Compliance should be an essential part of business operations, regardless of industry. Taking preventative measures to manage compliance and mitigate risk can feel like a hassle upfront, but it can save your organisation huge costs in the long run. Compliance violations can result in fines, penalties, lawsuits, loss of reputation, and more. However, your efforts should not stop at obtaining a compliance certificate, rather they should expand to accelerate your cybersecurity posture.

Compliance frameworks to pay attention to

If you are operating in the UK, getting the Cyber Essentials accreditation is a great way to reassure your customers that you are taking all required precautions to secure your IT and their data against cyber-attacks. In addition, the certification allows you to attract new business opportunities since you are demonstrating a sound cybersecurity posture that builds on your brand name and trust. Finally, some UK government contracts even require that contractors obtain the Cyber Essentials certification.

Further, the ISO 27001 standard is designed to function as a framework for an organisation’s information security management system (ISMS). The goal of ISO 27001 is to provide a framework of standards for how a modern organisation should manage their information and data. Risk management is a key part of ISO 27001, ensuring that a company or non-profit understands where its strengths and weaknesses lie. ISO maturity is a sign of a secure, reliable organisation that can be trusted with data.

Simultaneously, organisations don’t want to get saddled with non-compliance penalties from regulators. These can be high depending on the standard set or framework with which they’re non-compliant. For example, non-compliance with European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) could incur a fine of 10 million Euros or 2% of global turnover (whichever is greater) for offences relating to child consent and transparency (Read more...)