Risk Reimagined: 4 Steps to Adopting a Cybersecurity Compliance Program

Today’s CISOs are tasked with many jobs. While all are of great importance, one in particular stands out among the crowd – and that’s ensuring cybersecurity and compliance go hand in hand. Compliance is becoming more important to understanding and effectively mitigating IT security risks. Without an approach that considers regulatory risks, compliance and IT security, organizations won’t be able to mitigate new risks in today’s landscape.

As many of us know, meeting compliance and remaining compliant can be difficult. This includes meeting state and federal laws, regulatory requirements, and in some cases, various controls from industry groups. Compliance isn’t always easy, but hey, that’s what compliance programs are for!

Before you start your compliance journey, you must understand the requirements that you need to meet and work backwards to find a framework that fits these requirements. Identify the types of data you work with and what requirements may apply. Remember that each state has specific laws pertaining to data privacy and that each industry may have different requirements. The same goes for the data you work with – different types of personal info are subject to additional controls. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) provides a set of standards for recommended security controls, which in many cases, will help organizations ensure they’re in compliance with other regulations like SOX, PCI, SSAE-16 and AT-101.  

Once you’ve selected a framework that fits your specific needs, you can begin to develop a compliance program. To achieve security goals, many organizations turn to a governance, risk and compliance (GRC) program. Here are a few common ways to kick start a compliance program based on your identified framework:

1. Conduct vulnerability and risk assessments frequently. These will determine what, if any, critical security flaws exist and evaluate the controls in place. Carolina Advanced Digital offers vulnerability and patch management products and services for a variety of environments, regardless of operating systems or infrastructure type. Contact us to learn more.
2. Based on the risk assessment, implement technical controls to meet requirements. This can include anything from anti-virus, to firewall, to encryption solutions.
3. Implement physical access controls. Cybersecurity relies on a combination of technology and policies and procedures to effectively mitigate risk and meet compliance. 
4. Review and regularly test your controls. It can be easy to let cybersecurity slip, but reviews and tests can help you stay up-to-date and make sure you remain compliant.

Businesses come in all sizes and have a variety of needs. We understand that GRC isn’t one-size-fits-all – that’s why we work closely with our customers to understand and evaluate their needs, provide thorough assessments and accurate recommendations.

Data has consistently grown be one of the world’s most valuable resources, and with it, the role of security and compliance continues to grow. Compliance structures govern organizations based on the data they process or industry they operate in. One constant across all industries is the need for physical access control. With major compliance standards such as HIPAA, ISO, SOC2, GDPR and many more, it’s likely that compliance auditors will require certain individuals to govern physical access based on their role or job title.

Carolina Advanced Digital offers bundled solutions for security assessment and pen testing for organizations including HIPAA, GLBA and SOX. We also have several solutions, both individually or as a suite, to support provisioning, updating, managing security controls to simplify your life and keep you compliant. To learn more about our offerings and keep your organization risk-free, request more info here: https://cadinc.com/about/contact