What Is the COBIT Framework? A Detailed Guide for Enterprise IT Governance in 2026

While your peers are wondering which brand-new framework will save them, you already know: The most powerful IT governance framework for 2026 was launched in 2019.  

And if you’re reading this, you’re about to discover why your instincts about COBIT 2019 were right and how ISACA's new guidance separates you from the pack. 

What is the COBIT framework?  

Definition and purpose of the COBIT framework 

First, COBIT stands for Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies.  

It’s a framework for fostering innovation and growth by aligning IT goals and business objectives. 

The COBIT framework emphasizes two enablers of digital transformation:  

• Legal and regulatory compliance, reducing your risks of costly violations that can derail transformation and business continuity  

• Optimized IT resource allocation, ensuring operational efficiency and maximum ROI on investments 

But is COBIT 2019 still relevant today?

The answer is a resounding YES.  

Just ask Meta, which has already paid a record $2.8 billion in GDPR fines for data privacy violations. Or Amazon, hit with a $812.4 million GDPR penalty by Luxembourg’s data protection authority, an amount affirmed by the Luxembourg administrative court in March 2025. 

Meanwhile, courts held Equifax liable for up to $700 million after a 2017 breach exposed the data of about 147 million people (nearly half of U.S. adults). The exposed data included names, birthdates, addresses, driver’s license & Social Security numbers. 

These tech giants with unlimited resources failed at the one thing COBIT 2019 was designed to prevent: governance. 

So, the question isn’t whether COBIT 2019 is still relevant; it’s whether you can afford to ignore what $4 billion+ in fines just taught the world’s most powerful corporations. 

When did COBIT start? 

COBIT made its first debut on the world stage in 1996 with Version 1.0.   

Authored by ISACA (Information Systems Audit & Control Association), this first iteration of COBIT provided a set of 34 control objectives for managing corporate information systems.  

Then, in 1998, ISACA released COBIT 2.0, followed two years later by COBIT 3.0.  

For the first time, COBIT 3.0 saw the addition of management guidelines and maturity models to the framework.  

In 2005, ISACA released COBIT 4.0, which put IT governance on the map as an essential part of overall corporate governance.  

Version 4.1 came next in 2007.  

In 2012, ISACA launched COBIT 5.0 to great fanfare, positioning it as a holistic framework for addressing not only IT governance but also risk management and compliance.  

COBIT 5.0 incorporated: 

• COBIT 4.1 

• Val IT 2.0 

• Risk IT frameworks 

• ISACA’s IT Assurance Framework (ITAF) 

• The Business Model for Information Security (BMIS) 

COBIT 5.0 was the first to position COBIT as a flexible governance framework that could integrate with other standards such as ITIL, ISO, PMBOK, PRINCE2 and TOGAF. 

Finally, COBIT 2019 (the latest version) made its appearance in 2018, providing new guidance on managing digital transformation through EGIT (enterprise governance of information and technology).  

The framework clearly distinguishes between governance and management objectives. It recommends establishing a Digital Business Transformation team led by top-level executives to ensure proper governance.  

How is COBIT 2019 different from COBIT 5? 

Compared to COBIT 5, COBIT 2019 places a stronger emphasis on EGIT in the following areas:  

• Flexibility and openness: The COBIT 2019 open architecture lets you implement only what’s relevant to your business. This is governance that aligns with your risk appetite, business strategy, and industry requirements. 

• Currency and relevance: COBIT 2019 helps you stay compliant with standards such as GDPR, NIST Cybersecurity Framework, ITIL, CMMI, ISO 27001, and PCI DSS.  

Basically, it lets you demonstrate to stakeholders (customers, vendors, & boards) that your IT governance reflects modern standards. 

• Prescriptive application: COBIT 2019 introduces 11 new design factors that lets you customize your IT governance approach.  

This means you can tailor IT governance to your business context, whether you’re a lean startup, heavily regulated firm in a sensitive industry, or somewhere in between. 

• Performance management of IT: COBIT 2019 adopted the CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) Performance Management Plan, replacing the ISO/IEC scale in COBIT 5.  

This means you can quantify IT governance improvements in terms that leadership understands (capability levels, maturity progress). With hard numbers, you can justify budget requests to drive the highest-value improvements. 

