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Cyber Compliance

Comply to legal and industry standards to benchmark cybersecurity program effectiveness against specific regulation or contractual requirement.

A compliance assessment lets you assess your organization’s security program effectiveness by evaluating it against a specific regulation or contractual requirement, and it gives you detailed insights into your organisation.

It can be hard to keep up with all the changes to federal law, industry standards, and compliance requirements. These constantly evolving threats and regulations affect compliance, which is crucial to any successful security program.

Achieving compliance is an achievement, but its “single point in time” nature makes it hard to maintain a consistent compliance stance.

The regulation surrounding information protection is growing swiftly. Businesses will soon be required to meet security standards from their customers, partners, and regulators.

By getting ahead of the compliance curve, organisations will be able to enhance their overall security posture and preserve their relationships with clients and collaborators.

Agenda

What is Cyber Compliance?
What is the difference between security and compliance?
How to Start a Cyber Compliance Program?
Conclusion

What is Cyber Compliance?

Cybersecurity compliance is a procedure of risk assessment according to security standards and regulations. It is employed to achieve data management and security requirements in a wide range of industries. Data protection measures are taken based on a current company’s security posture. Before a data breach occurs, procedures are developed to reduce its likelihood. If a data breach occurs, it provides an action plan to the affected parties.

Data and information of high importance are governed nationally and internationally by regulatory bodies. It may include the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the ISO/IEC 27001.

Information must be safeguarded, whether it is stored, processed, integrated, or transferred, in order to meet cybersecurity compliance requirements. An agency, law, or authority group establishes standards and regulations. Compliance occurs when organizations establish risk-based controls to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information. There is often a lot of confusion and double work when industry standards and requirements overlap.

What is the difference between security and compliance?

Unfortunately, there is a lot of confusion concerning risk management as a whole, more over when it comes to cyber security and cyber compliance.

An organization’s IT department is responsible for safeguarding the company’s network and data from cyberattacks. IT security comprises a set of measures and practices designed to safeguard the company’s employees, customers, and assets.

IT establishes the set of practices that keep the organisation secure; conversely, compliance with a third-party definition of cyber security is about controlling those practices.

An organization may have significant gaps between its security and compliance procedures. While the goal of IT security is to safeguard the firm and its clients and customers, the purpose of compliance is to protect clients, their assets, and their data, compliance standards remain the same across industries. Furthermore, cybersecurity strategies may vary from company to company even within a specific industry, but compliance standards are kept constant.

The cyber security of an organization is often left wanting because compliance standards and regulations do not adequately address the organization’s needs. Standards and regulations are often so general that they do not apply to specific organisations or their clients. Compliance, however, can help reduce cyber risks and function as the foundation for an cyber security strategy.

Cyber compliance is generally a first step toward a mature cyber security strategy. After applying Best Practice and grow towards industry standards such as ISO27001 or NIST 800-53, the cybersecurity roadmap will have to adhere to more advanced risk-based scenario and attack-based weakness mitigation.

How to start a Cyber Compliance Program ?

The existence of a cybersecurity compliance plan can help companies avoid becoming the victim of a cybercrime. Companies may be intimidated by the notion of cybersecurity compliance at first glance, but it is important to address any existing or potential security vulnerabilities.

A step-by-step approach can help to reduce complexity. A cybersecurity compliance audit may be conducted using a cyber audit team. This team can evaluate the cybersecurity compliance of a company by investigating its software, personnel, procedure, and policy.

After identifying critical cyber assets and prioritizing vulnerabilities, the next step is to perform a risk assessment. To assess the risks associated with each system’s information and datasets, one should first determine whether they exist. Later, risks can be prioritized and classified by performing an analysis. Security measures such as data encryption, incident response plans, and other aspects must be controlled. Policies should be updated accordingly. By continuously monitoring and testing, cybersecurity can be continually refined, as well as decreased potential data breaches and vulnerabilities.

#1 - Assess your compliance needs

Firstly, you should determine what regulations or laws you need to comply with in order to get started. Compliance requirements are enormously variegated from nation to nation, and some apply no matter where you are.

Then, you should identify what type of information you are processing and storing, as well as the states, territories, and nations you operate in. In many regulations, specific types of personal information are subject to additional requirements. PII refers to personally identifiable information that can be used to identify an individual. PHI, or Personal Health Information, refers to any data that can be used to identify a person or their medical care.

