While the goal of cybersecurity regulations is to protect data accessibility and confidentiality, completely adhering to compliance standards is a challenge for many organizations. These regulations are an alphabet soup of acronyms, like HIPAA, PCI, CCPA, and GDPR, and it’s not easy to know which standards your organization needs to meet. Luckily there are some best practices to follow that will give you a baseline knowledge of cybersecurity regulations and help you prevent fines and financial loss, data breaches, business disruptions, and a damaged reputation.
Determine
Cybersecurity Requirements for Areas Your Business Operates
You don’t need to comply with every compliance standard out there, but you may be surprised by what regulations your business must meet. For instance, having a customer based in the European Union will require compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). If your company deals with healthcare data in any way, you’ll be obligated to follow the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). If you transmit and store credit card information, you’ll need to follow the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS).
Since there are no federal data privacy regulations, it’s essential to be familiar with data breach laws in any state where you have customers. Each state has different rules to follow if consumer data is compromised, and these laws are regularly updated. For example, in 2022, Pennsylvania amended its data breach notification law to add new data fields and definitions around personal information. In New York, the SHIELD Act was signed into law in 2019; this law strengthens the 2005 Information Security Breach and Notification Act, adding more types of personal data that must be reported if compromised.
Regulations
and laws surrounding cybersecurity are constantly evolving, and businesses
should stay up to date with the latest developments to ensure they remain compliant.
Fortunately,
the National
Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) developed guidelines, like the Cybersecurity
Framework, to help
organizations build their cybersecurity programs. The frameworks also offer
guidance for different compliance regulations.
Your Data
is Key to Compliance
The adage “you can’t protect what you don’t know” is especially true in adhering to cybersecurity regulations. Compliance requires knowing everything about your data—the type of sensitive data you keep, where it is stored, how it is used—and if you can’t answer those basic questions about your data, you are already a step behind in meeting government and industry regulations.
Strengthen
Risk-Mitigation Policies and Procedures
Having
policies and procedures in place for mitigating a cyberattack is not only good
planning, but it may also be required for certain compliance regulations. These
policies will address both external risks and insider threats, ensuring processes
are in place to prevent risk (e.g., cybersecurity awareness training or
penetration testing and auditing) and there is a thorough plan for handling any
cybersecurity incidents.
Conducting regular risk and vulnerability assessments offers a deep dive into your infrastructure’s weak points so you can resolve them before they are exploited. Just like you can’t protect what you don’t know, you can’t fix what you don’t know is vulnerable.
Turn to a
Service Provider
SMBs
with smaller IT and cybersecurity teams may need more resources to adhere to
strict compliance regulations. Additionally, attack vectors and threats change
daily, making it difficult for any business to keep up with the technology
needed to protect them.
A top-tier
IT services provider will offer solutions based on your IT environment and
business objectives to prevent cyberattacks & ensure compliance. Security
as a Service (SECaaS), a comprehensive cybersecurity and compliance solution, allows
you to leave cybersecurity to the experts and provides peace of mind that you
have advanced software and a dedicated security team watching over your IT
assets. At IT Solutions, we provide Security as a Service
designed for your business and compliance needs.
For
more information on how we can help you organize and meet cybersecurity
compliance regulations, call us today at 866.742.5487 or visit our Managed Security Page to
learn more about our SECaaS model and cybersecurity solutions.
