Key Takeaways
- Identity-first controls map directly to audit outcomes: cleaner reports, fewer fines, faster incident response.
- When choosing an MSP or IT service provider for a compliance audit, make sure they can support reliable delivery of MFA, SSO, device trust, and lifecycle management.
- Okta via ZeroTek empowers your MSP or IT service providers to deliver enterprise-grade identity and access management (IAM) that supports compliance—without enterprise overhead.
- Demand technician accountability: non-repudiable admin logs, role-based access, and centralized evidence to satisfy auditors.
- Standardize user identities across apps to reduce tickets, accelerate onboarding/offboarding, and strengthen your security posture.
Contents
- Identity security protects your business and your customers
- What identity security means for SMBs in the context of a compliance audit
- NENS insights: Preparing for security and compliance audits
- How a single identity breach turns into a compliance problem
- What the rules expect: a quick map for regulated SMBs
- NENS insights: Providing evidence for compliance audits
- How Okta makes compliance audits faster and less painful
- NENS insights: Supporting customer and internal audits with ease
- A defensible identity baseline for regulated SMBs
- NENS insight: rapid deactivation and offboarding for stronger security
- Reducing the cost of staying compliant
- The bigger picture: identity security = business continuity
Contents
- Identity security protects your business and your customers
- What identity security means for SMBs in the context of a compliance audit
- NENS insights: Preparing for security and compliance audits
- How a single identity breach turns into a compliance problem
- What the rules expect: a quick map for regulated SMBs
- NENS insights: Providing evidence for compliance audits
- How Okta makes compliance audits faster and less painful
- NENS insights: Supporting customer and internal audits with ease
- A defensible identity baseline for regulated SMBs
- NENS insight: rapid deactivation and offboarding for stronger security
- Reducing the cost of staying compliant
- The bigger picture: identity security = business continuity
Key Takeaways
- Identity-first controls map directly to audit outcomes: cleaner reports, fewer fines, faster incident response.
- Okta via ZeroTek gives SMBs access to enterprise-grade IAM without enterprise overhead.
- When choosing an MSP or IT service provider for a compliance audit, they must prove MFA, SSO, device trust, lifecycle management.
- Demand technician accountability: non-repudiable admin logs, role-based access, and centralized evidence to satisfy auditors.
- Standardize identity across apps to reduce tickets, accelerate onboarding, and strengthen your security posture.
Identity security protects your business and your customers
If you operate in healthcare, financial services, education, or legal, the alphabet soup of regulatory requirements: HIPAA, FTC Safeguards, GLBA, PCI DSS, FERPA, and state privacy laws can feel overwhelming. What ties them together is simple: every mandate assumes you can control and prove who can access which systems and data, under what conditions, and with what evidence. That means when a digital identity is compromised, there’s a decent chance it’s both a security incident and a compliance failure that may have direct financial, legal, and reputational impact. If you’re evaluating an IT service provider for compliance audit readiness, start by looking at how they control and secure identity.
In this article, we reframe identity security in practical terms for SMB leaders. We’ll connect the dots between day-to-day controls (like single sign-on/SSO and multi-factor authentication/MFA) and compliance outcomes (clean audits, fewer fines, faster incident response). We’ll also highlight where your IT consultant or Managed Service Provider (MSP) can streamline the heavy lifting by delivering Okta through ZeroTek, so you get enterprise-grade identity and access management (IAM) without enterprise-grade overhead. And throughout, you’ll hear from our Partner and co-author, New England Network Solutions (NENS), for real-world insights into regulated SMB environments.
This is the fourth of a weekly six-part series co-authored by ZeroTek and NENS for Cybersecurity Awareness Month (October). Some articles, like this one, are written for SMBs; others will address the concerns of MSPs.
What identity security means for SMBs in the context of a compliance audit
You’ll see different technical terms, but the regulator’s ask is consistent across industries—so you and the MSP or IT service provider you’re working with for compliance audit support should be familiar with the following:
- Strong authentication and access control. That means multi-factor authentication (MFA) and secure single sign-on (SSO) for all apps and systems, session management to limit risk if tokens are stolen, context rules like geofencing, and device trust for the most sensitive resources. With Okta delivered through ZeroTek, your MSP can deliver everything on this list to keep out attackers without slowing employees down.
- Accurate provisioning and rapid deprovisioning. Audits look closely at “joiner-mover-leaver” steps: how quickly you grant the right access to a new hire, change it when roles shift, and remove it when people depart. Okta Lifecycle Management (LCM) automates those steps across your apps, so no one is relying on memory or spreadsheets.
- Comprehensive accountability and auditability. You must be able to answer “who did what, where, and when”—for both employees and the IT technicians supporting you. ZeroTek extends Okta’s native logs to capture every login attempt by users and every action undertaken by your MSP’s technicians for clear, non-repudiable evidence.
As a provider that often has privileged access to customer systems, pursuing an independent security audit was essential to demonstrate that NENS has the tools and processes to keep customer data safe.
