What an automated scan can actually verify for BCEAO/COBAC compliance
And what it can't. A scan doesn't replace a written security policy or a business continuity plan — but it does precisely and automatically cover three entire sections of the regulation.
October 18, 2026 · SunuCyberSecurity team
compliance categories an automated scan can cover on its own
categories that remain necessarily human and organizational
sanctions already issued by BCEAO for failing information systems security
regulatory texts cross-referenced in our mapping — BCEAO, COBAC, ISO 27001 and 6 others
Source: the compliance mapping built into our scan reports — BCEAO Instruction No.009-06-2015, Art.7
In the UEMOA zone, BCEAO has already issued sanctions of up to 300 million FCFA against banks for failing information systems security requirements (Instruction No.009-06-2015). For financial institutions, cybersecurity compliance isn't optional — but "we run security scans" doesn't mean "we're compliant." Every finding from our scans is mapped to a specific regulatory category, and that mapping has clear limits, which we'd rather explain than gloss over.
The 3 categories a scan covers well
These are requirements that translate into technical behavior observable from the outside — exactly what an active test can verify without privileged access or interviews with your team.
Identity and Access Management
BCEAO Instruction No.008-05-2015 Art.7 (transaction authenticity) / Instruction No.009-06-2015 (logical access management) · ISO/IEC 27001 A.9
Weak credentials, brute-force authentication, poorly protected sessions, anonymous access left open — exactly what a scan can actively test without privileged access or interviewing your team.
Network Security and Encryption
BCEAO Instruction No.008-05-2015 Art.7 (confidentiality, message integrity) · ISO/IEC 27001 A.10 and A.13
Outdated TLS, an expired or invalid certificate, missing HSTS, DNSSEC not enabled, missing security headers (CSP, X-Frame-Options) — verifiable in seconds by a scan.
Protection Against Hacking and Malware
BCEAO Instruction No.008-05-2015 Schedule III.3.2 (firewalls, intrusion detection) / Instruction No.009-06-2015 · ISO/IEC 27001 A.12 and A.14
SQL injection, XSS, remote code execution, known CVEs on outdated versions — exactly what our active testing modules (SQLMap, Nikto, CVE correlation) look for.
The 6 categories no scan can verify
These are documentary, organizational, or human requirements — a scan can't read your business continuity plan or confirm your security policy was actually approved by management:
- Information Security Policy — a document, not an observable network behavior.
- IT Risk Management Strategy.
- Physical and Environmental Security of premises and equipment.
- Data Backup and Business Continuity Plan.
- Incident Management Plan and notification procedure.
- Audit Trail and periodic external security audit.
An indicative mapping, not a certification
It's written plainly in our own code: this mapping does not constitute a compliance certification, only an indicative cross-reference between technical findings and usual regulatory categories. A scan report showing "0 findings in Identity and Access Management" isn't a BCEAO certificate — it's one technical signal among several that your external auditors (always required — periodic external audit is itself one of the 6 categories no scan covers) will take into account.
Beyond the UEMOA/CEMAC zone
The same mapping also cross-references, by category, Nigeria's CBN Cybersecurity Framework, South Africa's Joint Standard 2 of 2024, Kenya's CBK texts, and Rwanda's BNR Regulation No.50/2022 — on top of ISO 27001, HIPAA, SOC 2 and GDPR for organizations with international obligations. Same logic everywhere: indicative, never a certification.
See the mapping on your results
Every scan generates a PDF report with this compliance cross-reference by category.
Methodology
Regulatory references and mapping as implemented in our backend on October 18, 2026: BCEAO Instruction No.008-05-2015 governing electronic money issuers (Art.7, Schedule III), BCEAO Instruction No.009-06-2015, COBAC Regulations R-2008/01 and R-2016/04, ISO/IEC 27001 Annex A (a standard explicitly recommended by COBAC). This content describes our own tool, not legal or regulatory advice — consult your auditors and legal counsel for any question of actual compliance.
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