Compliance laws are becoming more popular with legislative bodies as the costs of compromised data privacy grow. Attackers are becoming more creative with their attacks, and they are taking advantage of any security vulnerabilities available to them. This poses a challenge for the companies that collect and utilize that data.
If your company handles large amounts of consumer data, you may be caught between effectively leveraging consumer information and ensuring that you’re complying with all relevant regulations. However, these regulations can work to your advantage. Implementing cyber security services to ensure compliance will keep both your data and consumer data more secure, ultimately protecting both of you from attack. You want to get on board with these new regulations both for your benefit and for that of consumers.
The Growing Challenge of Regulatory Compliance
Increasingly, governments are becoming interested in privacy and security regulations. In Europe, the GDPR requires companies doing business in the EU to limit the data they collect on customers. Additionally, customers must consent to data collection and be given control over how their data is used. A similar law in California, the CCPA (and its follow-up, the CRPA) also aims to give consumers more control over their own data.
However, there are some differences between the GDPR and CCPA that affect how businesses operate in each region. Typically, other laws in the United States line up with CCPA requirements, but there is no federal standard, and each law has a few differences. The following are critical points to keep in mind:
- Nonprofits. The GDPR requires that all organizations comply, but the CCPA and other U.S. laws make exceptions for nonprofits and businesses with gross revenues below $25 million.
- Applicable regions. While the CCPA covers residents of California, it does not cover residents of Oregon who are customers of the business. The GDPR covers a much larger region, and if your business collects data from any covered country, you will need to comply with those requirements.
- Opt-ins. Companies operating under the GDPR must offer consumers the option to allow the company to collect, sell, and otherwise manage the consumer’s data. In contrast, the CCPA only requires that a company allow consumers to opt out of data collection.
As different states and countries create their own versions of these laws, the regulatory landscape is growing more complex. Small details like this will make or break your compliance, and fines for violations can range from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of dollars per violation. So, it’s essential that your company stays on top of the regulations anywhere you are based or do business.
Compliance and Security Services
Cybersecurity services can help improve an organization’s security posture and compliance. Outsourcing at least some of your needs to third-party providers can also save you a lot of trouble. An expert cybersecurity and compliance provider can reduce the amount of time you spend parsing compliance law and addressing vulnerabilities.
A provider can benefit your company in a few ways:
- Protection from cyberattacks. An effective cybersecurity service will cover application, network, endpoint, and cloud security. It should also protect your IoT devices, which are increasingly targets of attacks.
- Managed security tools. An important component of security, particularly application security, is automated solutions. The provider you choose should offer a web application firewall (WAF), API security, DDoS protection, and other solutions that provide constant, automated monitoring and attack management.
- Enterprise security. Both enterprise security management (ESM) and governance (ESG) are important components of security and compliance. ESM controls an organization’s environment, ensuring that security policies are followed. It also protects data during transmission. ESG focuses on building a compliance framework that aligns with business goals.
Be sure that you carefully select providers to ensure that data is protected in accordance with regulatory requirements. While it’s important to prioritize good security solutions, the ideal provider will also consider compliance. The regulations that you must comply with should be reflected in their approach to securing your systems.
Optimizing Compliance with Security Services
The right cybersecurity service can substantially benefit an organization’s compliance. Look for a provider that provides data governance and cloud discovery services, both of which will ensure that you have full data visibility. When you know where all your data is and how it is being stored, you can effectively protect it. This is a big step toward complying with regulations like the GDPR and CCPA.
By using a compliance and security service, you can tighten up your compliance. Especially if your company does business in multiple regions with varying regulations, it may be wise to invest in services that can make sure you are compliant in all of them. While it’s possible to do this on your own or with your security team, it’s not always the most efficient use of your time.
Until privacy and security regulations become more uniform, your organization will have to manage different requirements and exceptions. However, using a service can provide you with the expertise and tools you need to ensure that all of your bases are covered. Additionally, the tools you use to optimize your compliance will protect you from attack, lowering the risk of data leakage or misuse for both you and your customers.
Ultimately, this protects you from legal action, reputation damage, secret theft, and revenue losses. It protects your clients from identity theft, credit card fraud, and other financial problems. There’s no shortage of challenges to be found in complying with privacy regulations, but doing so is a win for your organization and your customers.
