Achieving NCA ECC-2-2024 Compliance with Netskope

The National Cybersecurity Authority (NCA) of Saudi Arabia has released its updated Essential Cybersecurity Controls (ECC-2-2024), a framework that mandates organizations to safeguard their digital assets and ensure regulatory compliance. 

As Saudi organizations adopt these updated controls, Netskope is here to support your cloud-first security strategies by aligning with the NCA’s cybersecurity controls. Our cloud-native secure access service edge (SASE) platform and zero trust capabilities help organizations secure data, ensure governance, and comply with local regulations.

Here’s a detailed look at how Netskope can help your organization achieve compliance with NCA’s ECC-2-2024:

1-5 Cybersecurity Risk Management 

Objective: To ensure cybersecurity risks are systematically managed, protecting organizational assets as per policies, procedures, and laws.

How Netskope Helps:

Netskope’s cloud security platform provides deep visibility into cloud environments, offering organizations the ability to enforce risk management strategies effectively.

Security service edge (SSE) capabilities such as DLP, CASB, and Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) continuously protect sensitive data and detect potential threats in real time across SaaS and IaaS services. Netskope monitors and mitigates risks early, helping organizations comply with NCA’s risk management guidelines while ensuring robust cloud security.

1-7 Compliance with Cybersecurity Standards, Laws, and Regulations

Objective: To ensure organizations comply with national and international cybersecurity laws and regulations.

How Netskope Helps:

Netskope’s local data centers in Saudi Arabia assist in compliance with stringent data residency and sovereignty requirements, meeting Saudi law for on-prem and cloud data protection.
Netskope’s DLP helps organizations protect PII (Personally Identifiable Information) and adhere to international regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI. These compliance standards are enforced through advanced data loss prevention and encryption policies that secure sensitive information both in transit and at rest.

2-1 Asset Management 

Objective: To maintain a detailed inventory of information and technology assets and protect them according to cybersecurity and operational requirements.

How Netskope Helps:

Netskope enables organizations to discover sensitive data, applications, and other assets across cloud environments. The Netskope Zero Trust Engine allows for comprehensive API scanning and integrates with CSPM and DSPM to help with cloud configurations and data are continuously monitored for security risks. Organizations can apply security policies based on risk scoring for users, devices, locations, applications, and data, ensuring that only authorized access is granted. This detailed approach helps classify and protect critical assets in line with compliance mandates.

2-2 Identity and Access Management 

Objective: To ensure secure, restricted access to technology assets and prevent unauthorized access.

How Netskope Helps:

Netskope’s zero trust network access (ZTNA) solution delivers granular identity-based controls to secure access to cloud applications and services. Organizations can enforce least-privilege access, ensuring only the right users access sensitive resources.

Netskope’s ZTNA solution integrates Device Posturing and Classification, utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to assess the security posture of user devices. By continuously analyzing device attributes, behavior, and potential risks, Netskope helps make sure access is only granted to compliant devices, further strengthening identity and access management.

2-3 Information System and Information Processing Facilities Protection 

Objective: To safeguard information systems and processing facilities from cyber risks.

How Netskope Helps:

Netskope’s DLP secures sensitive data across cloud environments, preventing unauthorized access or data leakage. Combined with SSPM, CSPM, and DSPM, organizations can continuously monitor and posture data and systems, ensuring compliance with NCA controls.

Netskope Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) identifies and mitigates advanced threats like malware and zero-day vulnerabilities, ensuring comprehensive protection for information systems and processing facilities.

2-5 Network Security Management 

Objective: To protect an organization’s network from cyber risks and ensure secure network segmentation and monitoring.

How Netskope Helps:

Netskope Secure Web Gateway (SWG) and Cloud Firewall enable secure network segmentation, ensuring protected browsing and restricted access to malicious websites.

With Advanced Threat Protection (ATP), DNS Security, and Next Generation Secure Web Gateway (NG-SWG), Netskope delivers real-time protection for internet traffic, safeguarding networks from cyber threats such as malware and advanced persistent threats (APTs).

2-6 Mobile Devices Security 

Objective: To protect mobile devices and ensure secure data handling while enforcing BYOD policies.

How Netskope Helps:

Netskope enables secure access for BYOD devices, ensuring protection when browsing the internet, accessing SaaS and IaaS services, and interacting with private applications. Netskope helps make sure that personal devices accessing corporate data are continuously monitored, with sensitive data being encrypted and protected in compliance with mobile security controls.

2-7 Data and Information Protection 

Objective: To ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of organizational data in compliance with laws and regulations.

How Netskope Helps:

Netskope DLP protects data across cloud and on-prem environments, ensuring that sensitive data is handled in compliance with regulatory requirements. Netskope’s local data centers in Saudi Arabia enhance data protection by ensuring compliance with data residency laws, guaranteeing data stays within national borders.

2-12 Cybersecurity Event Logs and Monitoring Management 

Objective: To ensure timely detection of cyber-attacks through event log monitoring.

How Netskope Helps:

Netskope Advanced Analytics capabilities offer real-time insights into cybersecurity events, tracking critical information assets, privileged access, and remote user activity. Netskope integrates with leading SIEM solutions, enabling centralized log management and continuous monitoring to meet NCA’s log retention and monitoring requirements.

3-1 Cybersecurity Resilience Aspects of Business Continuity Management (BCM)

Objective: To ensure cybersecurity resilience in business continuity planning.

How Netskope Helps:

Netskope NewEdge data centers, hosted in Saudi Arabia, provide high availability with a 99.999% SLA, ensuring business continuity and operational resilience. This enables organizations to recover quickly from cyber incidents while maintaining critical services, ensuring minimal downtime.

4-2 Cloud Computing and Hosting Cybersecurity 

Objective: To ensure proper risk management in cloud hosting environments.

How Netskope Helps:

The Netskope SASE architecture, hosted in Saudi Arabia, assists in compliance with local hosting requirements. Netskope CASB and DLP solutions protect cloud environments by enforcing data classification, segmentation, and security controls, ensuring full compliance with NCA regulations.
Additionally, Netskope CSPM, SSPM, and DSPM solutions enable continuous posture management, ensuring proper cloud adoption and compliance across IaaS, SaaS, and data hosted in the cloud.
Netskope SOC certifications, high standards for security, virtual isolation for all tenants, and PKI infrastructure across data centers helps make sure customer data remains secure, providing a highly trusted cloud security platform.

Conclusion

Netskope’s cloud-native solutions fully align with the NCA ECC-2-2024 controls, offering comprehensive protection for organizations across Saudi Arabia. By hosting our services within the Kingdom, Netskope helps sensitive data stay within national borders while providing best-in-class security and operational continuity. Whether it’s securing mobile devices, preventing data loss, or ensuring business continuity, Netskope is your trusted partner for cloud security and zero trust adoption.