Ultimately, COBIT 2019 doesn’t just tell you what to do; it’s designed to be an IT governance framework that delivers practical business value.  

That’s why it’s based on: 

• Six (6) principles for a governance system, which shows you what effective IT governance looks like 

• Three (3) principles for a governance framework, which shows you why COBIT is the right tool for IT governance 

What are the six principles of the COBIT governance system? 

In a nutshell, the COBIT 2019 IT governance system is focused on six key principles:  

• Provide stakeholder value: Your IT governance should help your business drive efficiency, make money, and manage risks (not just check compliance boxes). 

• Holistic approach: An effective governance system is built from diverse components. This means people, culture, policies, and technology working together. 

• Dynamic governance: A governance system should be dynamic, adapting as your risks and business strategy evolves. 

• Clear separation between governance and management: A good governance system should clearly distinguish between governing (setting direction) and management (running operations). 

• Tailored to enterprise needs: One size doesn’t fit all. An effective governance system should be tailored to the enterprise’s needs. IT governance in hospitals and health systems will look different from that of a small tech startup. 

• End-to-end governance system: A governance system should cover all technology, wherever it lives across your entire organization. IT governance that focuses only on the IT department leaves you blind to shadow IT and vulnerable to costly breaches. 

This brings us to what makes COBIT 2019 the right tool for building effective IT governance. 

What are the three principles of the COBIT governance framework? 

These three (3) principles describe why COBIT 2019 is a well-designed framework for your business: 

• Based on a conceptual model: COBIT 2019 is built on a clear, logical structure that details all you need for sound IT governance. This consistency means you can automate components like access controls, audit trails, or compliance checks. 

Remember: Data is everywhere, which means each unsupervised tool is a compliance nightmare waiting to happen. 

 

But don’t fret: Today, you can instantly spot unauthorized logins, verify compliance, and keep your business secure with LastPass SaaS Monitoring and SaaS Protect. Get them free with a Business Max trial (no credit card required). 

• Open and flexible: COBIT 2019 allows your business to navigate the evolving threat landscape, with the ability to incorporate new content and address new issues like AI governance. 

• Aligned to major standards: COBIT 2019 works with other frameworks like ISO 27001, GDPR, ITIL, and PCI DSS. This means you get a comprehensive view of all data privacy and security risks, saving your business time and money as it works to mitigate risks and avoid costly penalties. 

Now, let’s get to the heart of COBIT 2019: Its components. 

What are the key components of the COBIT IT governance framework?  

Imagine having a simple, proven system to manage your IT controls and grow your business. That’s exactly what COBIT 2019 offers with its powerful mix of: 

• Reference models: Easy-to-follow blueprints your business can use to implement IT governance 

• Control objectives: Clear goals for aligning IT processes with business and regulatory requirements 

• Maturity models: A step-by-step plan to track progress, optimize resources, and reduce your risks over time  

First, who is responsible for enterprise IT governance?

COBIT 2019 establishes clear roles and responsibilities, so accountability for decisions is clear.  

• The board of directors is responsible for overall governance. 

• The executive management team (CEO, CTO, and CIO) supports the board's goals by carrying out its initiatives.  

COBIT reference model  

COBIT 2019 is an IT governance framework with reference models.  

These models serve as a common language for communications between IT professionals, business executives, and regulators. They are standardized blueprints that show you exactly how to organize and manage your IT governance to deliver real business value. 

In COBIT 2019, the Core Model (previously known as the Process Reference Model in COBIT 5) is the heart of its reference model. It consists of 40 core governance and management objectives. 

So, the Core Model of 40 objectives is your detailed roadmap for assessing which parts of IT governance will drive the best outcomes for your business.  

COBIT control objectives: Governance and management objectives 

A popular question we’re often asked is, “What does the COBIT framework actually do?” or “How does the COBIT framework support IT governance?”  

In COBIT 2019, control objectives provide clear, actionable targets to help your business focus on the most important areas to manage risks, stay compliant, and create value.   

Here's how it works: The framework organizes its governance and management objectives into five domains:  

Governance objective

1. Evaluate, Direct and Monitor (EDM): The governing body (Board of Directors) evaluates strategic options for optimizing business processes and IT environments. Then, it directs and monitors the implementation of those options by senior management. 

