5 Tips to Combine Compliance & Cybersecurity Best Practices

When you run an organization, compliance and security are two essential factors.

Both are equally important for seamless operation and ongoing success. While compliance helps your business stay within the limits of industry or government regulations, security protects the integrity of your business and sensitive data.

What is the Difference Between Compliance & Cybersecurity?

It is worth noting that although security is a prime component of compliance, they are not the same thing. This is because compliance does not consider the growing threat landscape and associated risks. What it considers, however, is a set of pre-defined policies, procedures, and regulations that you must adhere to and continually maintain. 

If an audit concludes that these pre-defined elements are adequate and your business adheres to them, everything is considered “okay” from a compliance standpoint. Using successful cybersecurity tactics can certainly help with compliance, but there are additional aspects to consider when diving into best practices for cybersecurity.

You may be in good shape with compliance but not up to scratch from a security standpoint. This means that you can be compliant, yet still fall short on security and find your organization vulnerable to attacks.

Since compliance requirements take a predictable path and change slowly, the compliance landscape lags behind the rapidly changing, unpredictable security landscape.

Now, let’s find out how your organization can benefit by combining security and compliance best practices.

Get Covered With Security and Compliance Solutions

There are multiple security loopholes that you must proactively fix to stay out of danger. You can do this by deploying suitable security solutions. A few common security loopholes and related solutions are:

1. Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs)

APTs across three attack pillars — endpoints, network and the cloud — are capable of paralyzing hybrid, remote, and on-site work environments. Experts estimate the global APT protection market to be worth close to $6 billion in 2021 and $12 billion in 2025. The best way to tackle this problem is by deploying a solution that can:

• Offer 24/7 monitoring and threat hunting
• Efficiently block malicious actors that evade firewalls and antivirus systems

2. Insider threats skyrocketing at alarming rates

Over the last two years, insider incidents have increased by 47%. What makes the scenario even worse is the fact that insider threats are tough to detect. That’s why it is advisable to have an advanced internal threat detection solution that combines machine learning and intelligent tagging to identify anomalous activity, suspicious changes, and threats caused by misconfiguration.

3. Lack of clarity about the network

Keeping track of all the computers, mobile phones, printers, and servers on your organization's network is challenging, especially in today’s increasingly remote and hybrid approach to work. But without knowing the devices on your network, it is not possible to know your IT network’s health. To combat this problem, you need an automated assessment and documentation solution capable of identifying risks to all assets, including those not physically connected to the network.

4. Untrained employees not using best security practices

When your employees are untrained and unaware of risky actions, it can lead to severe security setbacks. For example, an employee might carelessly click on a phishing link, which could lead to a full-blown ransomware attack on your organization.

Remember that inadequate data access protocols are not just a security issue but can also land you in hot water with compliance regulators. Tackle all of these issues by deploying industry-best solutions for security awareness and proper training to ensure that your employees follow the best cybersecurity practices.

5. Closely monitoring your compliance alongside cybersecurity

Being consistent and vigilant are the key to protecting your organization. Just like security loopholes, you must also fix compliance loopholes the moment you spot them. Non-compliance can lead to regulators levying penalties as high as 4% of your company turnover. Beyond financial loss, you will also have to face stakeholder dissatisfaction and drop in market share. To avoid such trouble, use a solution that automates compliance processes and generates insightful reports that document compliance.

Convergence of Security and Compliance

Most companies have at least minimum protection in place, such as an antivirus on workstations and active firewalls. However, you must make sure that your organization's security posture can withstand the rapidly growing cyberthreat landscape. With some effort, you can incorporate your security solutions into your compliance strategy to ensure optimal protection. By carefully bringing both security and compliance together systematically, you can reduce risks significantly.

To ramp up your organization’s security posture, you can implement strong authentication, data protection, access monitoring, and other strategies. It is important to also validate the effectiveness of these solutions once they’re in place. This will ensure your organization is taking the necessary measures to avoid non-compliance and future security breaches.

Data Networks Will Help You Stay Compliant and Secure

Ready to take the next step? Contact us to start the conversation and chat about what your organization needs to stay compliant and protected from cyber threats. 

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