Today, data breaches and cyber-attacks are common, continual, and harder to detect. Identity theft, for example, has become a menace that most businesses have to grapple with. As cyber security breaches continue to multiply, the need for security compliance and vulnerability management has never been as critical. 

A click on an innocent-looking URL could end up hacking an entire system and compromising millions of records and sensitive information. This is what makes security compliance management so critical, assessing and remediating a long list of security controls, threat vectors, and employee policies. Assessments include monitoring, evaluating, and testing systems, networks, and devices that are likely to be exposed to cyber-attacks, within or outside business perimeters. Of critical importance to cyber security compliance management is that such devices, systems, and networks comply with local, industry, and government cybersecurity standards and other regulatory requirements. 

Why is cybersecurity compliance so critical?

Falling out of compliance simply means you are exposed. And not just you; every system or device networked to yours and others throughout linked networks and systems are exposed to attacks. It literally means a system or device is a sitting duck, waiting for a hacker to come along and pick the low-hanging fruit that it is.

What this means is that your customers and partners are also exposed to attacks, sensitive data loss, and compromise. To make sure this does not happen, or at least to minimize the chances of being compromised, your company’s cybersecurity compliance management program, processes, tools, and resources need constant updates and review.

While having cybersecurity compliance management does not completely firewall your company from cyber attacks, it at least minimizes your losses in the unfortunate event of a breach. According to an IBM report published on their website in 2021, companies with even minimally-mature cybersecurity compliance management incurred fewer losses in a data breach event than those that didn’t formally execute this practice.

Are there best practices for cybersecurity compliance?

Yes, there are numerous industry-standard best practices and procedures for enforcing cybersecurity compliance, including from government organizations like NIST, CISA, the US Department of Energy, and others. The goal of cyber security compliance management is first to prevent a potential data breach, and, second, to mitigate the negative impacts of one should it happen. Following are a few principle industry cyber security compliance practices.

Have a plan

The first thing you need to do is to have a cybersecurity compliance plan. Once you create a plan, get everyone behind it, starting with your IT administrators, compliance teams, and everyone involved in security operations and management. All the stakeholders should be included in the plan to ensure buy-in and commitment. The plan should include standards that everyone is expected to adhere to, along with current and detailed risk assessments.

Ensure Information Flow

All the stakeholders should be communicating with each other, especially during an active intrusion or data breach. The speed with which you address a data breach is critical, and this is only possible if compliance teams, customer relations, security operations, and IT management are constantly communicating with each other in real-time.

Use automated tools

As an organization grows, it’s impossible to manually keep track of all IT assets, data repositories, user roles, system architectures, interfaces, and processes. This is where automated monitoring, configuration, and management tools apply - simplifying business processes by making them more consistent, efficient, and transparent. Many current cybersecurity monitoring and assessment tools take advantage of AI/ML (artificial intelligence/machine learning) to learn of and respond to hacking exploits, signals, and patterns from the global community.

Monitor and constantly update

Hackers are obviously skilled and clever, in addition to being completely anonymous and secretive. Whenever a software patch is released, criminals jump right in to take advantage of the potential vulnerabilities - usually before unsuspecting companies can deploy the fix. Their bet is usually on companies that typically delay or avoid routine updates, so it’s critical that your systems are kept up to date and new patches are tested and distributed as soon as they are released. Routine and comprehensive IT infrastructure, applications, and cybersecurity monitoring also ensure new or evolving threats are quickly identified and assessed for impacts that could expose your networks and customer or corporate data.

Cyber security compliance management is your first line of defense in the prevention of risk, exposure, or actual attacks. Since hackers always seek the past of least resistance - in the effort, cost or complexity - when seeking systems and networks to attack, be sure your company is off their radar by maintaining a current and comprehensive cyber security compliance program.