When choosing a secure technology solution, users consider factors such as usability, flexibility, and scalability to help determine which product best fits their needs. Features that promote security and privacy also play a significant part of the decision-making process.
Another consideration is security compliance. Standards and approval bodies such as NIST, ISO, IEC, and TIA are all frameworks that help businesses understand, manage, and reduce their cyber security risk and protect their networks and data. Companies advertise compliance with these bodies in an effort to show the rigorous precautions they have taken to ensure your privacy and security are maintained.
Compliance with the requirements set forth by these organizations is critical for building a reputation of trust as well as maintaining the safety and integrity of data. It also creates an organization that is more disciplined, instills good security practices into the company culture, and streamlines data management practices.
Security compliance ensures that an organization’s policies and procedures align with a specific set of rules based on legal, regulatory, and industry standards that apply to that industry.
Once an organization has received certification from a standards approving body, they must continue taking steps to maintain compliance. Through effective compliance monitoring, an organization tracks adherence to established policies and practices and should be able to capture, report, and remediate security risks in real time, eliminating the risk of falling out of compliance.
While compliance details may differ from one directive to another, the general categories of controls remain similar and typically include requirements for access management, network security, endpoint security, patch management, encryption, as well as continuous monitoring.
Audit logs assist with monitoring data and systems for possible breaches or vulnerabilities and supports compliance, accountability, and security. Audit logging tracks all activity within a system and shows that your organization has met certain benchmarks for a specific time period. It also provides detailed information that is valuable when examining suspicious activity or troubleshooting issues. Similarly, source code auditing is a review of source code in applications to uncover errors or bugs that could affect functionality or security. This process is vital for detecting issues and preventing bugs prior to a software release.
When adopted by an organization, the goal of secure compliance (including monitoring and management) is to reduce an organization’s overall risk.
When an organization is on top of security compliance, if often means they have exemplary data management practices, they are able to keep track of sensitive assets and information, and they have a plan in place in the event of an incident. It also provides users with the confidence that your organization has taken every step necessary to protect their data.