Still relying on spreadsheets to manage your cybersecurity risks? Or are there too many workarounds with a clunky, legacy GRC, that you spend more time managing the workarounds then the outcomes that are supposed to be delivered? Those might’ve worked five years ago, but today, it’s a liability.
If you’re one of the luck few that is juggling 6+ frameworks, multiple audits from different auditing or certifying bodies, and a never-ending stream of risk assessments, it’s not a matter of if something slips through, it’s when.
That’s when things get expensive. And embarrassing.
You don’t need more tools.
You need a smarter system.
One that brings it all together without the stress, the copy-paste chaos, or last-minute audit scrambles.
Wait — what exactly is a Cyber GRC platform?
A Cyber GRC platform is like mission control for cybersecurity governance, risk, and compliance that links findings to controls and policies. It replaces static documents and scattered data with real-time tracking, smart automation, and centralized reporting
In the sections below, we’ll break down the top 5 challenges that modern Cyber GRC platforms solve. And why teams that adopt them early are gaining speed, control, and peace of mind.
Let’s get into it.
Challenge #1: Too Many Frameworks, Not Enough Time
Managing compliance shouldn’t feel like you’re drawing in acronyms.
ISO. NIST. SOC 2. PCI DSS. HIPAA.
Every standard claims to be “industry best practice.”
But together?
They turn your security team into a full-time document factory, and the audit fatigue is real.
The Pain: Juggling Standards is a Full-Time Job
If you’re like most teams, you’re stuck managing overlapping frameworks in spreadsheets, outdated documents, or disconnected tools, many of which don’t map overlapping controls from one framework to an equivalent control in another framework.
Each one has its own controls, requirements, audit timelines, and language.
And none of them care if you already did the same task for another framework last month.
So, what do you do?
- Duplicate the work.
- Rename the control.
- Copy/paste to please each auditor.
It’s a mess.
Not because you’re doing it wrong but because the system wasn’t built for how fast compliance changes today.
The Fix: Map Once, Use Many Times
This is where Cyber GRC services completely change the game.
Instead of manually juggling 12 frameworks, modern platforms automatically map overlapping controls across standards. That means:
- One control can satisfy multiple frameworks at once
- No more duplication
- Real-time visibility into where you’re compliant and where you’re exposed
With one dashboard, you can track NIST, ISO, and SOC 2 compliance in parallel.
Also Read: How Viedoc Acheived ISO 27001 Compliance and Streamlined Security Operations with FortifyData
Challenge #2: Manual Risk Assessments Are a Bottleneck
Still using Excel to score risks? That might’ve worked when you had five assets and one framework and a dedicated person overseeing it all.
But now? It’s a liability.
Cyber threats evolve by the hour. Spreadsheets don’t and employees leave and take historical knowledge with them.
The Pain: Slow, Siloed, and Outdated
Manual risk assessments might look neat on paper, until something changes.
Then what?
Suddenly you’re digging through tabs, color-coded cells, and outdated comments, trying to figure out:
- Is this still a high risk?
- Did we ever mitigate it?
- Who owns this?
- Are those new services added in-scope now?
That delay?
It’s dangerous.
Studies show that 51% of organizations have risk scanning tools. Out of those, 34% said these tools are not very valuable and 20% respondents said the results were unsatisfactory. This means if there’s any immediate threat, these spreadsheets might not come in handy.
The Fix: Real-Time Dashboard and Risk Intelligence
Cyber GRC platforms change how risk is managed, from reactive to real-time.
Here’s how:
- Dynamic risk matrices auto-update as threat conditions change based on native or integrated technical control assessment and other security data
- Dashboards give you an instant overview of high, medium, and low risks, that also considers your business context, all in one place
- Custom alerts notify the right people when risk thresholds are crossed
- Ownership, status, and mitigation progress are always clear
- Continuous control monitoring moves from a fantasy to reality for your GRC program
No more second-guessing. No more version control chaos.
Challenge #3: Audit Fatigue & Documentation Overload
Does every audit send your team into panic mode?
