Sensitive data and privacy are of more concern than before in this digital era. With the right infrastructure, companies can prevent breaches and regulatory penalties that arise from failing to meet data security standards. This is where the fulfillment of cybersecurity compliance plays a major role.
This article explains everything about cybersecurity compliance—from what it means to how it can be set up as a compliance program.
Key components of cybersecurity compliance frameworks
- Know your laws
- Risk assessment
- Formulate policies and procedures
- Enact cybersecurity controls
- Train your employees
What is cybersecurity compliance?
Cybersecurity compliance is the confirmation of standards, regulations, and best practices developed for digital information security regarding confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
The general requirements are set by governmental bodies such as the NSA; they can also be disseminated by an industry group or an international body that makes certain companies use proper security measures in order to avoid major key cyber threats.
Compliance in cybersecurity calls for more than just meeting such requirements; that surely is important, but showing a business actually applying them through frequent audits and assessments is a must.
Why cybersecurity compliance matters
It is also the case that regulators and consumers alike are pushing organizations harder and harder to protect their data, and non-compliance can cost an organization dearly in terms of money and reputation.
Here are a few reasons why compliance with regulations is important in cybersecurity:
Avoid fines and penalties.
Adherence to cybersecurity regulations usually means being charged or fined, with heavy fines running into millions of dollars.
Avoid cybersecurity threats.
Non-compliance is actually the first space where system data breaches can occur! Data security standards minimize the risk of unauthorized access to critical data to protect a company and its clients.
Earn customer trust.
Customers are definitely more willing to trust a given company when they understand that an effort is being made on behalf of the company to keep their information safe.
Ensure business continuity.
Business continuity needs to be kept up and assured that no disruption in business can occur. That certainly holds true for events like ransomware attacks. For businesses in highly regulated sectors such as healthcare or financial industries, compliance is critical.
Data that comes under cybersecurity compliance
The nature of the data also determines which type comes under the cybersecurity compliance regulations, depending on the industry and a regulatory architecture in place. This is sensitive data, and you must be consistent with protecting it to keep your business secure and compliant.
| Personally Identifying Information (PII) | TThis would include sets of information that one would find within a report that identify an individual, like names, Social Security numbers, and email addresses. PII is one of the heavier classes in terms of compliance requirements, most especially under the GDPR and CCPA. |
| Financial Data | Financial entities are also supposed to ensure that sensitive financial information, such as credit card numbers and bank account details of the customers along with their respective transaction histories, is duly protected. For companies dealing in credit card information, PCI DSS is certainly an important rule. |
| Health Data | Data privacy in patient health information is an important aspect in the healthcare sector. Standards such as HIPAA enforce compliance to ensure the safety and privacy of medical records and health information. |
| Intellectual Property | Intellectual property and trade secrets are among the biggest weapons that a company needs to protect during its R&D phase. If there is any compliance not observed, it can lead to a loss of advantage over competitors and also be a dire financial impediment. |
| Employee Information | Companies have all types of internal data to protect: employee records, salary information, and performance reviews. Non-compliance here could lead to legal action and loss of reputation. |
Types of cybersecurity compliance regulations
There are several cybersecurity compliance regulations that help guide organizations in the domain. Some of the key ones include:
GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
The GDPR was enacted to protect the personal information of individuals in the European Union. It outlines strict data security standards on how companies must collect, store, and use such information.
HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)
HIPAA is indeed a requirement for health practitioners to implement certain protections against attempts at disclosure so that PHI remains confidential and secure.
PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard)
PCI-DSS lays down guidelines on how credit card transactions are to be secured. It aids a business in the protection of cardholder information at the very time of the purchase and even afterwards.
ISO 27001:2022 standard
This is an international standard that outlines the compliance requirements necessary for designing, implementing, and managing an ISMS to protect sensitive information.
DMA (Digital Markets Act)
A European regulation that tries to ensure fair competition in the digital marketplace by putting rules on large tech firms—private “gatekeepers”—to thwart monopolistic practices.
NYDFS NYCRR 500
A New York cybersecurity regulation that requires the creation and maintenance of cybersecurity programs by financial institutions with a view towards protecting their systems and all sensitive information from cyber threats.
