Common Pitfalls When Performing a Cyber Security Audit 

In an environment where cyber threats evolve as quickly as the technologies designed to stop them, knowing when to run a cyber security audit is just as important as knowing how. Yet many organisations still treat audits as a once-a-year compliance box-tick. The truth is far more nuanced and far more strategic.

Whether you’re a CTO new to an organisation, preparing to launch a new platform, or unsure where your cyber risks lie, understanding the right time to audit is critical. Here’s how to approach audits with intent, avoid common traps, and use them to gain a genuine competitive edge. 

⏳ Why Timing Matters in Cyber Security Audits

Most organisations run audits to meet minimum compliance requirements, which typically happen once a year. However, in today’s cyber threat landscape, that mindset is outdated.

According to the UK Government’s 2024 Cyber Security Breaches Survey, 32% of businesses reported a cyber attack in the past 12 months. The impact of cyber attacks goes far beyond just technical headaches; these incidents can cause significant financial losses, damage to their reputation, lead to legal issues and in some cases, even force businesses to shut their doors for good.

Many organisations are still waiting until something goes wrong to audit their security controls. But the companies that weather cyber storms best are those that audit early, often and strategically rather than reactively.

The best time to conduct a cyber security audit is before you’re under pressure. The right audit at the right time can:

• Protect revenue during critical growth stages
• Identify technical debt before it becomes costly
• Support fundraising and enterprise onboarding
• Reduce cyber insurance costs
• Prepare for external scrutiny
• Expose unknown risks early

🎯 6 Strategic Triggers for a Cyber Security Audit?

Here are six common (and critical) moments where a cyber security audit can add immense value:

1. You’re Launching a New Product to Market

Shipping a new SaaS platform, app or tool? If you are handling sensitive data, integrating third-party code and operating under time pressure, these factors can create a significant vulnerability that attackers are prone to exploit.

A cyber security audit at this stage can:

• Catch insecure code or poor architecture
• Prevent compliance violations (e.g. GDPR)
• Build trust with investors and early adopters
• Accelerate onboarding with enterprise clients

2. You’re Undergoing Major Infrastructure or Cloud Migration

Cloud platforms like AWS, Azure and GCP offer flexibility, but also introduce complexity. Without a proper audit, you risk:

• Over-permissive user roles
• Insecure APIs
• Poor encryption practices
• Misconfigured storage buckets

Auditing before, during and after migration ensures your environment is secure by design, not just patched after go-live.

3. You’re a New CTO or IT Leader Without Full Visibility

If you’ve just landed in a leadership role and aren’t 100% confident in the security maturity of your new organisation, an audit can be your best starting point.

A cyber security audit provides:

• A clear baseline of risk
• A roadmap for remediation
• Evidence of due diligence to show the board
• Data to prioritise budget and staffing
• An independent, expert perspective perspective to your environment.

An external view is especially useful if your board expects rapid transformation, as it can help validate your early assessments and accelerate informated decision making from day one.

4. You’ve Experienced a Breach or a ‘Near Miss’

Incidents, whether they are big or small, should always prompt a comprehensive audit. Post-incident audits help you:

• Understand the underlying techical and procedural failures that allowed for the incident to occur
• Identify weak controls
• Provides recommendations that will enable remediation of control failures.
• Strengthen your incident response plan
• Meet compliance and regulatory expections

5. You’re Facing Regulatory Pressure or Certification Needs

Whether it’s ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials Plus, SOC 2 or FCA compliance, a cyber audit is your dry run. It uncovers non-compliances before an external assessor does and helps you compile the artefacts and evidence needed to demonstrate your controls.

A cyber security audit can help you:

• Identify gaps before your certification: It flags non-compliant or controls needing development early, giving you time to address issues before they impact certification or regulatory standing.
• Validate an effective operating style: The audit tests whether your security controls are not only in place but are functioning as they were intented to, which is a key factor to most certifications.
• Collect the required evidence: It helps you gather and structure documentation, policies, logs and reports needed to prove compliance during external reviews or audits.
• Build confidence for first-time certifications: For organisations going through their first formal assessment, the audit can help teams understand the scope, expectation and rigor of the external process.
• Strengthen the culture of audit readiness: Regular internal audits create familiarity across your teams, making external audits less disruptive and more efficient.
• Demonstrate proactive risk management: Showing that you’ve conducted a pre-assessment audit positions your organisation as one that manages risk actively, not reactively.

