SOX, FINRA, FERPA, HIPAA, and PCI DSS can be as indecipherable as they sound. They’re tricky to deal with if you’re a small to medium business. Keeping track of the myriad regulations can be a full-time job for one person.
All these acronyms revolve around data security compliance regulations. They differ from industry to industry and state to state. It’s like assembling a puzzle to know which ones apply to your business and which do not.
Running afoul of these regulations can be detrimental to your business. They involve hefty fines and legal action. And not being compliant puts your company data or your customer’s sensitive information at risk.
How do you piece the regulation puzzle together to assure your data is safe? Hire an expert. They’re not hard to find.
A data security compliance consultant can determine which regulations apply to your company. Analyze your current IT situation regarding data security and find the holes. Recommend solutions to bring your company into compliance. Obtain the required certifications of data security compliance.
It’s postulated 20% of attacks focus on small to medium businesses. Assuming your network is too insignificant for an assault is not a good defense. Your firewall must be unscalable.
Data sharing must remain confidential between authorized parties only. All those devices running around the office can’t share with whoever. Employees need easy access to data without compromising security.
It’s a bewildering puzzle, and unpleasant things can happen if you’re not compliant.
Author: Kris Keppeler, writer for Crossing Genres, and The Must Go List on Medium.com, and Does This Happen to You? on Channillo. Follow her @KrisKKAria on Twitter.
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