Security Compliance Management: Best Practices

These days the technology landscape is highly dynamic. Things do not stand still here. The technology sector keeps evolving but so does cybercrime. 

Cybercriminals are becoming more ingenious and act with more sophisticated methods. This raises concerns related to data privacy and security. 

The recent massive wave of digital transformation has come along with the demand for cloud-hosted apps. There are, however, specific issues associated with data confidentiality to be solved. Storing data on web servers is quite risky – it can be easily accessed by hackers through loopholes in cloud infrastructure. Handling sensitive data, especially private customer data, should be taken responsibly. You must complete the required steps in order to safeguard information by detecting vulnerabilities and mitigating risks.

Nonetheless, it’s a real challenge for both small businesses and large corporations across industries to survive in this era of growing security and privacy risks. 

The IBM report states that a single breach can cost a company about $4.45 million. Meeting the industry compliance standards now becomes a prerequisite for businesses of various scales. In the upcoming years, 51% of organizations plan to increase their security investments for incident response (IR) planning and testing, employee training, and threat detection and response tools. 

Everything you need to know about security compliance management

Let’s deal with the basics first. What steps does the process of security compliance management cover? What’s the ultimate goal, and, finally, does your business really need it? We’ve got all the answers you’ve been looking for!

Security Compliance Management is a continuous and complex process that involves ensuring an organization’s adherence to relevant laws, regulations, industry standards, and internal security policies. It is essential for safeguarding sensitive data, protecting against cybersecurity threats, and avoiding legal and financial consequences. 

Security audit is no longer an option but a must-have for organizations looking forward to growth and development. This is because non-compliance can bring about severe consequences. Should you neglect security compliance, you put at risk your trust, reputation, security, and data integrity. It can also impact a company’s bottom line. Simply put, your company will bear significant financial losses as well as reputational damage. 

Security vs Compliance: The difference

Though the two concepts do not seem to be identical, many people get confused with them. Is there a critical difference between them? To cut a long story short, security and compliance pursue different objectives in risk management. 

Security concerns internal safeguards, while compliance is related to external standards. Despite this opposition, the two concepts are interdependent to a certain extent. It’s essential to ensure an effective connection between them. 

​​Security measures are needed to protect the organization’s critical assets from both external threats and internal vulnerabilities. A robust security strategy covers the following aspects: threat detection, incident response, encryption, access controls, regular vulnerability assessments, and emerging risk evaluation.

Compliance means adhering to industry regulations, standards, and legal requirements. Compliance, however, does not always mean 100% security. Meeting the compliance standards provides just a basic level of protection leaving a variety of other unique risks unaddressed.

The ultimate goal of security compliance management

Robust security compliance eliminates numerous risks and provides several noticeable benefits like improved data management capabilities and enhancing reputation.

When it comes to the main objective of security compliance, it can be outlined this way: making sure that an organization’s information security practices align with applicable laws, regulations, industry standards, and internal policies. While the specific objectives may vary depending on the context and industry, the overarching purpose of security compliance is to:

• Protect sensitive data. One of the primary goals of security compliance is to safeguard sensitive information, including customer data, financial data, intellectual property, and confidential business information, from unauthorized access, disclosure, or misuse.
• Mitigate risks. Organizations can spot vulnerabilities early and take necessary actions to eliminate issues that could lead to detrimental outcomes.
• Ensure legal and regulatory compliance. By adhering to legal requirements, organizations avoid penalties, fines, and legal actions.
• Build trust. Compliance positively affects a company’s image and enhances trust among customers, partners, and stakeholders. 
• Build a strong reputation. Demonstrating a dedication to responsible data handling and risk management leads to an increase in customer loyalty and business opportunities.
• Reduce security incidents. Compliance measures help reduce the likelihood of security incidents, including data breaches and cyberattacks, or make their impact less detrimental.
• Improve operational efficiency. Adopting standardized processes and best practices often results in better operational efficiency, as well as cost savings.
• Enable international operations. In some cases, compliance with specific international standards, such as GDPR in the European Union, is necessary for organizations to conduct business globally. 
• Support business continuity. Effective security compliance can help organizations better prepare for and respond to security incidents, thereby contributing to business continuity and disaster recovery efforts.
• Adapt to ever-evolving threats. Compliance programs often require organizations to stay updated on emerging cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities. This proactive approach helps organizations keep an eye on new security challenges and adapt to them.

Get ready for challenges

No matter what kind of task you’re trying to complete, unfortunately, it never goes smoothly. You should be ready to address challenges and solve issues you are likely to come across. And the security compliance management process is not an exception. To tell the truth, it poses a whole pack of challenges to tackle. But don’t worry – all the problems are solvable as long as you are well-prepared and know how to cope with them effectively. 