#2 - Find your security champion

Most organisations do not require a six-figure CISO to oversee cybersecurity and compliance. However, any employee who has the right knowledge and work ethic can be assigned to handle cybersecurity as a part-time task. When you designate an individual to oversee your organization’s cybersecurity and compliance efforts, you will receive regular updates on your cybersecurity programme and compliance efforts.

Employees will know who to contact if they suspect a breach has occurred if you designate a CISO. It is possible that your CISO will want to consult with a cybersecurity company or attorney to learn what compliance requirements might apply to your organisation. You may find your typical cybersecurity champion among the following existing roles:

Chief Technology Officer
Chief Information Officer
Chief Operating Officer
IT Manager

Despite the fact that IT teams handle the majority of cybersecurity processes, general cybersecurity is not a vacuum. All departments within a company should work together to maintain a secure environment and assist with compliance measures.

#3 - Conduct a Risk-Based Vulnerability Assessment

Every significant cybersecurity compliance requirement requires a risk assessment that will guide vulnerability assessment priorities. These assessments are critical in identifying your organization’s most significant security vulnerabilities, as well as what security controls are already in place.

The function of a cybersecurity compliance risk management system is to safeguard data, ensure network infrastructure safety, keep an eye on activity, and enforce security policies. Security regulations refer to a set of requirements for collecting, sharing, storing, and managing sensitive data in a secure manner. Achieving compliance is difficult when there are so many security standards. Aligning and supervising standards can help ensure data security. Unified cybersecurity standards are critical to securing data.

#4 - Implement Technical Controls

After you’ve conducted a risk assessment, you should begin employing technical restrictions (based on your risk tolerance) and cybersecurity regulations. Alternatively, you may use a cybersecurity framework as a starting point and then add extra technical controls to satisfy specific needs. Here are some examples of technical measures:

Install on all endpoint an antivirus
Isolate network wit firewalls
Continuous discovery and monitoring of assets
Continuous monitoring of the attack surface
Sensitive data encryption
Activate event logs and aggregate them

#5 - Oversee your strategy and objectives with Governance

Despite having an excellent technical security system in place, it is also crucial to have strong non-technical controls to mitigate risk and ensure compliance. There is no way to prevent an employee from installing malicious software on corporate computers or from visiting undesirable websites, even if the corporation is well protected. Non-technical controls include:

Cybersecurity training plan
Policies and Procedure
Audit and Accountabilities Agreements
Risk and Vulnerability Assessment Monitoring Committee

It’s easy to forget about cybersecurity as your company grows and expands, but regular testing can help you stay compliant. It is critical to continuously assess compliance as new requirements are released and old ones change, as well as regularly test both technical and process controls. If you are unsure whether you are meeting a cybersecurity compliance requirement, we recommend seeking legal assistance.

Conclusion

Cyber compliance refers to the process of ensuring that an organization adheres to relevant laws, regulations, and industry standards related to its use of technology and the handling of sensitive data. This includes measures such as regularly updating software and systems, implementing strong passwords and access controls, and having a clear policy in place for handling data breaches.

Cybersecurity, on the other hand, refers to the broader practice of protecting an organization’s networks, devices, and data from cyber threats such as hacking and malware. While cybersecurity is an important aspect of cyber compliance, it is not the same thing. Cyber compliance involves following specific guidelines and requirements, whereas cybersecurity involves a range of measures aimed at preventing or mitigating cyber threats.

There are several benefits to maintaining cyber compliance for an organization. First and foremost, it helps to protect the sensitive data of customers, employees, and other stakeholders, which can reduce the risk of financial loss or reputational damage in the event of a data breach. Cyber compliance can also help an organization avoid fines and penalties for non-compliance with relevant laws and regulations. Additionally, demonstrating compliance can help to build trust and credibility with customers, partners, and regulators, which can be beneficial for the overall reputation and success of the organization.

In summary, cyber compliance is a crucial aspect of managing an organization’s use of technology and handling of sensitive data. It involves following specific laws, regulations, and industry standards, and has the potential to benefit an organization in terms of protecting sensitive data, avoiding fines and penalties, and building trust and credibility. While cybersecurity is also important, it is not the same as cyber compliance and involves a range of measures aimed at preventing or mitigating cyber threats.

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