Definition of Compliance
Businesses must follow all applicable government laws, rules, and regulations, including data privacy rules and regulations. There is no other option; either the organization complies or it risks losing its operating licence.
The requirements themselves can range from laws like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and all of its accompanying regulations to industry mandates like PCI DSS regulations, which govern how a company processes credit cards. To run your business efficiently, you'll need to understand the types of data you're processing as well as the regulations that apply to your industry.
Significance of cybersecurity compliance
It's critical to recognize that cybersecurity compliance is more than just a set of strict and mandatory requirements imposed by regulatory bodies — it's also important for overall business success.
Any company can become a victim of a cyber attack. Small businesses, in particular, make themselves easy prey for criminals because it is common to believe that if you are small, potential threats will pass you by. However, a failure to invest in a strong cybersecurity posture exposes vulnerabilities that are attractive to malicious actors.
Major cybersecurity compliance requirements
Many different cybersecurity regulation requirements establish cybersecurity compliance standards. Despite the fact that they are distinct methods, their target content generally overlaps and aims for the same goal — creating rules that are simple to follow and adapt to the company's technology environment, ultimately safeguarding sensitive data.
HIPAA
The HIPAA rules and regulations help ensure organizations — health care providers, health plans & health care clearinghouses — and business associates won’t disclose any confidential data without an individual’s consent. The Act establishes three fundamental parts: Privacy rules, Security rules, Breach notification rules to report the incident. However, HIPAA Privacy Rule does not apply to organizations outside the U.S.
FISMA
The FISMA defines minimal requirements for security to maintain threat prevention to national-level agency systems. The Act aligns with active laws, executive orders, and directives to address cybersecurity procedures compliance within the information security programs. The framework scope covers information system inventory, maintains system security plan & controls, conducts risk assessments, and ensures continuous monitoring.
PCI-DSS
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) is a non-federal information security requirement for the protection and security of credit card data. The standard is managed by major credit card providers, and it is administered by the PCI Security Standards Council; the main goal is to protect cardholder data.
GDPR
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a data protection and privacy law that was published in 2016 and applies to countries in the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA). GDPR creates a legal framework that governs the collection and protection of personal data for EU-based individuals.
ISO/IEC 27001
ISO/IEC 27001 is an international standard for implementing and managing Information Security Management Systems (ISMS) that is part of the ISO/IEC 27000 family of standards developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).
