Compliance & Audit Defensibility Series
The Reality of Compliance Audits
For organizations using Microsoft Teams and cloud-based recording, compliance isn’t a checkbox – it’s an ongoing discipline. Auditors don’t just want to see that you have a solution in place; they want evidence that your workflows, retention, and controls actually work.
“Audit readiness is about discipline, not just technology.” – IT leader
As one IT manager at a financial services customer put it, “We only realized our retention workflow was broken when the auditor asked for something from six months earlier.”
Top Audit Failure Scenarios
Audits can fail for a variety of reasons, but the most common scenarios include:
- Missing or incomplete records: Teams calls or chats that should have been recorded are missing, or metadata is incomplete.
- Broken retention workflows: Retention policies are not enforced, or data is deleted too soon.
- Inadequate audit logs: Access and activity logs are missing, incomplete, or not tamper-evident.
- Lack of evidence for legal hold: Inability to demonstrate that data subject to legal hold was preserved.
- Unclear chain of custody: No clear documentation of who accessed or modified records.
What Auditors Typically Request
Auditors focus on evidence, not promises. According to ISACA, “Auditors want evidence, not promises.”
“Auditors want evidence, not promises.” – ISACA
They will typically request:
- Lists of all recorded Teams calls and chats for a specific period
- Retention policy documentation and proof of enforcement
- Audit logs showing access, deletion, and export activity
- Evidence of legal hold and eDiscovery processes
- Proof of tamper-evidence and WORM (Write Once, Read Many) controls
Practical Checklist for Audit Readiness
To avoid common pitfalls, IT and compliance teams should regularly validate the following:
Recording Coverage:
- Confirm that all required Teams modalities (calls, meetings, chats) are being captured.
- Validate that new Teams features or updates haven’t disrupted recording coverage.
Retention & Deletion:
- Review retention policies for accuracy and alignment with regulatory requirements.
- Test that data is retained for the required period and deleted only when appropriate.
Audit Logs & Tamper-Evidence:
- Ensure audit logs are enabled, complete, and protected from tampering.
- Regularly review logs for unusual access or deletion events.
Legal Hold & eDiscovery:
- Document legal hold processes and test that data can be preserved on demand.
- Validate eDiscovery workflows for completeness and speed.
Documentation & Evidence:
- Maintain up-to-date documentation of all compliance workflows.
- Prepare sample evidence packages for each workflow (e.g., a sample audit log export).
Takeaways and Next Steps:
- Audit readiness is about discipline, not just technology. Regularly test your workflows, not just your tools.
- Use defensible language: IXCloud and TRAAS support compliance objectives by providing controls for recording, retention, and audit logging, but ultimate responsibility rests with the regulated firm
- Prepare for audits by assembling evidence packages in advance, not just when the request arrives.
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