Building a Compliance Explorer: SQL-Based Approach to Manage Information Controls
In today's data-driven landscape, organizations must rigorously manage risks related to information systems, security, and data compliance. Information Controls help address these needs by implementing regulatory, statutory, and operational measures that ensure organizational resilience and regulatory alignment. With Compliance Explorer, built on `surveilr`, we introduce an SQL-based solution that enables effective compliance management and efficient data interaction.
What is Compliance Explorer?
Compliance Explorer is a SQL-driven tool for managing and exploring information controls. By leveraging SQL-based ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) patterns, Compliance Explorer can ingest, cache, and present compliance data through a web UI, creating an accessible framework for organizations to view, query, and report on data-driven compliance controls. This tool is powered by `surveilr` and structured around three core scripts: `stateless.sql`, `stateful.sql`, and `package.sql.ts`.
Components of Compliance Explorer
1. `stateless.sql`: Defining Views for Data Extraction
The `stateless.sql` script creates views that specify how controls data should be extracted from CSV files and presented. For instance, in a typical setup, the `uniform_resource.csv` tables are ingested to outline compliance metrics across control families and their relationships.
2. `stateful.sql`: Caching Transformed Data
The `stateful.sql` script generates persistent tables that cache data from the views created in `stateless.sql`. This approach supports stateless queries for improved performance and simplifies complex data transformations.
3. `package.sql.ts`: Generating the Full SQL Package
This TypeScript script assembles the SQL files and ensures proper data flow from ingestion to UI presentation. It outputs a comprehensive package that can be executed with `surveilr`.
Benefits of SQL-Based Compliance Management
- **Efficient Querying**: Direct SQL access enables rapid, targeted queries across compliance data
- **Real-Time Control**: Immediate visibility into compliance status and control effectiveness
- **Scalable Architecture**: Built to handle growing compliance requirements
- **Audit-Ready Reporting**: Generate compliance reports with SQL queries