Look through some most common situations that can challenge your security compliance management procedure: 

• Dynamic security landscape and ever-changing regulations. It’s important to provide an instant response to emerging threats and changing laws.
• Cross-platform environments make it more difficult to address vulnerabilities.
• International presence means a company has several branches in different countries. This involves complying with varying regulations across all the countries.  

It goes without saying that auditing and ensuring cybersecurity compliance is resource-consuming. But it is definitely worth all the efforts and investments. eventually, you will enjoy such benefits as

• Proven reputation
• Customer trust, confidence, and loyalty
• Potential data breach timely identification and interpretation
• The ability to handle issues effectively
• Improved security posture

Security controls laws and standards to know

Being aware of the major cybersecurity regulations and standards is critical. Furthermore, it’s no less important to understand how they all are applied across industries. These regulations shape the course for organizations while maintaining a fine balance of compliance and proactive security measures.

We’ve prepared a basic outline of the key compliance regulations and standards:

• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a comprehensive data protection and privacy regulation enacted by the European Union in 2018. It was designed to enhance the protection of European Union residents’ personal data and provide them with greater control over how their data is collected, processed, stored, and shared. Non-compliance results in hefty fines.
• The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a comprehensive US federal law created to address various aspects of healthcare, with a primary focus on protecting the privacy and security of individuals’ health information. HIPAA’s overarching goals are to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of individuals’ health information while facilitating the electronic exchange of healthcare data. Non-compliance with HIPAA can result in civil and criminal penalties, including fines and imprisonment.
• ISO/IEC 27001 is an international standard for information security management systems (ISMS). It provides a systematic and comprehensive approach to managing an organization’s information security, ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information assets while managing associated risks effectively. ISO/IEC 27001 is widely recognized and adopted by organizations around the world to enhance their information security practices.
• SOC (System and Organization Controls) compliance certification refers to the evaluation and validation of an organization’s controls and processes related to data security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. These certifications are typically issued by independent audit firms and provide assurance to clients, customers, and stakeholders that an organization’s systems and operations meet certain standards for security and control. There are several levels of compliance known as SOC 1, SOC 2, and SOC 3. ​​Organizations choose the SOC type that aligns with their specific needs and the requirements of their clients, customers, or stakeholders.
• PCI DSS stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. It is a set of security standards designed to ensure that organizations that handle credit card transactions maintain a secure environment to protect cardholder data from theft, fraud, and unauthorized access. The PCI DSS is a crucial framework for securing payment card information and is mandated by major credit card companies, including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, and JCB. Compliance with PCI DSS is required for any organization that accepts, stores, processes, or transmits payment card data.
• The Cybersecurity Act (CSA) is a European regulation that introduces a harmonized European system for the cybersecurity certification of ICT products, services, and processes. CSA strengthens the EU Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) and establishes a cybersecurity certification framework for products and services.

Best practices for effective security compliance management

Having a ready-made set of best practices for security compliance management reduces your stress and ensures that everything down to the slightest detail is under control.

Should you follow the best practices and properly manage your data, your journey will be smooth. 

Check out X tactics to facilitate the security compliance process, achieve the goal easier, and, finally, ensure complete data confidentiality:

• Develop a cybersecurity compliance strategy for better collaboration across your organization, from security and compliance teams to HR, IT, and the C-suite. It should also contain a list of regulations to follow and a comprehensive risk assessment.
• Plan risk assessment and management to identify vulnerabilities in the IT security systems and handle them before they get critical. Besides, it also involves planning for recovery in the case of a data breach. If you know your weaknesses, you can make more informed decisions. 
• Automate security controls to save valuable resources. Thoroughly examine repetitive tasks to define where automation is possible. Manual processes slow the procedure down while automated security controls help streamline compliance with industry regulations, standards, and frameworks and overall improve security posture.
• Boost team communication. Security compliance management becomes way more challenging when teams are isolated within a company. Make sure everyone is aware of the details of regulatory requirements. When you look for solutions to protect your organization’s best interests, effective collaboration is a must.
• Ongoing control must take place as cybercrime is evolving and threats are constantly changing. Ensure continuous monitoring to keep an eye on the current risks.

Endnotes

With cyberattacks on the rise, cybersecurity, and data protection must become a priority. Avoid data breaches and paying fines with a set of robust safeguards. 

Following best practices for security compliance and focusing on achieving its goals will put your company in an advantageous position. Security compliance management is your possibility to intensify your security posture, reduce exposure to non-compliance risks, gain a competitive advantage, and create a strong reputation.