According to a survey, most companies’ compliance departments (61%) believe that staying up to date regarding regulatory changes must be the top priority for business. And this is a reasonable opinion. Just imagine a scenario: someone from a company’s admin department receives an email from their CEO explaining that they are not logged in to one of the company’s databases. The domain name is legit, and the email ID is authentic (although the email came from a personal ID, it has the CEO’s signature). Nothing alarming here to report. What would a normal person do?

The same incident happened with Belgian Banl Crelan, costing them $75.8 million. Lack of employee training and insufficient security measures were the leading causes of this incident. Not having proper security compliance management can severely impact IT infrastructure, causing breaches, attacks, and more.

Security Compliance Management and its Key Components

Cyber Security compliance management involves monitoring and ensuring that the software, network, and devices operate securely and comply with regulatory standards. It controls the security controls and policies to ensure adherence to the latest regulatory standards. The enterprise security teams implement several security measures, such as incident response, network surveillance, risk assessment, etc., to protect their infrastructure against security threats.

From a security point of view, security compliance management is a critical process for protecting critical information and ensuring secure and smooth business operations. It also mandates prioritizing the remediation of security issues with immediate effect. Its key components include:

Policy Development:

Developing comprehensive policies and procedures that align with business objectives and address identified risks. The policies also include steps to ensure compliance with relevant regulations. Companies must regularly review and update their policies and procedures to keep up with industry standards and threat landscape changes.

Incident Response:

Establishing measures for detecting, responding to, and recovering from security incidents. The security teams must develop and maintain a robust incident response plan to address any cyber threat issue.

Risk Assessment:

Identifying and mitigating external threats (such as cyberattacks) and internal vulnerabilities (such as outdated software). Companies must regularly assess risk factors to determine the effectiveness of security controls. They must have a detailed plan to address identified risks and areas of improvement.

Security Controls:

Implementing strong security controls like 2FA, encryption, tokenization, access control, and malware protection software to address risks and protect data.

Importance of Security Compliance

Security compliance is necessary for various reasons, including maintaining data integrity, trust factors, safety, and brand reputation. It also affects the business’s bottom line. Compliance has been noticed as one of the leading factors in data breaches. The average data breach cost in 2024 was $4.88 million. Why? When an organization is non-compliant, its breach costs will multiply due to fines, lawsuits, and penalties. Due to this, every industry, including energy, telecom, finance, healthcare, etc., needs to be highly regulated, making security compliance management a top priority. Adhering to security compliance can benefit businesses by:

• Preventing unauthorized access, data breaches, and cyber threats and strengthening resilience against insider and external threats.

• Ensuring compliance with industry standards like SOC 2, GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, etc., and helping businesses maintain operational continuity.

• Building confidence among stakeholders and customers, giving a competitive edge with responsible business practices.

Common Security Compliance Standards

The software compliance regulatory ecosystem depends upon various key industry standards that protect data privacy and security across multiple domains. It is a complex framework that businesses must understand and implement to protect critical data. Let’s take a quick look at some common security compliance standards:

CCPA:

The California Consumer Privacy Act offers data protection for California residents with a primary focus on consumer rights to access, update, delete, and opt out of the sale of their personal information. It applies to organizations doing business with California citizens (even if the organization does not physically exist in California).

GDPR:

The General Data Protection Regulation in the European Union mandates strict data privacy and handling requirements for any business providing services to European citizens. Under this law, every company must protect personal data from unauthorized data collection, loss, damage, or processing.

HIPAA:

The US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act protects sensitive patient data in healthcare. It mandates healthcare providers to keep digital health data confidential and secure during transmission or storage. They must implement measures to prevent threats, misuse of health data, and security breaches.

PCI DSS:

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is for organizations handling credit card information. It outlines critical security protocols for protecting sensitive cardholder data. Under this mandate, businesses must comply with 12 requirements, such as firewall configuration, data encryption, managing security policies, and restricting access to credit/debit card details.

ISO/IEC 27001:

It is an international standard that ensures an organization complies with every level of the technological environment, including users, processes, systems, and tools. It aims to ensure the integrity and safety of customer personal data at every level.

Best Practices for Security Compliance Management

Enterprises on top of security compliance always have good data management practices in place. Having a set of best security compliance management practices enables such organizations to keep things under control. Conducting regular regulatory audits helps identify risks and vulnerabilities to keep compliance measures up to date. These audits assess the organization’s infrastructure security posture, identify gaps, and implement remediation measures before the issue escalates.

Automated compliance monitoring is another way to streamline security management practices. It helps continuously monitor risks, flag anomalies, and generate real-time reports related to incidents. Human error will also be reduced while improving the efficiency of security protocols and ensuring businesses stay in sync with any regulatory update. These days, compliance monitoring tools are powered by AI and ML, enabling potential compliance risk prediction and proactive mitigation processes.

Companies must have a security incident response team to handle compliance violations and breaches efficiently. They must also develop and regularly update their incident response plans to ensure their readiness for any security issues.

How can Tx Assist with Security Compliance Management?

Tx assists in handling the complexities of security compliance by offering comprehensive security testing services. Our services are tailored to industry regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2, and ISO 27001. With cutting-edge tools and industry expertise, we ensure your IT infrastructure maintains compliance while strengthening the core security posture.

Our security testing accelerator – Tx-Secure, streamlines the compliance process by integrating best practices, checklists, and automated security assessments. We leverage next-gen tools and frameworks to identify vulnerabilities, assess risks, and ensure your applications and networks meet regulatory standards.

Summary

Security Compliance Management ensures businesses follow regulatory standards to protect data and prevent cyber threats. It involves risk assessments, security controls, and compliance with industry regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS. Effective management includes audits, automated monitoring, and employee training. Partnering with Tx helps businesses achieve compliance with advanced security testing, risk assessments, and automated compliance solutions. Contact our experts now to learn how Tx can assist with security compliance management.

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Security Compliance Management: Your Survival Guide in an Era of Cyber Threats