IT compliance refers to businesses meeting all legal requirements, standards and regulations for the all the technology their company uses. Achieving these standards means following all industry regulations, government policies, security frameworks and customer terms of agreement to ensure the security and appropriate usage of software in business. In addition to protecting the security of businesses and customers, compliance standards promote the availability and reliability of services, and it ensures businesses use technology as per the industry standard
The standards for this compliance vary by industry. For example, the health care and finance industries must meet certain industry-specific compliance laws to protect themselves and their customers. In health care, organizations must follow legal guidelines that protect the privacy and confidentiality of their patients when using digital health care services or who have their medical records stored electronically. Businesses that conduct e-commerce need to meet certain regulations to store, process and transmit their customers’ payment information safely. Additionally, other compliance expectations can vary by the size of your business and the customers you serve.
Companies often find they must meet the requirements of multiple regulators and contractual commitments. In such cases, the best method to approach the situation is to outline all of the regulations that will impact the company first, and then determine which security controls need to be implemented to satisfy all of the requirements effectively.
There are often overlapping requirements built into different regulations, so by breaking it down into two phases, companies can reduce the amount of time and money they would otherwise spend by reducing the duplicate effort of implementing competing systems.
National institute of standard and technology(NIST):This framework was created to provide a customizable guide on how to manage and reduce cybersecurity related risk by combining existing standards, guidelines, and best practices. It also helps foster communication between internal and external stakeholders by creating a common risk language between different industries.
GDPR: This regulates the data protection and privacy of citizens of the European Union.Any company doing business in the European Union or handling the data of a citizen of the European Union.
PCI-DSS: A set of 12 regulations designed to reduce fraud and protect customer credit card information. Companies handling credit card information.