FAQs
Have Questions?
What frameworks does CinchOps audit against?
CinchOps audits against HIPAA Security Rule, FTC Safeguards Rule, PCI DSS, CMMC Level 1 and Level 2, SOC 2 Type I and Type II readiness, the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act, and NIST Cybersecurity Framework. The audit is scoped to the framework the business is required to demonstrate, not a generic checklist that tries to cover all of them at once.
How long does a compliance audit take?
A typical mid-sized SMB audit runs three to four weeks from kickoff to gap report. The first week is discovery and document collection. The middle two weeks are technical review, policy review, and evidence mapping. The final week is the gap report draft and the remediation roadmap. The remediation work that follows is separately scoped.
Is the audit the same as an external assessment?
No. The audit is the internal readiness review that prepares the business for the external assessor. The external assessor is the licensed body (a CMMC C3PAO, a SOC 2 auditor, a QSA for PCI) that issues the formal report or attestation. CinchOps does the readiness audit and the remediation; the external assessment is a separate engagement we coordinate with.
What if the audit finds major gaps?
Major gaps are the common case, not the exception. The audit output prioritizes the work by impact and effort so the business can close the gaps in two-week sprints. CinchOps runs the remediation alongside the audit team because we manage the underlying IT environment. The same team that found the gap closes the gap.
How does the audit stay current?
Compliance audits go stale fast. CinchOps writes the evidence collection into the managed IT runbook so the controls stay documented continuously, not just at audit time. The annual audit is a checkpoint, but the day-to-day evidence is captured in the regular IT operating cadence. This is what keeps the next audit short.