Management objectives

1. Align, Plan, and Organize (APO) focuses on structuring and optimizing the use of IT systems. 
2. Build, Acquire, and Implement (BAI) focuses on acquiring the right IT solutions and integrating them in business processes. 
3. Deliver, Service and Support (DSS) addresses the operational delivery and support of I&T services.  
4. Monitor, Evaluate, and Assess (MEA) addresses the conformance of I&T with performance and compliance targets.  

Each domain contains multiple processes, and each process has associated IT control objectives.  

By implementing the control objectives, you’ll enhance your organization’s security posture, ensure regulatory compliance, and achieve high levels of digital trust. 

COBIT maturity models  

While reference models define what should be done to optimize EGIT, maturity models assess how well it’s being done.  

COBIT 2019 uses maturity models to identify performance gaps and track improvements over time.  

What are COBIT capability levels?

Capability levels come under the broader COBIT maturity model.  

Each IT process gets a capability score from 0 to 5. These scores are based on the CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) system, which is a proven method for measuring how well things are done.  

In a nutshell:  

• Your IT governance program is like a big team with many players (IT processes). 

• Each “player” gets a capability level to show how well a particular process is working.  

• The levels show how well the players are performing together, which in turn gives you the maturity level of your overall IT governance program.  

In 2023, ISACA updated its CMMI with three new domains:  

1. Data Management 
2. People Management 
3. Virtual Work 

The CMMI 3.0 Practice Area, Enabling Virtual Work (EVW), falls under the Virtual Work domain. Meanwhile, another new CMMI Practice Area, Workforce Empowerment (WE), falls under the People Management domain.  

Both EVW and WE promote digital transformation and business continuity: 

• Workforce Empowerment (WE) encourages continuous learning and employee engagement, critical factors in driving digital transformation.   

• Enabling Virtual Work (EVW) allows for flexible workspaces, promoting business continuity during disruptions.  

Together, EVW and WE facilitate a cultural shift towards more resilient, digitized enterprises.  

And in 2025, IBM has teamed up with ISACA’s CMMI experts to include cutting-edge AI guidance inside the proven CMMI maturity model.  

This is the same model that has enabled 86% of nearly 14,000 organizations worldwide to realize their IT governance goals and achieve measurable improvements in efficiency, risk management, and customer satisfaction. 

With IBM’s involvement, you’ll soon see actionable strategies on how your business can leverage generative AI, machine learning, and deep learning to improve IT governance and drive even more business value.  

What are the key components that support an effective IT governance & management framework? 

At its heart, COBIT 2019 defines seven components or enablers of an effective EGIT (enterprise governance of information and technology) program:  

• Processes 

• Organizational structures 

• Policies and procedures 

• People, skills, and competencies 

• Culture, ethics, and behavior 

• Information flows 

• Services, infrastructure, and applications 

As mentioned, COBIT 2019 is a significant improvement from COBIT 5, with guidelines for resource optimization, business continuity, regulatory compliance, and digital transformation.  

What are the benefits of implementing the COBIT framework? 

Now, let’s talk about COBIT’s strategic value in the real world.  

Enhanced IT governance and decision-making  

The European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) represents 42 electric transmission system operators (TSO) from 35 EU countries.  

At its heart, ENTSO-E promotes technical collaboration between TSOs to support the EU’s energy policies.  

The organization was already using ITIL for IT service management (ITSM) and ISO 27002:2013 for information security management. In 2014, it adopted COBIT.   

The result? ENTSO-E found its IT team could better support TSO members in boosting efficiency, increasing productivity, and fostering a customer-first culture. 

COBIT also enabled better risk management, resource use, and performance tracking, allowing ENTSO-E to achieve its strategic goals.  

Improved alignment of IT with business objectives  

If you’re looking for another example of how COBIT aligns IT governance with business objectives and enterprise risk management, you’ll appreciate the story of Dubai Custom’s successes.  

A little backstory: Dubai Customs has been in the business of fair trade for more than 100 years.  

The department is responsible for collecting customs revenues, tackling intellectual property (IP) theft, and ensuring trade practices align with global standards.   