6. You Have No Clear View of Your Current Security Posture

If no one in your business can answer basic questions such as:

• What tools are protecting which assets?
• Are all staff using MFA?
• Are backups encrypted?
• When was our last penetration test?

…it’s time to audit. Lack of visibility is one of the most common precursors to a breach.

A lack of visibility means:

• You can’t measure risk effectively: If you don’t know what assets, systems, or users are exposed, you won;t be able to prioritise or mitigate threats effectively.
• Security investments may be misaligned: You could be overspending in some areas while leaving others underdeveloped and unprotected.
• Compliance obligations may be currently unmet: With a lack of visibility, you may be unknowingly breaching contractual or regulatory requirements.
• Threat detection and response become reactive: Without a clear picture of your environment, it limits the incident reponse teams ability to proactively detect and respond to threats.

❌ Common Audit Mistakes and Pitfalls to Avoid

While conducting a cyber security audit is essential, the value can be undermined by common mistakes. Avoiding these pitfalls ensures that the audit doesn’t just identify issues, but genuinely strengthens your organisation’s security posture:

1. Treating the Audit as a One-Off Exercise

Too often, businesses make the mistake of viewing audits as annual checkboxes rather than part of a continuous improvement process. Cyber threats evolve constantly and rapidly, which means that your defences should too. Without regular follow-ups and ongoing monitoring, gaps can quietly reopen after the audit is over.

2. Over-Reliance on Checklists

Templates and frameworks like ISO 27001 or NIST are helpful in providing structure, but they’re just starting points. An audit that strictly follows a checklist can overlook unique risks – especially those tied to your sector, infrastructure or business model.

3. Excluding Key Stakeholders

Cyber risk doesn’t stop at the IT department. HR, legal, finance and operations all play significant roles in security – from managing insider threats to overseeing data protection compliance. If these stakeholders aren’t involved in the audit process, you may risk missing important blind spots.

4. Ignoring Cultural and Behavioural Gaps

Not all cyber threats are technical. A lack of security awareness, poor password habits, or non-compliance with policies can expose even the most secure environments. A good audit should look beyond the systems and assess staff behaviour, training effectiveness and the overall security culture.

5. Not Acting on What You Learn

Dumping a long list of issues on the IT team without clear prioritisation means that issues won’t get fixed. Effective audits rank risks by severity, assign owners and creates a plan that fits your business.

🧐 What Should a Good Cyber Security Audit Deliver?

At a minimum, your audit should result in:

✅ A clear picture of your current security posture

✅ Identify weaknesses in your current controls

✅ A remediation plan aligned with business priorities

✅ Collection of supporting evidence and documentation for certification or due diligence

✅ Data to negotiate better cyber insurance terms

If your audit doesn’t help decision-makers make better decisions, it’s incomplete.

⏱️ How Often Should You Audit?

There’s no single answer. It depends on your size, risk profile and sector, but general guidance includes:

If you are a most established organisation that doesn’t change its technological environment too often, a full audit every year may be impractical. Businesses of this kind may benefit more from an audit every two or three years. However, if you are a fast growing company, making large changes or dealing with strict regulations, you would want to audit more frequently.

Conclusion

A cyber security audit isn’t just a risk-reduction exercise – it’s an opportunity to improve maturity, build trust and drive business forward.

Audits don’t have to be dull, disruptive or defensive. When timed correctly, they’re among the most powerful tools you have to reduce risk, enable growth and unlock enterprise opportunities. Treat them as strategic investments, not regulatory chores.

Want to know where your risks lie?

You may have further questions such as:

• How much does a cyber security audit cost?
• What IT and business environements should be in scope?
• What type of audit should I do?

Use this contact form to have your questions answered and to further explore cyber security.