Curious what auditors and GRC teams are actually using in 2026 to assess cloud environments, especially GCP-heavy ones.
Most “cloud security tools” are built for SecOps. From an audit perspective, the needs are different:
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Read-only access and short engagement windows
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Clean scoping across orgs, folders, and projects
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Evidence that holds up without endless screenshots
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Repeatability across SOC 2, PCI, ISO, HITRUST
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Less alerting, more defensible outputs
How I currently see the landscape:
Large CSPM Platforms
Wiz, Prisma Cloud, Orca, Lacework
Great coverage if a client already has them, but expensive and often awkward for point-in-time audit evidence. Strong security tools, not audit-first.
Cloud-Native & Open Source
GCP Security Command Center, Prowler, ScoutSuite, CloudQuery
Excellent raw data and flexibility. Tradeoff is manual interpretation and control mapping. Works ok for highly technical audit teams.
Smaller, Audit-Focused Tools
Tools aimed more at assurance than detection, sitting between CSPM and spreadsheets.
Examples include Blackbox Auditor and other niche assessment platforms.
Common traits:
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Read-only access models
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Focus on scoping and evidence collection
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Outputs aligned to audit controls, not alerts
What tools have genuinely made cloud audits easier for you?