Over the years, Dubai Customs has relied on a collection of frameworks to support its goals, such as ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library), ISO 2000, ISO 27000, and TOGAF (The Open Group Architecture Framework).  

As time progressed, however, department officials felt an integrated framework was needed, especially one that incorporated key standards for IT governance and risk management.  

They settled on COBIT in 2016.  

A key milestone was their implementation of the COBIT goals cascade, which aligns stakeholder needs (benefits realization, risk management, and resource optimization) with enterprise and IT goals.   

Ultimately, the adoption of COBIT led to increased revenues, improved service quality, and greater efficiency – cementing the department’s global reputation for excellence.  

This same story can be yours -- read on to find out how.  

Increased transparency and accountability in IT processes  

We’re heading into 2030: do you know what your AI is doing?  

Questions about transparency, fairness, and accountability are being raised as AI becomes more entrenched in business – and for good reason.  

When Google’s Gemini chatbot depicted images with historical inaccuracies in early 2024, the tech giant faced a tidal wave of criticism on social media platforms. The issue has since been fixed, but questions about fairness and accuracy remain.  

Meanwhile, Air Canada lost a lawsuit in 2024 when it argued that a customer, Jake Moffatt, should have verified information the airline’s AI chatbot provided about bereavement fare. 

However, a Canadian tribunal ruled against Air Canada, requiring them to pay Moffatt $812 to cover the difference between the airline's bereavement rates and the $1,630.36 he paid for a round-trip ticket to Toronto, after his grandmother died. 

The case highlighted the need for Air Canada to ensure: 

• The accuracy of AI-generated information 

• Accountability for the output of AI chatbots 

• Clear end-user confirmation procedures (like providing links to official policy pages) 

When it comes to AI governance, COBIT 2019 shines. The framework emphasizes aligning IT objectives, which includes AI-based projects, with business requirements. This alignment ensures AI deployments align with society’s broader vision of digital trust.  

In early 2025, ISACA released a practical guide called "Leveraging COBIT for effective AI system governance." This guide helps your business set clear standards for trustworthy AI, to meet consumer expectations in areas such as transparency, accountability, fairness, reliability, and security.

How do I implement COBIT for maximum enterprise value?  

Steps to effectively implement COBIT framework  

Ready to implement COBIT 2019?  

The COBIT implementation approach gives you a proven roadmap in these seven (7) action steps:  

1. What are the drivers for COBIT implementation? - Identify the pain points that will serve as a stimulus for change. 
2. Where are we now? - Choose your governance & management objectives (the set of processes your business must perform) and rate their capability levels. This will help you determine your overall maturity. Note: You don’t need to assess all 40 objectives. The beauty of COBIT 2019 is that it can be customized to your business.  
3. Where do we want to be? - Set a target for improvement and perform a gap analysis to identify solutions. 
4. What needs to be done? - Create your roadmap to close the gap. 
5. How do we get there? - Implement proposed solutions and establish monitoring systems to measure performance. 
6. Did we get there? - Identify improvements using COBIT 2019 performance metrics 
7. How do we keep the momentum going? - Make continuous improvement part of your commitment to effective IT governance 

Ultimately, these three best practices, distilled from the COBIT 2019 Implementation Guide, can further guide your implementation efforts.   

• Identify stakeholder needs, such as business continuity and digital transformation, and get buy-in from executive leadership. 

• Allocate resources, set timelines, and begin with pilot projects before making organization-wide changes. 

• Make necessary adjustments based on employee feedback and results. 

What are the best practices for optimizing enterprise governance of information and technology (EGIT)? 

Below are three (3) of our best practices for optimizing EGIT:  

1. Implement the NIST cybersecurity framework CSF) with COBIT 2019. The combination covers the six (6) key functions of the NIST CSF (Govern, Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, Recover) while providing the governance and management structure of COBIT. It brings value to consumers and partners by shining a spotlight on IT risks that endanger data security and business continuity. Read our guide on how to implement the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. 
2. Establish a culture with strong values that support EGIT. Culture, ethics, and behavior are often underestimated as driving forces for optimizing IT governance.  In a dynamic business landscape, speed is critical to resilience. Consider investing in AI-based analytics and automation to adapt instantly to shifts in consumer sentiment and maintain seamless customer experiences. 
3. Choose the right metrics for management objectives. For example, the most relevant metrics for the APO (Align, Plan, and Organize) management objective are:  

