The Role of Security Compliance Management in Modern Risk Mitigation

As a business owner, it’s highly important to ensure that your business is secure and safe from online threats. Risk and compliance management is an important part of ensuring that your business is in safe hands. 

Nearly half a billion online attacks have been registered recently. This isn’t a small number and leaves many organizations concerned about their security levels and leaving them uncertain if they’re following the rules or not. 

In this article, we’ll be learning more about the role of security compliance management in modern online environments and how you can protect your business at all costs. 

The importance of risk management 

Risk management is important for any online business since it helps you identify all potential threats to your business and create necessary strategies for preventing them. Also, it helps you comply with legal regulations by implementing the necessary strategies and preventing your business from any large financial losses. 

It only takes one attack to hurt your business and even hurt your reputation. Once you lose your business reputation, it’s increasingly difficult to get it back. 

5 Steps to take for compliance management 

Compliance management is all about following applicable laws and regulations. Developing a set of procedures and policies for complying with these laws and regulations and training employees to remain compliant with them. Here are a few effective risk and compliance strategies you can follow and implement in your online business. 

1. Create your risk and compliance management plan 

This plan is a document that outlines all business strategies for managing risks and complying with the laws and regulations. Your plan should identify all risks and classify their likelihood of them happening to your online business. 

Additionally, it’s your job to set up a strategy for preventing these risks from happening to your business. 

2. Encourage team communication 

Security compliance becomes more complicated when team members are not communicating with each other. The security team is the first line of defense when it comes to cyber attacks. 

Teamwork ensures that each individual is brainstorming and suggesting new ideas to each other. One staff member might not be too familiar with recent technologies, so it’s important the entire team teaches one another to ensure the best practices for the organization. 

3. Train your team 

Your team can’t be a reliable source of security if they don’t know what steps to take to prevent online attacks. Training employees for risk and compliance management, also, to follow the company's policies and procedures is a mission that each business should focus on. 

This should be done at the beginning when a new employee joins. Don’t leave it for later and make sure that each employee is putting policies and procedures as part of their job responsibilities. 

4. Use financial reporting software 

Failing to comply with the proper security measures might be an issue. IFRS 2 expensing allows you to account for all expenses that are related to stocks, RSUs, or phantoms with custom reports. 

With financial reporting software, you can save your preferred views and export what you need based on your reporting requirements and region. 

5. Always update your software 

Regardless of which software you are using, it’s important to always update your software. Over time, any software can create bugs and it leaves more space for cyber criminals to attack. After all, let’s not forget that threats are changing over time and new risks are being invented. 

Not updating software will not only make it easier for cybercriminals to perform attacks on you, but it’ll also make you seem like an easy target as well. 

Types of data subject for cybersecurity compliance 

Each sector has its own regulatory standards and compliance rules that need to be followed for security and privacy. Some regulations apply to numerous industries and let’s not forget that compliance rules will change in each country. 

Even if you go to the United States, each state will have different cybersecurity compliance rules. Let’s take a deeper look at certain industries and the type of data subject to cybersecurity compliance. 

European Union (EU) data compliance 

You’ve most likely heard of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Act. The GDPR claims that each violation made could result in fines larger than 10 million Euros. The more the data breach, the higher the cost of the fines will be. 

The GDPR accounts for all data breaches done within EU boundaries and those conducting business with EU states. 

Healthcare & financial data compliance 

Both healthcare and financial data compliance are important. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability act (HIPAA) includes penalties of up to $50,000 for every violation. Many penalties can be imposed for international violations which can lead to imprisonment. 

Regarding financial data compliance, you’ll need to check on the PCI DSS regulations. If you break regulations, you might need to face PCI penalties that impact your organization's finances and even reputation. 

US data compliance 

When we do business in a country like the United States, the major policy you need to comply with is the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). CCPA penalties start from $2500 per non-intentional violation and $7500 per intentional violation. 

Don’t be fooled by these small numbers. Over time, they can grow and really hurt a business's finances and long-term reputation. 

The reason security compliance management ensures safety 

Compliance ensures that you are promoting cyber safety analyzing risks at all times to protect data and adapting to an action plan in case any breach does occur. Here are a few reasons why cybersecurity compliance is important in a cybersecurity perspective: 

• Builds trust: Following regulations and remaining compliant shows that your business is serious and cares about its customers' data. Over time, this builds trust. 

• Increases security control: Allows companies to increase their control over their IT infrastructure prevent file corruption, and data losses, and reduce the amount of time required to fight online attacks. 

• Reduces losses: Increasing cybersecurity measures also means that data breaches are much less likely to happen. Or, even if they do happen, the amount of damage they’ll do is much lower than when they attack your business unexpectedly. 

• Improves security compliance: Allows organizations to improve their cybersecurity compliance rate by surpassing minimum security requirements. 

Your business reputation matters a lot and if you don’t take good care of it, things might not turn out to be good in the long-term. Customers will always buy from companies they trust and the more comfortable you make them feel, the better they’ll feel being loyal. 

The consequences of poor security compliance 

When you get involved in corporate risks, it’s quite easy to see why security compliance management matters a lot. Businesses that are working remotely, have a higher chance of facing more cyber threats and risks. Not paying much attention to them isn’t a good idea and can result in long-term consequences. 

Here are some risks you can face when you refuse risk management compliance: 

• Regulator fines: We mentioned global privacy acts like the GDPR, CPRA, and others. You wouldn’t want to get into trouble with these guys and face huge fines. These fines can not only destroy your business reputation but also make you pay these fines for years. 

• Inefficient systems: Poor security compliances increase network risks and make them harder to control. Without taking the right compliance, you’re falling behind competitors and making remote work less effective. Managers might get more demotivated which will lead to further issues later on. 

• Phishing attacks: Data security breaches aren’t the only concern to security compliance management, but all businesses that refuse to comply with security standards and seem like an “easy target” to cybercriminals. 

Reading about the risks you’ll be facing, it’s always a better idea to remain compliant and save your business from having to pay big fines and lose its long-term reputation. 

Security compliance is always a better choice 

Trust is the most important trait a customer can give you and when you lose it, it’ll most likely never come back. Customers are becoming more aware of data risks and would prefer avoiding companies that easily expose sensitive data. 

Moreover, businesses that remain compliant won’t have to deal with penalties from global regulators. These fines don’t just do financial damage to your company, but they might inform potential clients that your business is no good. 

Last but not least, having security compliance management also contributes to more effective working operations. Compliant businesses are better managed, more effective, and have more available information for usage. After all, even if you put yourself in the customer's shoes, you’d want to feel secure as well. 

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