Over the past decade, the world has witnessed countless technological advancements, including artificial intelligence (AI), AR, VR, and more. Unfortunately, as technology advances, so does cybercrime. Cyber threats have increased significantly for both individuals and companies, with studies showing a 58% increase in information stealer attempts in 2024.
Reports also indicated that hacker attacks occurred every 39 seconds as of 2023, and the cost of breaches totaled USD 4.45 million—the highest amount recorded thus far. These numbers make it easy to understand why cybersecurity has become a crucial priority for organizations worldwide.
Cybersecurity compliance helps companies protect valuable customer information and organizational data, prevent breaches, save on excessive costs, and much more. In this article, we explore what compliance in cybersecurity is, what the requirements are, and why they matter.
What is Cyber Security Compliance?
Cybersecurity compliance refers to a set of regulatory standards that businesses must adopt. They are crucial in protecting your organization's data, sensitive information, your customers' personal data, and more. They also protect financial information, internal controls and processes, and more. Cybersecurity requirements are usually set by governments and other national and international agencies to protect the company's information. This could be personally identifiable information (or PII), financial data, and protected health information (PHI).
These compliance requirements are essentially a formal way of protecting your organization from phishing, malware, ransomware, DDoS attacks, and many other threats. It involves establishing risk-based controls to safeguard confidentiality, integrity, and availability (often shortened to CIA). In recent years, it has become a significant challenge for many industries since increasing cyber-attacks coupled with industry requirements can lead to overwhelm, confusion, and excessive labor.
What Regulations Must Organizations Comply With?
Some of the major regulations that organizations must comply with include:
1. HIPAA
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (commonly called HIPAA), safeguards protected health information (PHI) and requires compliance by organizations in the healthcare industry.
It is important to note that HIPAA applies only to organizations in the United States. It ensures that healthcare providers, health plans, business associates, and anyone else in the industry will not disclose confidential patient data without the patient's consent. The law includes privacy and security rules, as well as "breach" rules and instructions on how an individual can report incidents.
2. GDPR
GDPR, or the General Data Protection Regulation, is responsible for protecting the personally identifiable information (PII) of European Union citizens. Any organization that handles EU citizens' information must comply with GDPR.
According to the GDPR, companies must clearly state the terms and conditions surrounding customer data and allow individuals to manage their data availability without imposing restrictions. They must also obtain consent from individuals before processing any personal information and ensure confidentiality. They are also responsible for informing customers in case of data breaches.
3. PCI DSS
PCI-DSS stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. It applies to all organizations dealing with credit card payments, regardless of the amount of transactions processed in a month.
According to PCI DSS, cybersecurity compliance requirements include data encryption, firewall configuration, password protection, developing and maintaining security systems, restricting access to credit card information, and implementing strict security policies. Failing to comply with PCI-DSS standards could lead merchants to lose their licenses and not be permitted to allow credit card payments.
4. ISO/IEC 27001
ISO 27001 is an international standard from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) along with International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) for implementing and managing Information Security Management Systems (ISMS).
An ISO 27001 certification indicates that an organization complies with all technological environment levels and protects personal customer data. It encompasses a business's operational practices for building reliable cybersecurity management systems.
Why is Cybersecurity Compliance Important?
Cybersecurity compliance is very important for organizations. Some of its primary functions include:
1. Guarding Brand Reputation
Cybersecurity attacks can compromise sensitive customer information, leading to data breaches, disruptions of business processes, and a loss of customer confidence. They can also garner unwanted and harmful media attention and even lead to legal action. Repairing this damage can take a lot of funding, time, and effort.
2. Maintaining Client Trust
Implementing a strong cybersecurity compliance framework assures clients that their data is being handled securely. It also signifies that the company has well-designed internal controls.
3. Improving Security
Compliance requires organizations to devote extra focus and effort to cybersecurity. Adhering to compliance regulations can improve a company's security status.
What Does Cybersecurity Compliance Involve?
Cybersecurity compliance involves several steps and factors that can significantly affect your organization's growth, financial health, customer loyalty, and overall success. These include:
- Developing Policies: The first step to cybersecurity compliance involves creating, maintaining, and enforcing stringent cybersecurity policies. These should align with your organization's compliance requirements.
- Training Employees and Others: It is crucial to ensure that all employees, suppliers, contractors, and stakeholders are trained and well-versed in your cybersecurity procedures and policies.
- Responding to Incidents: Swift and efficient incident management is a must when dealing with cyberattacks and security breaches.
- Conducting Regular Audits: Regular external and internal audits allow companies to ensure that their cybersecurity policies and procedures comply with requirements. They can also help identify gaps in procedures.
- Evaluating Risks: Regularly identifying and assessing threats to your organization's IT systems is crucial to maintaining cybersecurity compliance.
- Enforcing Access Control: Another crucial aspect of maintaining security is ensuring that only specific departments and individuals can access sensitive information and systems. This access control must also be regularly reviewed and updated.
- Documenting Information: A significant part of maintaining compliance is maintaining detailed and centralized records of cybersecurity procedures, audits, reports, incident response protocols, training sessions, and policies.
- Reporting Security Breaches: Depending on your organization's requirements and regulations established by governing bodies, reporting any security breaches and incidents to regulatory bodies and stakeholders is essential.
- Legal and Regulatory Adherence: Lastly, perhaps most importantly, it is crucial to be aware of and comply with local, national, and international cybersecurity regulations.
Wrapping Up
Cybersecurity has become a significant issue in many industries, affecting companies and individuals worldwide. As tech advances, we can expect to witness an increase in hackers and other malicious entities advancing their efforts to access sensitive information, compromise organizational data, and more.
In this light, cybersecurity procedures and protocols are not just an optional add-on but have become necessary. While the situation may seem challenging, ways to fortify your cybersecurity infrastructure exist. This is where Effivity comes in. Our Information Security Management System Software is designed to address and adapt to new cybersecurity issues. It helps organizations understand regulatory requirements, training and awareness, monitoring and improvement, resource allocation, and more. To learn more, visit Effivity's website today!
