal advisors or compliance experts to list the frameworks and standards relevant to your operations.

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Some teams also like to think in terms of return on investment (ROI) while scoping frameworks. The idea is to focus on frameworks that fall within stakeholder expectations. 

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Many standards and regulations also overlap in areas like access controls or risk assessments, so early mapping helps you reuse these controls and boost the ROI on your security investments. Modern compliance solutions can significantly streamline the process by automatically mapping existing controls across several frameworks, preventing overengineering and wasted effort.

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Step 2: Define audit scope

Once you have a clear outline of the frameworks, the next step is to identify which people, processes, and technology are relevant for your audit. The scope impacts audit outcomes by highlighting areas where teams should spend time gathering evidence or remediating gaps.

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In-scope assets can significantly vary depending on the framework(s) you need to follow. For example:

• HIPAA focuses primarily on electronic and physical assets, staff, and physical locations that create, maintain, or transmit PHI in any form
• SOC 2 emphasizes services, personnel, systems, policies, and procedures related to data security, processing integrity, availability, confidentiality, and privacy
• ISO 27001 targets risk management tools and Information Security Management Systems (ISMS)

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The best practice here is to document your audit scope thoroughly to avoid incomplete assessments, last-minute adjustments, or unfavorable outcomes due to non-compliance.

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Step 3: Perform a gap/readiness assessment

In this step, you’ll compare the controls you have applied against the requirements of the framework(s) you’re auditing for. The goal is to identify gaps like missing/outdated policies or insufficient controls and plan the appropriate remediation action. Some of the processes involved in this step include:

• Reviewing existing policies and procedures
• Stress-testing technical controls and data protection measures
• Determine compliance status and overall security posture

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Conducting the workflows for this step manually can be tedious and pull IT and compliance teams away from operational priorities. You can reduce the shared workload by using dedicated automation solutions that can map frameworks and detect compliance gaps with minimal oversight.

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Step 4: Address identified gaps

After you’ve listed your compliance gaps, use the findings to create an effective remediation plan. Don’t think of this step as mere ticking off of compliance boxes—this is more of an opportunity to drive security improvements and make IT systems resilient. Remediation can involve:

• Updating existing IT compliance policies
• Tightening access controls
• Investing in stakeholder training
• Implementing new monitoring workflows

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If your organization hasn’t established continuous monitoring already, now may be a good time to consider workflows that enable real-time visibility into your control environment. This allows for real-time updates to security status, quicker response times, and up-to-date reporting, helping your organization move from reactive compliance to proactive, long-term efforts.

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Step 5: Conduct the internal audit

Certain industry-relevant frameworks, such as HIPAA, allow you to self-attest compliance, so an internal audit may be enough to validate your controls. In these cases, an internal IT audit will be your final checkpoint to confirm compliance. However, a third-party auditor can also be engaged as needed.

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Many frameworks require an external audit to achieve compliance—for example, ISO 27001 or Levels 2 and 3 of CMMC certification require external validation by a qualified third-party audit organization. Here, an internal audit is still beneficial as it helps identify compliance gaps and remediate them before engaging with an external auditor. That way, you’re more likely to have a successful audit cycle.

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Step 6: Engage a third-party assessor if needed

Bringing in a third-party assessor/auditor isn’t necessary for all frameworks, but an independent assessment can still bring fresh insights.

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For example, frameworks like SOC 2 and ISO 27001 require an accredited auditor to verify that your controls meet compliance criteria. Frameworks like CMMC and TISAX have a hybrid audit format that depends on the level you’re pursuing—internal audits or self assessments are enough for the initial stage, but higher levels need external verification.

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While internal audits focus on strengthening your security posture, an independent third-party assessment brings additional assurance. That’s because external auditors have a more impartial view of your policies and controls and can uncover insights internal teams tend to miss.

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That said, external audits come with higher up-front costs, although they can generate long-term value. Having a third-party audit report is highly demonstrable in the IT space, and may even accelerate vendor security reviews and deal cycles.

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Step 7: Maintain documentation of IT compliance audit workflows

Many frameworks require documenting audit processes for ongoing compliance. In some cases, you may also be required to retain this documentation for a fixed period. For instance, HIPAA requires you to keep compliance-related documentation for a minimum of six years.

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Clear, organized records of your compliance audit processes, findings, and actions can also benefit your organization beyond meeting regulatory requirements. Readily available documentation allows you to transparently demonstrate your efforts to external auditors and other stakeholders. It can also help executive leaders make data-based decisions about security budget, risk tolerance, and hiring.

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Collecting and maintaining compliance audit documentation manually is no longer a best practice. Teams that collect evidence by sifting through emails and disparate systems can experience compliance fatigue and higher error rates. The good news is that you can optimize both documentation and audit processes with a well-integrated compliance automation solution.

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How to automate IT compliance with Vanta

Vanta is a trust management platform that accelerates IT compliance processes by leveraging automation to reduce manual efforts. Vanta’s automation can reduce the time spent pursuing per framework and attestation by up to 82%.

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Instead of tracking evidence and policies manually, you can continuously monitor your compliance workflows on Vanta’s centralized dashboard. Here are some of the automation functionalities relevant for IT compliance teams:

• 1200+ hourly, automated tests powered by 375+ integrations
• Automated evidence collection
• AI-generated code snippets tailored to your infrastructure
• Audit readiness tools

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Vanta can also help you create public Trust Centers to demonstrate your IT compliance status on a single page, which can be easily shared with vendors and other stakeholders.

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You can get Vanta’s out-of-the-box support for 35+ industry-leading frameworks and standards such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, and HITRUST. You also get vetted policy templates across frameworks to reduce the burden for HR and compliance teams. Vanta lets you pursue multiple frameworks at once so you can minimize duplicate work for your team.

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Schedule a custom demo to have a Vanta expert talk to you with tailored information.

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A note from Vanta: Vanta is not a law firm, and this article does not constitute or contain legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship. When determining your obligations and compliance with respect to relevant laws and regulations, you should consult a licensed attorney.