SEC SOX Compliance
Financial Compliance and Auditability
What is SOX compliance?
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), enforced by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), establishes strict requirements for financial reporting, data integrity, and internal controls.
Its objective is to protect investors by improving the accuracy and accountability of financial disclosures and preventing fraud in publicly traded companies.
Key SOX requirements:
- Access Control: Restrict access to financial systems to authorized personnel only.
- Auditability: Maintain immutable logs of user actions and data changes.
- Data Integrity: Protect financial records against tampering or unauthorized modifications.
- Segregation of Duties (SoD): Prevent a single individual from having unchecked control over financial processes.
- Periodic Reviews: Regularly review and update access rights and internal controls.
How Visual Guard facilitates SOX compliance:
Granular access control:
Enforce role-based access and segregation-of-duties policies for financial applications.
Audit logging:
Record every access and action in tamper-proof audit trails.
Strong authentication:
Require multi-factor authentication (MFA) for access to financial systems.
Compliance reporting:
Generate detailed reports to support internal controls and external audits.
Automated access reviews:
Support periodic review of user rights and permissions to maintain compliance.
Detailed technical capabilities
Identity & Access Management
- Centralized IAM for financial applications
- Role hierarchies with least-privilege enforcement
Authentication Security
- MFA integration using OTP, smart cards, or biometrics
Audit & Monitoring
- Immutable and exportable audit logs
- Real-time alerts for suspicious actions
Compliance Management
- Built-in compliance reporting tools
Use case
Enforcing SOX controls in an international enterprise
A global enterprise must demonstrate SOX compliance by securing its financial reporting systems and enforcing strict internal controls.
How Visual Guard helped:
- Applied RBAC and segregation-of-duties policies across financial applications.
- Required MFA for all employees accessing finance systems.
- Logged all access and configuration changes to support audit requirements.
- Provided compliance-ready reports for annual SEC audits.
Result: The enterprise ensured financial data integrity, reduced fraud risks, and passed external SOX audits with confidence.