The emails. The last-minute Slack messages. The dreaded request for “just one more screenshot.”
It’s exhausting.
And the worst part?
You probably did the work already but now you have to prove it... again.
The Pain: Every Audit Feels Like a Fire Drill
Security teams aren’t short on effort, they’re short on time. When audit season hits, it becomes a full-time job to:
- Dig through emails for approval logs
- Screenshot access controls from 5 different tools
- Chase colleagues for missing evidence
- Recreate compliance docs that already existed, just not in the “right format”
It’s not just frustrating, it’s inefficient.
And it pulls your team away from actual security work.
The Fix: Automate Evidence, Monitor Controls 24/7
Cyber GRC platforms don’t just store your controls, they track them in real time.
Here’s to understanding cyber GRC and how it reduce audit chaos:
- Automated evidence collection from your security tools (think Okta, AWS, Jira, etc.)
- Continuous control monitoring that validates policies are still in place
- Pre-built audit templates tailored to frameworks like SOC 2, ISO 27001, and NIST
- Audit-ready exports that compile everything into clean reports, no formatting drama
This way, your system becomes your audit assistant.
Also Read: CICU Selects FortifyData as Cyber GRC Partner for Member Institutions
Challenge #4: No Central Source of Truth
How many tabs do you have open right now?
Jira for tickets. Confluence for policies. Excel for risk scores. SharePoint for audit logs.
And let’s not forget that random PDF from last quarter’s vendor review…
That’s not control, that’s chaos.
The Pain: Too Many Tools, Not Enough Clarity
When your Cyber GRC compliance data is scattered across systems, files, and inboxes, things slip.
- People duplicate work
- No one’s sure what’s up to date
- Ownership gets fuzzy
- And good luck finding anything quickly during an audit
Sound familiar?
The Fix: One Dashboard to Rule Them All
Cyber GRC platforms replace the patchwork with a single, centralized dashboard where everything lives and updates in real time.
That means:
- Every risk, control, policy, and task, all in one place
- Clear roles and ownership, so there’s no confusion
- Full visibility across teams, frameworks, and timelines
- Integrated tools and automated workflows that keep everything in sync
No more silos. No more guesswork. Just clean, simple visibility.
Challenge #5: Reactive Security Instead of Proactive Defense
Do you only look at risk after something goes wrong?
If so, you’re not alone. Most security teams spend more time cleaning up than preventing issues in the first place and it’s why cyber GRC is the key to resilient cybersecurity programs.
That’s not because they don’t care, it’s because the system isn’t built for foresight.
The Pain: Always One Step Behind
Manual tracking and outdated tools can’t keep up with today’s fast-moving threats.
You’re stuck in a loop:
- An issue pops up
- You scramble to assess its impact
- And by the time you fix it, another one hits
It’s exhausting and risky.
The Fix: Predict, Prioritize, Prevent
Here’s what modern platforms do:
- Analyze risk trends over time
- Examine potential impact across systems and teams
- Flag risks based on severity, exposure, and likelihood
- Suggest proactive remediation steps before issues escalate
Instead of reacting, you start planning.
Stop Drowning in GRC Chaos, Let FortifyData Make It Simple
If your current GRC process feels like a nonstop grind, too many frameworks, too many tools, too many audits, you’re not imagining it.
It’s hard.
It’s draining. And yes, it’s risky.
But it doesn’t have to stay that way.
Cyber GRC platforms were built to solve exactly this.
At FortifyData, we built our Cyber GRC platform to take the pressure off your teams and put you back in control. The days of $1M GRCs and year-long implementations are over, get up and running in a few weeks.
This way you can focus on what actually matters: resilience, clarity, and peace of mind. Not sure where to begin? Start with a quick chat or request a demo.
Related resources
➡️ Cyber GRC Transformation Success Stories with FortifyData Cyber GRC
➡️ Cyber GRC Services: What They Are, Why They Matter, and How FortifyData Delivers