• Cost of regulatory noncompliance, including settlements and fines  

• Number of regulatory noncompliance issues causing public comments or negative publicity  

• Number of noncompliance incidents noted by regulators or supervisory authorities  

• Number of regulatory noncompliance issues relating to contractual agreements with business partners  

For the EDM (Evaluate, Direct, and Monitor) governance objective, the following metrics may be helpful:  

• Number of customer service or business process interruptions causing significant incidents  

• Business cost of incidents  

• Number of business processing hours lost due to unplanned service interruptions  

• Percent of complaints as a function of committed service availability targets 

Now that you’ve read about governance & management objectives, capability levels, and maturity assessments, you may be thinking, “I don’t even know where to start, and I don’t have the budget for training or consultants. Do I need to become a COBIT expert?” 

If you feel like IT governance is out of reach, keep reading. In the next sections, you’ll see how ISACA’s smart approach makes IT governance easy and doable. 

Does COBIT certification and training matter? 

Before we answer the question, let’s talk about what COBIT certifications are available. 

Overview of COBIT certification programs  

Currently, there are three types of COBIT certifications. They are:  

1. COBIT 5, which consists of Foundation, Implementation, and Assessor 
2. COBIT Design and Implementation, where you and your employees learn how to design and implement an effective IT governance system and run governance improvement programs 
3. COBIT Foundation, where you or your employees gain a more in-depth understanding of the COBIT 2019 Framework. This certification affirms you have the necessary skills to establish, improve, and maintain a system for effective IT governance. 

What are the benefits of having certified COBIT professionals on staff? 

If you’re doing business today, it’s not what you don’t know, but what you can’t see that threatens your survival.  

SaaS gives your business speed, but unmanaged apps mean it’s only a matter of time before Shadow IT invites a breach. 

As a business owner, your role is to understand how COBIT helps you stop SaaS sprawl and prevent the data breaches that could destroy your business. 

The bottom line for implementing COBIT? You have options: 

1. First, you don’t need to be a COBIT expert. ISACA’s COBIT for small and medium enterprises offers clear, easy-to-follow workflows to make IT governance manageable and affordable. 
2. Second, SaaS security is within reach: Download the free eBook for SaaS security best practices and to see how LastPass SaaS Monitoring & SaaS Protect helps you fight Shadow IT. 
3. Third, you don’t need to know how to create a governance roadmap or conduct a capability assessment. This is where expertise pays off. ISACA recommends training a small, dedicated team to lead the initiative (this could be one or two individuals, supported by clear leadership).  

Having COBIT certified professionals on staff comes with several key benefits. They include:  

• Industry credibility: With COBIT certified professionals on staff, your business affirms its commitment to complying with recognized industry standards for IT governance. This builds trust and credibility with vendors, partners, and consumers, which can lead to faster sales cycles and more growth. 

• Digital transformation support: COBIT certified professionals are equipped to deploy the latest cybersecurity measures to satisfy modern consumer demands for data privacy and security. 

• Improved stakeholder communication: COBIT certified professionals can effectively communicate IT concepts and issues, promoting better decision-making at the executive level. 

• Better resource optimization: With COBIT certification, your employees know how to optimize IT resources, which can lead to cost savings and improved service deliverability. 

• Enhanced risk management: COBIT certified professionals are equipped to effectively mitigate IT-related risks. This can protect your business from data breaches and their consequences: reputational damage, lost revenues, & fines for non-compliance with regulations. 

In short, a certified COBIT professional knows how to properly assess capability levels and determine which objectives apply to your specific business challenges. Ultimately, they know how to connect the dots to business outcomes and demonstrate ROI in language executives understand.  

What are the recommended training resources for COBIT exam preparation? 

Considering COBIT certifications for your employees? If so, the following resources can help.   

• Official ISACA COBIT certification training 

• COBIT publications, which now include COBIT 2019 for Small and Medium Enterprises and three Focus Areas: DevOps Using COBIT 2019, Information and Technology Risk, and Information Security ** 

• Training provided by APMG accredited providers. APMG International is a global accreditation institute that offers certification courses such as COBIT. If you’re looking for COBIT 2019 training, be sure to reference APMG’s list of training providers. You can also book an exam when you’re ready. 

