Since companies now store data digitally, the possibility of data breaches is becoming increasingly imminent. The aftermath of a data breach may be catastrophic, including financial losses, damage to brand reputation, and legal responsibilities.
Businesses should comply with the security regulations to protect themselves and their customers.
This blog post will discuss the role of security compliance and provide practical advice on how to attain it.
What is Security Compliance?
Compliance means taking actions to ensure an organization follows rules established by a third party, such as ISO, NIST, or federal laws, like the Sarbanes Oxley Act.
Why Security Compliance is Vital?
IT security compliance is one of the main factors affecting an organization’s capability to safeguard data, guard against financial penalties, build customer trust, and develop a security culture.
The report from IBM Security’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2022 states that compliance is a major component in the cost of data breaches. Compliance failures that resulted in companies having high levels of data breaches cost an average of USD 2. 26 million more than organizations that were not in compliance. The average cost of data breaches where compliance failure was at high levels was USD 5. 57 million.
For instance, leaks of Personally Identifiable Information (PII), Protected Health Information (PHI), or financial data can ruin companies’ reputations and result in financial losses. Compliance with regulatory standards and data security (CIA) should be the top consideration for organizations.
How to Reach IT Security Compliance?
1. Conduct Risk Analysis
Risk analysis should be the first step in the compliance process and should be high on the agenda. Risk analysis is a continuous process that makes it possible to find the weak points in a compliance posture and provides an understanding of the existing security processes. The process includes:
- Risk assessment by evaluating all information assets, systems, networks, and data.
- Examine each data type level and pinpoint how risk information is stored, collected, and analyzed.
- We analyze the risk using the formula: Risk = ((Likelihood of Breach x Impact) / Cost).
- Deciding whether to reject or accept, transfer, or reduce the risk.
- We are implementing policies to support the documentation and monitoring of compliance activities.
- These are the policies that are necessary for the audits, both internal and external.
2. Develop Policies and Procedures
Based on the outcome of the security risk analysis, the existing policies and procedures for protecting data must be updated. Document every security-related operation. Regulators and assessors expect organizations to share documents on demand. Therefore, IT admins must capture everything—from processes to security logs to historical data—which can be provided as evidence when needed.
3. Implementation
After the policies and procedures have been identified, planned out, and documented, they need to be implemented. This includes the following:
- Updating existing software and operating systems
- Purchasing security software and necessary tools
- Conducting mandatory training and awareness programs for the entire organization
4. Monitor and Respond
Organizations can fall out of compliance if they do not regularly monitor their controls and actions. IT teams must establish a process of monitoring website security systems with updates, patches, vulnerability checks, and third-party assessments.
Teams should deploy a system that identifies security issues and delivers proactive alerts in case of any gaps. Some regulations may require companies to monitor suppliers and partners for security issues.
5. Validation
To prove that the organization is compliant with industry regulations, invite a third-party data security firm to validate the newly established security protocols and procedures and their implementation. This process incurs additional costs but will help maintain data security and trust.
An SSAE18 SOC 2 Type II security protocol can cover a large spectrum of industry-regulated data security requirements, including:
- HIPAA
- GLBA
- SOX
- FERPA
- FISM
- NIST
Benefits of IT Security Compliance
Organizations that establish systems to protect the security and privacy of customer data will incur costs, but there are also significant benefits to IT security compliance. Besides maintaining industry-specific certification and avoiding costly data breaches, IT security compliance has several benefits for businesses.
a. Avoids Fines and Penalties
Existing compliance laws apply to specific industries. Lawmakers in Northern America, Europe, and worldwide are imposing legislation protecting customer data’s security and privacy. Violating the laws can lead to severe penalties, but appropriate security compliance measures can prevent such issues by securing the data companies collect.
b. Protects Business Reputation
Data security has improved significantly. However, data breaches are still a common occurrence. For instance, in one of the first data breaches in 2022, malicious actors gained access to important company data from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The data breach led to the theft of sensitive data from over half a million people, including their names, locations, and contact information. Such data breaches harm a company’s reputation and undermine the organization’s and customers’ trust.
c. Enhances Operational Efficiency
Organizations using security technologies to maintain compliance can manage excess data, expose privacy loopholes, identify wasted assets, and implement new resources to improve operational efficiency.
For example, security management tools can also be deployed on the organization’s internal network. These solutions can identify people, processes, or applications on the network that are poorly managed or configured to drive maximum results.
d. Builds Security Culture
A 2022 Verizon report states that 85% of organizational data breaches involve a human element. While cloud-based assets encounter the most malicious attacks, passwords and credentials are the most sought-after data types. Developing a security culture across departments and workflow management systems helps employees follow safe digital practices and reduce risky behavior.
Organizations with robust security awareness and training programs share relevant knowledge and skills with employees, helping them identify safety breaches and follow appropriate measures to protect sensitive data.
Companies should also promote using an enterprise password manager for better security and easier password management.
e. Supports Access Controls and Accountability
Effective IT security compliance ensures that individuals with appropriate credentials can access databases and systems that contain sensitive data. Solutions like Microsoft Entra ID enable centralized identity and access management, ensuring that access is monitored at an organizational level and that every action within the system is recorded and traceable.
Such mechanisms help protect the security of sensitive customer data or an organization’s proprietary data. Additionally, providing a single user with specific credentials for a secure application is effective for securing and maintaining software license agreements (SLAs).
Conclusion
With an uptick in data breaches, security compliance today has become an important asset for organizations. It goes beyond checking boxes and employs robust security protocols and procedures to protect an organization’s most critical assets.
Security compliance compels organizations to identify any gaps in the existing IT security program that could not be identified without a compliance audit. Complying with industry-specific standards bolsters a company’s reputation and increases the chances of new business from security-minded customers.
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