Imagine that I have a big house with 4 kids, 3 animals, 4 bedrooms and a lot of chaos. It’s a mess. It’s dirty and disorganized. January 1st rolls around and my New Year’s resolution is to get the house organized and clean.

If I were to take the approach to this problem like so many do to cybersecurity, the first thing I would do is get on the Internet and google “house cleaning technologies.” When I do that I’d find solutions like iRobot’s Roomba. Boom!! It turns out all I have to do is buy some autonomous AI cleaning tech. This was the first result in my search: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/high-tech-cleaning-devices-for-your-home

I purchase an AI powered vacuum ($1,000), a phone sanitizer ($120), a smart trash can ($200), a smart litter box ($700) and finally an air cleaner ($250). After spending $2,300, my home is actually more cluttered! Despite all the automated smart tech with AI, my house is no cleaner or more organized than it was before my tech buying spree. In fact, it would be worse now because I have more useless stuff laying around!

Alternatively, if I spend the time organizing the first floor, putting away what’s not in use, labeling and getting things off the floor and making sure everyone in the family knows what their role is in keeping the space clean, then can I leverage the Roomba and other technologies to become more effective and efficient.

Like with cybersecurity tech, successful and meaningful implementation of the Roomba will require knowing the areas it can clean, setting up guiding barriers and purchasing 2 Roomba’s because it turns out I have a step in the middle of my first floor.

The point is there is no magic Easy Button (not to mix marketing metaphors) in cybersecurity or compliance despite what all the marketing vaporware tells us. There are a number of vendors advertising automated SOC 2 compliance solutions with type 1 reports completed in 5 days! Like cleaning one’s house, cybersecurity and compliance require actual elbow grease and a disciplined effort to understand what’s going on in an organization. Only then can you leverage the fancy tech to become more effective and efficient.