Becoming compliant in cybersecurity takes work. After completing every step, many security professionals imagine they can be done with strengthening their cybersecurity defenses. However, security professionals must find the line between compliance and security to ensure they’re fully considering both.
The difference between compliance and security
Compliance involves a company’s adherence (or lack thereof) to industry, government or contractual standards. Some examples include compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, International Organization for Standardization, System and Organization Control and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. While following these can be a matter of trust and legality, they don’t automatically guarantee robust cybersecurity.
Alternatively, security involves the overarching plan a business has to keep itself safe from cyber threats. That can include access controls, network monitoring, firewalls, incident response and more. It’s everything an entity does to keep itself safe from an attack.
How compliance can fall short of security
Compliance does a good job of getting an enterprise closer to strong security, but it doesn’t get it all the way there. Compliance audits typically occur annually, but they can be more frequent based on corporate policy. That means brands might meet the standards at the time of the audit but fall short at others, leading to gaps.
Additionally, compliance regulations may not be tailored to a specific sector or business. Compliance is critical for an organization’s reputation, efficiency, viability and profitability, but if the regulations don’t fit a threat landscape or risk profile, they could still experience a breach.
Compliance gets a team on board with certain controls, but they’re not often evaluating how they work. It gives a company a baseline for its cybersecurity — it shouldn’t be the only plan. By not checking regularly and assessing the context for controls, compliance becomes a safety net full of holes rather than a pillar of security.
Strategies for Building Both
Being both secure and compliant takes more than meeting compliance frameworks.
1. Establish real-time monitoring
For compliance standards to work as intended, they need constant checking. Audits check their strength once or twice a year, but real-time monitoring ensures they’re at full strength at all times. However, delegating this task exclusively to humans can lead to alert fatigue, causing staff to miss real threats or generate false alarms.
Artificial intelligence (AI) can be a significant asset in monitoring cybersecurity compliance. Enterprises must ensure they use explainable models so they can understand why an algorithm made the decision it did. Explainability enables experts to identify incorrect connections and biases so the AI functions as intended.
2. Ensure additional parties follow protocol
Workers and third parties are also an important line of defense in building compliance and security. Some staff have access to incredibly sensitive data, and they could grow lax about proper procedure over time. Third parties may not care as much as their partners about being robust, so an attack on them could spread incredibly far. To avoid both possibilities, brands must establish cybersecurity rules.
Employees require ongoing training to alert them of new threats, teach them what to look out for and refresh concepts they previously learned. They must acknowledge their vital role in risk management and treat their position with the sensitivity it deserves.
It’s crucial to evaluate third parties’ security efforts before signing or renewing contracts for a better view of their cybersecurity systems than just what regulations they comply with. Those following the minimum recommendations likely don’t keep up with their cybersecurity throughout the year, which can make them targets.
3. Create real-time actions
Compliance reflects a single moment, but security covers every moment. True security anticipates the evolving nature of threats and avoids treating compliance like a one-and-done checklist. Human teams and digital tools must play a part in reacting to a breach and monitoring for one in real time to avoid the worst-case scenario.
Robust, enterprise-specific fortifications should work alongside compliance requirements. Tools from firewalls to identity and access management, network and cloud monitoring, and digital forensics should be in place to keep data as safe as possible.
Become both compliant and secure
“Compliance” and “security” are connected, but they involve different strategies. While compliance is necessary in many ways, brands must be even more vigilant to make themselves truly secure. Achieving both can make operations that much more resilient.