Best Practices For Building A Cyber Security Compliance.
As cyber threats become more dangerous, a single data breach may rip each department apart. That’s why data security compliance is everyone’s responsibility to a company, from the IT department to the business owner.
That’s why authorities are introducing new standards and requirements to keep online businesses and their customers safe from cyberattacks. However, building cyber security compliance might be complicated, so we’ve compiled the best practices to help you out.
1-) Educate your IT security professionals on compliance
IT security teams are the ones who will build compliance by adjusting your network and cybersecurity infrastructure.
Before proceeding, you need to educate them on the specific requirements. They can’t create a compliant business without knowing what to protect or use.
Remember that multiple major requirements exist, such as FISMA for the US or GDPR for the European Union. So, your compliance process is highly related to the binding standards. You can learn about these standards from this page and educate your team.
2-) Conduct frequent risk analysis
Data breaches can always happen no matter how protected your network is. Sometimes, you encounter new types of cyberattacks unknown to your security system.
This means you must always assess your network and reveal the risk levels of different data types. Start by specifying all the pieces of your network your employees can access.
Then, categorize these data by confidentiality grades; for example, your customers’ ID numbers are high-risk information, while order numbers might be less confidential.
After you define every piece of information you have, analyze the risks by considering cyber threats and the potential cost of a data breach.
This process will help you weigh more in highly confidential data to exercise the right policies and protect your network.
3-) Use the latest cybersecurity services and controls
One of the most important things about cyber security compliance is having the right tools in your arsenal to protect your network against malicious users. You need to use the latest services and security controls.
Federal Communications Commission’s guideline on creating a comprehensive security structure is a great start. After you learn about these controls, choose the most suitable ones for your network.
These services may and should include data encryption protocols, firewalls, VPNs, and verification tools. Cybersecurity controls automate your threat detection and response while building a superior structure.
4-) Limit access to sensitive data
It’s a big mistake to focus only on the prevention policies for external threats. Most companies believe data breaches will come from outside, but that’s not always true.
Employee-related threats to corporate data are significant, and according to IBM’s report, insider incidents take two months to contain. Thus, you need to be very careful not to grant every employee access to sensitive data.
One method to ensure sensitive data security is layering access permissions and giving access to personal data to specific team members, maybe only supervisors. The trick is categorizing the network and creating an access scheme based on position and verification.
5-) Secure backups of your network
Secure backups are the last response to a network failure or ransomware attack. You need to always have the latest version of the network securely backed up. These backups will let your IT team quickly recover from potential incidents.
Protecting your network from deletion and tampering is also crucial to cyber security compliance. Encrypted backups are the most straightforward yet effective way to take action against data corruption or private data loss.
Don’t forget that providing business continuity and restoring quickly from attacks go a long way to maintaining compliance.
Takeaway
Building cyber security compliance is a process that includes multiple actors and actions for success. We know it’s a long and challenging path, but proven practices make it much easier. Before you do anything else to build compliance, ensure these recommendations are in place. They will collectively help your company become transparent, protected, and action-ready against cyber attacks. Business data is the single most valuable asset of companies, and compliance ensures that it is secure.
