This is the second blog publication in our series on Security Customer Trust. In our first blog, Unveiling the Essence of the Security Customer Trust Function, we explored how Okta’s Security Customer Trust team proactively maintains transparency and introduced our mission: to bolster security outcomes for Okta and the communities we serve.

At Okta, trust is fundamental to how we provide support. In alignment with Okta’s Secure Identity Commitment (OSIC), we continuously invest in making security information more accessible and transparent for our customers. A key component of upholding trust is equipping both our internal teams and our customers with the necessary tools and resources to succeed.

Given today’s numerous regulators, rigorous compliance certifications and internal policy adherence, we recognize that accessing key compliance documentation and obtaining timely responses to security inquiries is challenging and time-consuming. In this blog, we’ll touch on how we’ve introduced efficiencies in supporting these challenges through enablement, automation and self-service accesses. We continue to enable empowerment to enhance customer trust, drive efficiency, and reinforce customer confidence in the security of Okta’s products.

Common compliance challenges

While security certifications and frameworks establish a solid foundation, ensuring seamless access to security information for customers and prospects is a common cybersecurity challenge. 

The absence of a Trust Center adds several complexities for requestors seeking to obtain the required documentation. From a lack of a centralized source of truth to the back-and-forth with common security questions, customers will recognize inefficiencies when working with auditors and regulators for their compliance-related activities. In addition, messaging inconsistencies are likely a result of manual efforts and the lack of RSS functionality. Timeliness is a significant challenge without a security customer trust solution - customers and prospects will often find themselves experiencing response delays.

Essential solutions for Security Customer Trust

When strategizing, we prioritized scalability, seamless integration capabilities, and ease of use for both our solutions and technology. Enablement and automation solutions are fundamental to strengthening security and customer trust. By empowering our teams with ongoing training, a centralized knowledge base, and technology automation, we ensure they have the resources and confidence needed to navigate customer support requests effectively.

Enablement

A core component of our security toolkit is a comprehensive, centralized knowledge base. This internal knowledge base serves as the source of truth for security policies, compliance certifications, and security-related Q&A, which helps streamline questionnaire responses to customer or prospect inquiries.

A knowledge base ensures field teams have quick access to up-to-date information. It also provides a repository of common questions and answers to efficiently resolve repeat inquiries. By enabling self-service resources, we equip internal teams to succeed independently, reducing reliance on our security professionals for less complex inquiries.

Automation

Playing a crucial role in improving operational efficiency regarding security and customer trust is automation. By automating key repeat processes, we minimize manual effort and accelerate response times to our customers. Automation introduced streamlined workflows, ensuring consistency in addressing common security challenges faced in the industry, like:

• Providing timely responses to security questionnaires and compliance assessments,

• Issuing important customer-centric messaging and communications,

• Keeping field teams informed with the latest security updates.

At Okta, we utilize no-code workflow tools for automation use cases, which include ticket creation, streamlined audit processes, and standardizing engagement between field and security teams.

These automated workflows allow us to respond quickly and accurately, ensuring critical tasks are executed in real-time. For use cases such as penetration test and vulnerability information requests, we’ve implemented automated workflows for submission, tracking, and reporting. This ensures that security assessments are conducted efficiently and comprehensively, with timely customer responses. We’re committed to continually refining our policies and processes to enhance security assurance and privacy controls.

Security Trust Center benefits

Last year, Okta introduced efficiencies by launching a new Security Trust Center, offering our customers and prospects real-time, on-demand access to Okta’s security and compliance documentation. Okta provides access to widely recognized industry-standard questionnaires via the Security Trust Center, such as the following and more:

• CAIQ (Consensus Assessments Initiative Questionnaire),

• SIG (Standardized Information Gathering Questionnaire),

• SIG Privacy (Standardized Information Gathering – Privacy Questionnaire),

• HECVAT (Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Toolkit). 

The on-demand availability of industry-standard questionnaires helps streamline security assessments and effectively communicate an organization’s security controls, ensuring transparency and facilitating compliance discussions. In turn, organizations can streamline questionnaire responses, ensuring accurate and efficient turnaround times. 

We invite you to explore our frictionless, transparent Security Trust Center to learn more about our transparency and security practices. For more information on accessing Okta's Security Trust Center, visit our Okta Docs.

Stay updated

The essential solutions and technologies detailed in this blog article enable Okta to provide efficient, around-the-clock support to internal teams and external customers and prospects, focusing on security and customer trust.

Okta leverages the contact information of the Okta Contact for targeted messaging and automated approval for access to the efficient Security Trust Center. To ensure we have the most current security contacts for your organization, enabling you to stay informed on the latest critical security updates, we encourage our customers to reach out to their account teams to validate that the appropriate Okta Contacts are on file. As we continue to enhance our offerings with security and customer trust at the forefront, stay tuned for more.

Lydia Le is an Associate Analyst at Okta, providing Assurance support to the Security Customer Trust team. Her commitment to continuous learning and keen attention to detail supports Okta’s mission by securing digital Identities and strengthening customer trust. Outside of work, Lydia enjoys reading, traveling, and exploring new cuisines - always eager to broaden her horizons and learn differing perspectives.