NENS insights: Preparing for security and compliance audits
NENS is no stranger to rigorous compliance audits. The company has achieved—and continued to maintain—SOC 2 Type 2 accreditation since June 2024. As a provider that often has privileged access to customer systems, pursuing an independent security audit was essential to demonstrate that NENS has the tools and processes to keep customer data safe.
A key part of their SOC 2 Type 2 journey was securing internal staff accounts. Because NENS is 100% SaaS-based, they prioritized strong, phishing-resistant authentication across every application.
“Everyone here verifies their identity with a device-bound biometric,” explains Kristian Sanchez, Senior Security Consultant at NENS. “It’s MFA with two strong layers: ‘something you are’—your face or fingerprint—and ‘something you have’—the device in your hand or on your desk, already registered to you in Okta.”
How a single identity breach turns into a compliance problem
Identity-driven attacks (phishing, password stuffing, MFA “fatigue” prompts, token theft) start small and cascade:
- Unauthorized access to sensitive systems: Without MFA—or using weak authentication methods—an attacker lands in your ePHI, account data, financial systems, or student records.
- Gaps become findings: Shared admin accounts or lax factor rules mean you can’t prove who acted. “We can’t attribute this action” is a fast path to noncompliance.
- Disclosure and fines. Regulations expect timely notification and proof that controls worked. If your logs can’t show enforcement (and technician actions), penalties and reputational damage grow.
That’s why practical mitigations are identity-first:
- Adaptive, context-aware MFA and SSO reduce credential risk while keeping login simple for legitimate users. Okta lets your MSP tailor authentication challenges by device, location, and risk.
- Fast kill switch with Okta LCM, which allows technicians to deactivate users, terminate active sessions and revoke tokens across all apps and systems in an instant—critical for containing incidents and demonstrating timely response.
- Technician accountability via ZeroTek Audit, so every Okta support action is attributable to a specific person and easy to include in an incident timeline. When you evaluate any MSP or IT service provider for a compliance audit, confirm they provide non-repudiable technician activity logs.
What the rules expect: a quick map for regulated SMBs
Below is a straightforward mapping of familiar regulations to identity controls you can actually implement. These are not full texts—just the identity-centric pieces your auditor will ask about, and how Okta IAM delivered to you through ZeroTek help you demonstrate them:
- HIPAA (healthcare). Enforce MFA for EHR and any system handling ePHI; use unique IDs (no shared admin logins); require trusted devices for PHI access; retain detailed access logs. Adaptive MFA and SSO handle access control, while ZeroTek’s technician auditing closes the “administrator accountability” gap.
- FTC Safeguards Rule / GLBA (financial). Expect risk-based MFA, activity monitoring, periodic access reviews, and prompt deprovisioning. Okta’s contextual policies (including geofencing), session controls, and LCM automate a large portion—and create durable evidence.
- PCI DSS (payments). MFA for access to the Cardholder Data Environment, least-privileged admin roles, unique IDs, and auditable change management. Okta policy plus ZeroTek’s role-based access control (RBAC) and audit logs demonstrate control and accountability.
- FERPA (education). The same identity controls as above—MFA, least privileged access, device trust, and evidence quality—apply.
When working with an MSP or IT service provider for a compliance audit, they should be able to show you these mappings in your environment.
“[The NENS audit package] told a simple story: here are the rules, here’s how our admins actually operated under those rules, and here’s how each app is tied into strong, secure, centralized IAM.”
– Kristian Sanchez,
Senior Security Consultant, NENS
NENS insights: Providing evidence for compliance audits
Sanchez explains how NENS leveraged Okta when preparing materials for the SOC 2 auditors. “First, we captured screenshots of the Okta policies that govern how sessions are authenticated and accessed, how long they last, and what conditions are enforced, which includes things like MFA prompts, device security posture checks, and other sign-in rules.
We paired that with screenshots of admin activity logs from ZeroTek Audit that showed our team’s actual usage and behavior in all the Okta orgs we manage over an extended period of time.
Finally, for each app, we included screenshot proof of the SAML integration settings in Okta so auditors could follow the configuration trail end-to-end.
Put together, it told a simple story: here are the rules, here’s how our admins actually operated under those rules, and here’s how each app is tied into strong, secure, centralized identity and access management.”
How Okta makes compliance audits faster and less painful
If users juggle separate logins per app and IT cobbles together MFA one system at a time, audits get messy. A central identity plane through Okta simplifies both operations and evidence:
- Single source of truth for users and apps. Okta consolidates identities and connects to thousands of SaaS and on-prem apps, so you can standardize login and policy across tools and systems.
- Cleaner chain of custody. ZeroTek Audit augments Okta system logs with comprehensive details so you always have a clear picture of who/what/when/where. When you evaluate any IT service provider for a compliance audit, confirm they provide non‑repudiable technician activity logs.
- Evidence on demand. Real-time, aggregated logs help diagnose issues and reduce the scramble when an audit window opens.
“With everything already centralized, protected, and managed through Okta, audit prep was so much faster.
The auditors were able to validate user and app policies in one place, instead of having to click through and manually confirm settings for every app.”
