The difference between compliance and security can be confusing. All you know is that you want to have a comprehensive security program in place to protect your assets while meeting all of your compliance needs. Let’s begin by clarifying the difference between each one and how they can protect your business.
What Is IT Security?
IT security protects a company’s assets by implementing effective technical controls. Security professionals are continually looking for ways to prevent attackers from harming your business’s data and IT infrastructure as well as keep damage to a minimum when they do successfully attack. Today’s IT security isn’t limited to any one field. IT now covers several areas such as cybersecurity, architecture and infrastructure management, testing, and information security which is critical to any business.
All IT security programs implement the necessary technical, physical, and administrative tools needed to meet these goals. By using the idea of integrity, confidentiality, and availability, one can create an effective InfoSec protocol. Non-repudiation authentication is also crucial to your IT security. Security professionals rely on firewalls, network segmentation, content fillers, and restricted access to keep you protected. With human error being responsible for 95% of cyber-security breaches and the constant threat of hacking, security pros know that they need even more options than ever to keep your business fully protected.
What is IT Compliance?
Compliance can overlap security, but it is different. Its main focus is the third party’s requirements. This includes government policies, industry regulations, client contract terms, or security frameworks. IT security motivates you to keep your business protected, while data security compliance allows you to effectively follow regulations in order to avoid serious consequences. This is important because a lack of compliance can have harmful effects on your business. You could lose the trust of your clients and damage your reputation. You could even end up facing financial and legal ramifications or be blocked from doing business in certain markets.
Compliance is crucial in countries that have strict data and privacy laws, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act. It is also needed in markets that have heavy regulations like finance and healthcare do. You’ll also want compliance when dealing with clients that have high confidentiality standards. Your compliance requirements depend on your industry, the clients you serve, and your size and location, along with other factors. There are several laws specific to certain businesses to consider, such as HIPAA and SOX.
Comparing IT Security and IT Compliance
IT security describes the practice of using effective technical controls to protect your assets. IT compliance is the application meant to meet a third party’s contractual requirements or regulations. IT security protects your information, is implemented for your own sake, and it will require continual maintenance. IT compliance is used to protect your business activities, meet a third party’s demands, and is completed once the third party’s satisfied. You can easily see that compliance on its own will only meet the minimum requirements.
With today’s increasingly complex cyber hacks and malware, you need full IT protection. Security professionals know that security and compliance complement each other in areas where only using one allows you to fall short. Compliance will establish a comprehensive baseline for your security program. Diligent security practices will allow you to build on this baseline in order to ensure that your company is covered completely from every possible angle. By providing an equal focus on both of these concepts, you’ll be empowered to meet all of your industry’s standards as well as demonstrate that you go above and beyond the typical commitment to digital security.
How Security and Compliance Work Together
You know that your business needs an effective IT security program to protect your critical assets. If you focus only on compliance, you’re leaving your most critical assets open to attack. Don’t think of compliance as the bare minimum. It is essential in bolstering your business’s reputation as well as bringing in new security-minded clients. The astute business professional can see that security and compliance work together to cover where one on its own may fall short of your needs.
