What Does It Mean To Be Compliant?
Any business operating within a particular industry needs to abide by a set of rules. Many companies have often fallen victim to the law because they do not meet these requirements. According to a Globalscape report, companies have lost an average of 4,005,116 US Dollars in revenue due to non-compliance.
For many other companies, the repercussions of non-compliance have been in the form of penalties, federal fines, business disruption, or even total shutdown of operations. What exactly does it mean to be compliant?
Check out our latest video to learn about being compliant:
Compliance refers to an organization’s adherence to rules, laws, regulations, specifications, and guidelines that govern their business operations. These regulations vary depending on the industry, location, and structure of the business. These guidelines are often established by the state, a governing body, or a federal agency.
What Is Industrial Compliance?
Some industries are heavily regulated compared to others. For example, financial institutions are subject to regulatory compliance to protect clients’ and investors’ financial data from malicious attackers. At the same time, energy suppliers need to adhere to regulations to ensure environmental protection.
Examples of these industry regulations include:
- The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA): This act prohibits the disclosure of sensitive patient data without their consent.
- The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX): It requires all companies trading publicly to implement and report internal accounting controls to the SEC for compliance.
- The Federal Information Security Management Act(FISMA): It requires federal agencies to establish, document, and implement an information security and protection program.
- The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS): This outlines the procedure all companies must follow when processing, transmitting and storing a consumer’s debit or credit card information.
In the information technology landscape, compliance regulations are typically aimed to enhance data security. Compliance guidelines provide businesses acceptable standards to develop robust cybersecurity policies.
What Is Cybersecurity Compliance? Cybercriminals are continually innovating new cybersecurity risks and programs to compromise company security in today’s business environment. As the number and severity of cyberattacks continue to increase, regulation authorities are continually seeking to establish rigid and more effective compliance regulations.
Cybersecurity compliance involves developing programs that establish security controls, often enacted by a regulatory body, that help protect the availability, integrity, and confidentiality of transferred, processed, and stored data.
How Can Your Business Employ Cyber-Security Compliance? Is your organization thinking about cybersecurity compliance? The following steps will guide you through the process of becoming compliant.
- Determine the Type of Data You Process and What Compliance Regulations Apply to You: The data you process, analyze, and store will determine the compliance regulations that your company needs to conform to. Some cybersecurity compliance requirements vary depending on country or state, but some regulations apply to all companies regardless of location.
- Hire or Appoint Compliance Experts: The complexity that comes with regulatory compliance requires the relevant expertise. The compliance experts should familiarize themselves with all aspects of your business to help cover all conceivable areas of risk in the company.
- Conduct a Comprehensive Risk Analysis: The compliance should carry out an extensive analysis of your current cybersecurity situation to determine your security flaws and the security controls you already have in place. The team should then suggest security measures that need to be implemented or modified to enhance data security.
- Implement Technical Security Controls: Your next step is to implement security controls based on your risk assessment results and the cybersecurity regulations you are complying with. These controls should include encryption of data, installing anti-spyware software, and implementing firewalls.
- Develop, Document, and Communicate a Compliance Policy: Having policies in place helps reduce risks and is crucial for data safety and compliance. Once you have implemented these security controls, an internal compliance policy should be formulated and communicated throughout your organization.
- Frequently Monitor Compliance to Ensure You Remain Compliant: Since the compliance landscape is continually changing, it’s crucial to frequently review your systems and conduct tests to ensure that you remain compliant.
Looking For a Reliable Chicago I.T. Partner to Help You With Compliance?
At Outsource IT Solutions Group, we offer years of expertise and experience in providing compliance solutions to businesses in Naperville, Aurora IL, and throughout the Chicago Area.
Reach out now to get familiar with compliance requirements that apply to you and ultimately become compliant.