Verimatrix has attained many industry-recognized certifications, not only in a bid to further strengthen the defenses of our range of products but also to reassure our clients and partners about how serious we are when it comes to security. Check out the full list.
Starting a Cybersecurity Compliance Program
Setting up a cybersecurity compliance program can be overwhelming; however, the best way to do it is one step at a time. Here’s a simplified roadmap:
- Know your laws: Research what laws and regulations apply to/impact your industry and the type of data you process.
- Risk assessment: This involves knowing where the security vulnerabilities are. For instance, how to execute cybersecurity threat assessments; what would be the cost of non-compliance?
- Formulate policies and procedures: Compose all on enterprise-class cybersecurity practices while keeping the compliance standards in mind. Let the policies go on with everything, including network security and data protection to incident response.
- Enact cybersecurity controls: Controls like firewalls, encryption, and continuous patching of internal systems are more paramount now than ever before to protect sensitive data belonging to your business.
- Train your employees: Be sure to give your employees best practices that will help them identify cyber threats and thus inform the staff on how to spot the dangers and avoid them.
- Audit and monitoring: Compliance shall be ensured through regular auditing. Detection of security incidents or their response shall be done with the help of monitoring tools such as Verimatrix XTD.
Tools and technologies for cybersecurity compliance
Technology plays a very significant enabling role for any organization in managing the cyber security compliance burden. GRC toolkits, aimed at easing compliance processes, are in wide use to keep track of regulatory demands and monitor risk levels, with most of the reporting process automated.
Besides GRC software, organizations make use of a variety of cybersecurity tools in order to achieve the requirements of compliance. It mainly includes vulnerability scanners, SIEM systems, and encryption technologies. Vulnerability scanners help in identifying some kind of weakness within IT infrastructure that finally allows one to reach non-compliance, while the SIEM system monitors security events in real time and provides compliance reporting.
Other core tools are the DLP systems, which prevent sensitive data from going out of the line of command; IAM systems ensure that only certain people access certain data by regulating the data in such a way.
Third-party vendors and cybersecurity compliance
When it comes to compliance, third-party vendors may bring a large amount of risk to the company’s efforts. In fact, many times these are used simply because major businesses will use them for things such as cloud storage, payment processing, or IT support.
However, if that particular vendor is not in compliance with established cybersecurity standards, then it may leave the company open to supply chain risk and data breach possibilities. Therefore, companies could reduce such risks by undertaking appropriate vendor due diligence, including verification of whether the security controls are in place at the vendor and whether the latter adheres to relevant regulations.
The cybersecurity-related responsibilities, including penalties for non-compliance, must be explicitly mentioned in the contract with all vendors. It is also necessary to set up an organization to monitor third-party vendors on a regular basis in order to prove that security and compliance requirements continue to be met over time.
Third-party services, such as cloud providers like AWS and Azure, introduce models of shared responsibility whereby the company and the vendor will be jointly responsible for securing data. Maintaining compliance requires an effective liaising of this relationship.
Future trends in cybersecurity compliance
In fact, some of the emerging technologies likely to shape the future of cybersecurity compliance will include artificial intelligence (AI), IoT, and blockchain, all of which offer immense opportunities interlinked with challenges.
For example, AI might enable many organizations to detect anomalies and cyberattacks faster, yet it also opens the door to new risks, such as AI-powered cyberattacks. This may imply that compliance frameworks in the future include AI-specific security standards in the near term.
The proliferation of IoT devices, however, is raising serious concerns over data security. As a result, the compliance regulations in the near future may also be developed with regard to special security challenges resulting from the broad network of interconnected devices that all too often do not have built-in security features.
In addition, as companies increasingly adopt cloud services and remote work models, the compliance requirements will further rise to include virtual environments with remote access to sensitive information. New regulations may focus on ensuring that cloud providers and remote-work technologies adhere to strict security protocols to safeguard data in a decentralized workforce.
Conclusion
Compliance is actually endless; it needs awareness and quick adaptation to new regulation considerations and tech developments all the time. But it’s definitely worth trying: compliance keeps your business safe and tightens your general security posture.