NENS insights: Supporting customer and internal audits with ease
NENS recently had a customer in the financial services industry undergo an audit conducted by a larger bank. “The customer needed to provide evidence of MFA enforcement and access policies,” says Sanchez. “No one broke a sweat. With all their apps already behind Okta and protected with strong security policies, we just had to send them screenshots of the Okta policies to satisfy the requirement. It was so much more efficient than having to pull data from every single app—and from a security perspective, we knew they were already where they needed to be.”
This is the difference between scrambling and being truly ready with the right MSP or IT service provider for a compliance audit.
NENS had a similar experience when they went through their own SOC 2 Type 2 audit process. One of the auditor’s tools was an app that integrated with Okta and pulled relevant usage data into its console. “With everything already centralized, protected, and managed through Okta, audit prep was so much faster. The auditors were able to validate user and app policies in one place, instead of having to click through and manually confirm settings for every app.”
We paired that with screenshots of admin activity logs from ZeroTek Audit that showed our team’s actual usage and behavior in all the Okta orgs we manage over an extended period of time.
Finally, for each app, we included screenshot proof of the SAML integration settings in Okta so auditors could follow the configuration trail end-to-end.
Put together, it told a simple story: here are the rules, here’s how our admins actually operated under those rules, and here’s how each app is tied into strong, secure, centralized identity and access management.”
A defensible identity baseline for regulated SMBs
These are practical, fast-to-deploy controls your MSP can implement with Okta delivered through ZeroTek. Think of this list as your “minimum viable compliance posture” for identity:
- Harden general security and threat intelligence. Turn on protections against password-based attacks and enable Okta ThreatInsight in log and enforce mode to block known bad IPs while retaining evidence.
- Use policy-driven MFA; require stronger factors where it counts. Strengthen the default policies and require phishing-resistant factors (e.g., FIDO2/WebAuthn) for all users; consider adding MFA for desktop sign-on.
- Segment access with network zones and geolocation. Create “allow” zones for where your team operates and explicit “block” zones (high-risk regions, IP anonymizer proxies), then include geofencing rules in security policies to lower risk.
- Adopt device trust for sensitive data paths. Require managed, compliant devices for PHI/PAN access, with sensible session timeouts for remote or off-network use.
- Automate lifecycle management. Use Okta LCM to automate joiner-mover-leaver across in-scope apps; more apps behind SSO + MFA means simpler reviews and stronger posture, including rapid containment when required.
- Eliminate shared admin accounts. ZeroTek provides scoped, just-in-time access to Okta for MSP technicians without exposing passwords, while capturing precise activity logs. This removes a frequent audit finding.
- Verify caller identity for security-sensitive help-desk actions. ZeroTek Verify Caller ID sends an Okta Verify identity authentication challenge before your IT service provider or MSP techs reset authenticators or passwords for your users, preventing social-engineering and leaving a proof trail.
“ZeroTek and Okta give us peace of mind. If there’s a staff exit or any malicious activity, we can suspend or lock down any user account immediately, blocking access to all apps.
It’s a single click in either console.”
NENS insights: Rapid deactivation and offboarding for stronger security
“Offboarding processes can vary from client to client, but ZeroTek and Okta give us peace of mind. If there’s a staff exit or any malicious activity, we can suspend or lock down any user account immediately, blocking access to all apps. It’s a single click in either console,” says Sanchez. “Okta Lifecycle Management lets us deprovision the user across apps quickly too. For clients with fully integrated apps, LCM cuts offboarding from over an hour to minutes.”
A defensible identity baseline for regulated SMBs
Compliance is not just about avoiding fines—it’s about time, tickets, and predictability.
- Operational efficiency. One secure login for employees, faster onboarding and offboarding, and clear, audit-ready records mean less time on access issues, more time on work.
- Predictable spend. If your IT service provider or MSP uses ZeroTek to deliver Okta, you benefit from monthly, usage-based licensing for your identity stack—no annual contracts or renewal surprises—so IAM costs scale with your team.
- Faster time to value. Okta’s massive app integration catalog means more systems behind SSO + MFA faster, with fewer custom projects and less risk.
The bigger picture: identity security = business continuity
Compliance is not just about avoiding fines—it’s about time, tickets, and predictability.
- Operational efficiency. One secure login for employees, faster onboarding and offboarding, and clear, audit-ready records mean less time on access issues, more time on work.
- Predictable spend. If your IT service provider or MSP uses ZeroTek to deliver Okta, you benefit from monthly, usage-based licensing for your identity stack—no annual contracts or renewal surprises—so IAM costs scale with your team.
- Faster time to value. Okta’s massive app integration catalog means more systems behind SSO + MFA faster, with fewer custom projects and less risk.
NENS x ZeroTek
New England Network Solutions (NENS) brings deep frontline MSP expertise, while ZeroTek’s multi-tenant Okta control plane makes it easy to standardize and scale best-practice identity security for SMBs. With ZeroTek | Okta, NENS rolls out strong, consistent controls quickly, cuts risk without adding complexity and delivers enterprise-grade protection to all customers.
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Ready for an easier way to deliver strong identity security and audit success to your SMB clients?
MSPs and IT service providers: book a 1:1 consultation to discover how you can deliver excellence with ZeroTek | Okta.