• Online training platforms like Simplilearn, which offer a COBIT 2019 online bootcamp with virtual labs for tackling real-world scenarios. Simplilearn COBIT classes are taught by experts who continue to be active in their field. 

• Self-study materials such as practice exams from learning platforms like Udemy and Test Prep Training. *** 

**Key industry-related COBIT training publications are free with ISACA membership**  

***practice exams from non-ISACA sources aren’t explicitly endorsed by ISACA but may boost learning in preparation for the official exam. ***  

COBIT vs. other IT governance frameworks  

COBIT vs ITIL vs NIST  

You may be familiar with NIST, but what is ITIL?  

More importantly, is COBIT the same as ITIL?   

The short answer is no.  

Below, we compare COBIT with both ITIL and NIST in terms of purpose, focus, and target audience.  

Purpose:  

• COBIT provides comprehensive guidance for aligning IT goals with business objectives. The financial sector was an early adopter of COBIT, using it to achieve compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. However, more industries have implemented it as a versatile IT governance framework. 

• ITIL defines best practices for IT service management. 

• NIST standards prioritize the building of digital trust and stronger security cultures. 

Focus: 

• Of all three, COBIT has the broadest approach, covering governance and management across the entire IT landscape 

• ITIL specifically emphasizes IT service management. 

• NIST has a narrower focus, providing guidance for cybersecurity and risk management. 

  Target Audience:  

• COBIT’s audience is (1) internal stakeholders: IT managers, developers, C-suite executives, business managers, governance, risk, & compliance (GRC) managers, and IT quality control professionals (2): external stakeholders: partners, vendors, and regulators.  

• ITIL is primarily used by IT service management professionals. 

• NIST is used by organizations of all sizes across industries.  

What are the key differentiators and strengths of COBIT?  

There are several differentiators and strengths that set COBIT apart from ITIL and NIST:  

• Broad, holistic approach: Like NIST, COBIT integrates multiple frameworks. However, COBIT’s specific focus is IT governance, risk management, and compliance. In contrast, ITIL’s primary focus is IT service management, while NIST prioritizes cybersecurity risk management.   

That said, it’s now possible to map NIST CSF 2.0 functions with the corresponding governance and management objectives of COBIT 2019. What this does is ensure your organization’s cybersecurity controls are aligned with both business objectives and risk tolerance levels.  

• Flexibility: With COBIT 2019, you get design factors and focus areas to customize a governance system that fits your unique business needs.  

• Risk management focus: COBIT places a stronger emphasis on risk mitigation than ITIL.  

• Clear distinction between governance and management: COBIT is the only one of the three that explicitly separates the governance and management of information and technology.  

How do I choose the right IT governance framework for my organization's needs? 

To choose the right framework for your business needs, consider these factors:  

• Business goals: If both cybersecurity & IT governance and management are top business priorities, you may want to combine COBIT 2019 and the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0. On its own, COBIT is best for organizations with silos across various IT departments, as it can unify standards like ITIL, ISO/IEC 2000, TOGAF, and CMMI under a single framework. 

• Industry-specific requirements: If your organization is a government agency or critical infrastructure entity, you’ll want to choose NIST CSF 2.0 and COBIT 2019. 

On the other hand, if service delivery and support are key priorities, ITIL should be part of your management toolkit. ITIL Version 4 (the latest iteration of ITIL) now aligns with Lean, Agile, and DevOps principles.   

This means value creation for your customers through waste minimization, adaptability, iterative progress, automation, and continuous delivery.  

With ITIL, you achieve faster, more impactful service delivery that satisfies evolving consumer demands.  

• Scalability: NIST CSF 2.0, ITIL4, and COBIT 2019 are all highly scalable. However, full implementation can be resource intensive, requiring specialized knowledge, continuous monitoring, and buy-in from executive leadership, vendors, customers, and employees.  

How can I integrate COBIT with LastPass for enhanced security? 

How LastPass complements COBIT 

LastPass perfectly complements COBIT 2019 in the areas of information security, access management, and risk management.  

• Information security: With our password generator, you and your employees get strong, secure passwords -- the kind recommended by NIST -- at the snap of your fingers. You also get AES-256 encryption, the kind trusted by the military and federal agencies.  

