In the world of business,
you’ll inevitably hear about the many ways to beef up your cyber security to
ensure your company’s and clients’ safety. However, another term is often heard
when discussing cyber security: compliance. It’s not talked about as often, but
both cyber security and compliance are essential for any business to succeed.
Compliance helps businesses keep consumer information protected, and this compliance is fulfilled when businesses and organizations prove that their cyber security practices meet specific security regulations and standards set by third parties like government agencies. Compliance is not optional; businesses must meet these requirements to protect sensitive information as well as their clients. Failure to meet compliance requirements results in fines, penalties and even legal ramifications.
If your business is compliant
with its cyber security protocols, it’ll also appear more trustworthy to the
clients and other businesses that work with you. One cyber security breach can
permanently damage your company’s reputation. Customers will no longer want to
do business with you for fear that their personal information could become
compromised.
While cyber security and
compliance sound fairly similar, there is a slight difference between them.
Compliance is often driven by business needs rather than technical needs,
whereas security is driven by the need to protect against constant threats. If
you want to maximize your company’s cyber security practices, then you’ll need
to go further.
Overall, compliance and cyber
security should work hand in hand. Your initial cyber security plan should be
based on compliance. You must know the standard requirements to remain
compliant and put the necessary practices in place to achieve that status. This
comes down to knowing the exact details of what is necessary to stay protected.
You should be specific so your team knows exactly what is needed to protect
your business.
You also need to make an
effort to document your practices as frequently as possible. You should create
a paper trail of everything you have done to stay compliant as well as your
added cyber security practices. It can help to add potential audits and any
frequency-bound events to your calendar so you don’t get blindsided or miss
something important.
After you’ve gathered all of
your evidence and put your cyber security and compliance protocols to work, you
can automate many of your reports. That way, you won’t have to dig and pull
data yourself in the future.
While it might seem like a lot
of work to ensure your business remains compliant, companies out there can
help. Managed IT services providers go above and beyond to ensure your cyber
security is bulletproof. While they are taking care of all of your IT needs,
they are also ensuring your business remains compliant with any third-party
governing bodies. New cyber security threats are introduced every day, and
only with strong cyber security and compliance practices can you ensure your
business is protected for the foreseeable future.