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Security Compliance

Does your business meet cyber security compliance?

Does your business meet cybersecurity compliance? Perhaps you have never considered that question before. Maybe you wonder why security compliance is important. Or perhaps you’re wondering, “what is security compliance anyway?”

To answer the last question, cybersecurity compliance is the state of meeting various regulations enacted by authorities to assure security, availability, processing integrity confidentiality, and privacy of customer data.

And yes, cybersecurity compliance is important. As your small business grows and takes on larger business clients, you’ll find that those clients are concerned about your information security and your security protocols. They don’t want to give their sensitive data to a company that hasn’t taken some basic steps to guard their data from hackers.

What’s the solution? Recognized industry compliance certifications can show those clients that your business has taken steps to follow a certain industry standard for security. Instead of giving a biased, internal report of your IT compliance examples or your IT compliance checklist, a security compliance certification proves that your company has met the information security compliance checklist of an industry standard.

With this certification, your company can expand your client base and take on bigger opportunities because you’ve proven that clients can trust you with their data.

Ready to embark on this compliance journey? There are lots of steps and different accreditations to consider. Compliance gets complicated quickly. But this guide to security compliance can show you what you need to know about compliance, even if you’re unfamiliar with the subject.

Questions?

We can help! Talk to the Trava Team and see how we can assist you with your cybersecurity needs.

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Security Compliance Standards List

First, if you want to achieve compliance for your business, you will need to meet certain compliance standards. But the standards for cybersecurity compliance are different depending on what guidelines your organization is trying to comply with. For example, there are the ISO 27000 certification cybersecurity standards, NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-53 standards, and HIPPA, PIC DSS, and GDPR standards. Some of these regulations include data security standards, some include network security standards, and some include both.

However, we have a security compliance standards list that brings together some of the main cybersecurity standards that you will find. This list is by no means comprehensive, but it should give your organization a good idea of what types of standards you should be meeting.

  • Store sensitive files in protected servers or clouds.
  • Allow only some employees with proper permission levels to access sensitive data.
  • Record the list of personnel with access to sensitive data.
  • Track access to sensitive files.
  • Have alerts for when attempts are made to access sensitive data from suspicious devices.
  • Use 2-step identification.
  • Implement a risk management plan.
  • Plan for business continuity.

If your organization has not done some of those compliance standards mentioned above, you probably do not have cyber security compliance. So, you need to secure your company and enforce those cybersecurity guidelines before you seek compliance certification. The NIST Cyber Security Framework could help you implement cybersecurity practices that meet compliance standards. Trava could also walk you through your compliance journey, ensuring that your system is ready for compliance certification.

Security Certifications

After you have enhanced your organization’s security to meet the security standards mentioned in the security compliance standards list above, your organization should apply for some security certifications.

A security compliance certification forces you to improve your internal operations to meet the certification standards and protect your company. It also shows your customers, whether individuals or other organizations, that you have taken sufficient steps to protect their sensitive information. This can boost your customer trust and might even help you get new clients as you explain that your business’s security is certified and secure.

You can choose from many different security certifications for companies, whether you want physical security certifications, like the Physical Security Certification (PSC), or cyber security certifications, like the SOC 2 or the ISO 27000 series. But customers are becoming increasingly concerned about cyber security and protecting their data, so it’s best to start with a security compliance certification. Here are some certifications your business could consider:

  • SOC 2 certification shows that your company meets the SOC 2 compliance standard for service organizations. These standards were developed by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), and they specify how organizations should manage customer data based on five principles: security, availability, process integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.
  • ISO 27001 certification shows your compliance with certain information security management system (ISMS) requirements. It demonstrates that your organization has successfully implemented the ISMS, addressing the people, the processes, and the technology involved in your information security.
  • HIPAA Compliance certification demonstrates that you follow all the requirements and regulations from the Health and Human Services (HHS) policies regarding personal health data protection. The HIPAA Compliance Certification is required for any business dealing related to healthcare.

While HIPAA compliance is mandatory, the other security certifications are optional. But they all can give your business a competitive advantage as clients and customers see proof of your well-developed data protection system for cybersecurity.

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Security Compliance Management

Your business’s compliance journey is not over after you have achieved your compliance certification. Your business operations will keep changing as you face new demands, and the compliance regulations will also change to meet the evolving cyber risk. So, you must continually define and enforce your security policies and resolve issues of non-compliance as they occur. This process is called security compliance management.

We have already shown the importance of security compliance as it ensures your business’s security is up-to-date with the industry standard and builds more customer trust. But we also want to emphasize the importance of compliance management because it helps your business retain the benefits of security compliance in the long run.

Your organization can implement security compliance management by monitoring and assessing your security systems regularly to ensure they comply with standards. Of course, you can do this yourself, but it is much easier and less time-consuming if you get some security compliance tools, like compliance management systems or software.

Compliance software will monitor your security processes and collect data that helps your information security team to evaluate and manage compliance. The software can also help gather compliance information for an upcoming audit, making sure it is correct, complete, and in the format required by auditors. It also could offer templates for common security frameworks, conduct risk assessments, and generate reports with predefined templates.

But remember, while these security compliance tools are good to manage compliance and generate data and reports for audits, they don’t work well to help you achieve compliance. You should first partner with a company like Trava, which will show you what areas of your security to address and how to meet compliance. Then, after you have reached compliance, you can start compliance management and use the compliance management software to help your company continue to meet industry standards.

Compliance Manager

Finally, you might consider hiring a cybersecurity compliance officer if your company wants to maintain compliance for the foreseeable future.

What is a compliance officer? A compliance officer, also known as a compliance manager, works to ensure that your business, your employees, your projects, and your processes all comply with cybersecurity regulations.

A compliance manager can work with your compliance software and evaluate the data it gathers to determine your cybersecurity system’s compliance. But a compliance manager can do so much more. They are experts in the cyber security industry regulations, and they stay updated on all the changing requirements. They may also conduct internal inspections, maintain your company records of compliance practices, and produce training materials for your employees to understand cybersecurity compliance.

If you want your organization to grow and retain strong compliance as well, a compliance manager would be a valuable addition to your company’s team.

But if you don’t have the budget for more compliance jobs and employees, Trava Security is here to help. We are compliance experts, and we can help your organization acquire the cybersecurity compliance certification you desire. We will assess your unique cybersecurity needs and walk you through exactly what you need to do to reach your compliance goals.

You don’t have to waste time or money on an audit that you may not pass. We will perform several risk assessments to discover your system vulnerabilities and use our advanced mitigation tools to repair your system—ensuring that you’re ready to pass your SOC 2 audit and receive your compliance certification.

Want to go beyond certification and protect your business from all cyber threats? Trava also offers cyber insurance that will cover your business in the event of a cyber attack. We will cover the costs of stolen funds, legal fees, digital forensics, crisis media relations, ransom payments, computer replacement, and more.

With Trava, you can meet compliance and be secured against whatever cyber threat may come. Schedule a demo to see our services in action today.

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