According to our TIME team experts, Stephanie Schneider and Mike Kosak, the real threat to your digital safety isn’t passwords, it’s infostealers. Thus, secure access is your first line of defense against data breaches. 

• SaaS monitoring: Shadow IT thrives where IT governance is weak. Together with COBIT 2019’s focus on information security, LastPass keeps your SaaS logins safe with SaaS Monitoring + Protect. 

• Risk management: With robust cryptographic protections, LastPass reduces your risks of an expensive breach, aligning with COBIT’s risk management guidance on securing critical assets and data in transit. 

What are the benefits of integrating LastPass with COBIT? 

You get four key benefits when you integrate LastPass with COBIT:  

• Enhanced security posture: LastPass helps your organization comply with COBIT’s information security standards and achieve high levels of digital trust.  

A 2024 study by ISACA (the creator of COBIT) shows 78% of respondents agree digital trust is important to digital transformation, but only 52% see their organization as digitally trustworthy.   

 

With LastPass, you get secure sharing, credential monitoring, and role-based access controls, complying with COBIT’s emphasis on information security and risk management . The result? Effortless digital trust and business resilience.  

• Increased efficiency: Automating credential security reduces IT admin duties and improves productivity, supporting COBIT’s focus on operational excellence.  

Your IT team will receive fewer password reset requests, freeing them to tackle higher-value business tasks. And with our smart autofill and passwordless authentication options, your employees can say goodbye to passwords forever.  

• Clear audit trails: With LastPass, you get strong reporting features, which are crucial for demonstrating compliance during formal audits. 

• Improved compliance: Whether your organization must comply with NIST, COBIT, HIPAA, GDPR, HITRUST, or NERC-CIP, LastPass gives you the controls you need to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure. 

Step-by-step guide to implementing LastPass within COBIT  

Ready to see how LastPass can work with COBIT 2019 to deliver all the gains discussed in this article? This easy step-by-step guide makes implementing LastPass within COBIT a breeze:  

1. Assess your organization’s information security and risk management posture: Evaluate your current access controls and identify gaps in security and compliance. 
2. Determine the key milestones of your project: Each milestone should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Milestones will help you assess your success in implementing COBIT. 
3. Establish clear communication channels: Determine how you’ll communicate with your staff, IT teams, and executive leadership. Will you have regular progress reports and updates?   
4. Define your business objectives: Decide what your access control goals are. Do you need to reduce sprawl and protect SaaS logins? Next, decide how that aligns with COBIT objectives for information security. 
5. Allocate resources: Determine how much you’ll spend and which staff members you’ll task with implementing LastPass within COBIT. 
6. Sign up for a free, no-obligation trial of LastPass Businesss Max.  
7. Use LastPass to enforce new access policies. Start with the highest-risk departments first. If you use an identity provider like Microsoft Active Directory, integrate it with LastPass to further comply with COBIT’s guidelines on access control and data protection. 
8. Implement continuous improvement: Use insights from your LastPass logs to refine your access policies, in line with COBIT’s focus on continuous improvement. 

With LastPass and COBIT at your side, you’ll enjoy greater efficiency, optimized resource allocation, improved risk management, agility -- and more importantly -- the trust of your partners, vendors, and customers.  

Don’t wait to get started today: Enjoy a free, no-obligation Business Max trial on us. 

Sources 

COBIT 5

Why bad governance is bad for business: The cost of data governance failures

COBIT: A practical guide for AI governance

Leveraging COBIT for effective AI system governance (article) 

Leveraging COBIT for effective AI system governance (white paper) 

COBIT 2019: Introduction and methodology

Six Reasons to Leverage COBIT for AI Systems Governance

COBIT 2019 framework in IT governance: A systematic literature review of implementation challenges and benefits across various industry sectors

What is COBIT? A framework for alignment and governance

Equifax will pay up to $700 million over its data breach

Amazon loses court fight against record $812 mln Luxembourg privacy fine

Meta accrues $2.8 billion in GDPR fines

IBM Joins CMMI Institute’s AI Content Development Initiative

NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0

COBIT 2019: Governance and management objectives

How a COBIT Certification enhances IT professional skills and opportunities