What Does It Mean To Be Compliant?

IT Compliance In South Florida

Many companies have fallen victim to the law through fines, penalties, revocation of licenses, litigation, and operation shut-down due to non-compliance. According to a Globalscape report, non-compliance has cost businesses an average of 4,005,116 US Dollars in revenue. But what exactly is compliance?

Compliance refers to an organization’s adherence to all of the regulations, guidelines, and laws that govern how they manage their business. These regulations and rules will vary depending on the industry, location and structure of the business and are determined by a governing body.

Check out our latest video to find out more about compliance:

Examples of these industry regulations include:

• The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA): Prohibits unveiling sensitive patient health data without the patient’s knowledge or consent.
• The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act: Safeguards the privacy of students’ educational files. This regulation applies to all schools receiving funding from the United States Department of Education.
• The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS): Outlines the procedure all companies must follow when processing, transmitting and storing a consumer’s debit or credit card information.

What Is Cybersecurity Compliance?

With the number and severity of cyberattacks continuing to increase, data protection is now a critical regulatory requirement in many industries.

Cybersecurity compliance involves generating a program that establishes risk-based controls, enacted by a regulatory body, or the law to protect the accessibility, confidentiality, and integrity of data stored, processed, or transferred.

How Can Your Business Embrace Cyber-Security Compliance?

Are you thinking about compliance and are stuck on how to move forward? The following steps will guide you through the compliance process.

• Determine the Data You Have and What Regulations You Need to Comply With: The first step in working toward compliance is determining the data you are processing and storing. The type of data determines laws and regulations that your company needs to comply with.
• Appoint or Consult Compliance Experts: The complexity of compliance requires your company to consult compliance experts. These experts should be familiar with all the departments in your company as this helps them cover all conceivable areas of risk.
• Conduct a Comprehensive Risk Analysis: The compliance team should conduct an extensive analysis of your current compliance situation. The results of the investigation will assess the controls that your company has in place. The team will then suggest measures that need to be modified, supplemented, or recreated completely to ensure data security.
• Implement Controls Based on the Risk Analysis: The next step is to implement controls and cyber-security regulations based on your company’s risk tolerance as determined by the risk assessment.

These controls include:

• Firewalls
• Encryption
• Cybersecurity awareness training

Develop and Communicate a Compliance Policy: Once these controls have been put in place, an internal policy should be formulated and communicated throughout your company. The procedure must be documented and updated as it will be instrumental during audits.

Conduct Internal Monitoring and Auditing of Compliance Programs: The compliance landscape is constantly changing. Therefore, it is essential for your business to regularly conduct tests for both process and technical controls to ensure that you remain compliant. It is even more crucial for you to develop a compliance program that can adapt to these changes. Cybersecurity compliance is vital in ensuring the security of your data. Having a reliable cybersecurity partner makes compliance much easier for you.

Are You Looking for a Cybersecurity Compliance Partner?

At ECW Computers, we offer years of experience and expertise in providing IT security consulting to businesses in Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Miami, South Florida, and across the United States.

Contact us now, and let’s discuss tailor-made solutions that will guarantee data security and keep your business running smoothly.