Top Security Compliance Pitfalls Ignored by Global Enterprises

As per the latest research, the financial services business takes an average of 233 days to detect and contain a data breach. Mostly because half of the time they are completely unaware of when and where that data breach took place. Moreover, you are expected to report a data breach in the first 48 hours of its occurrence, failing to which a fine worth 20 million pounds or 4% of your global turnover can be charged, something that happens commonly amongst all major companies. As per the IAPP-EY Annual Privacy Governance Report, businesses spent around $1.3 million on average to meet various compliance requirements and were expected to put an additional $1.8 million above.

Staying forever compliant is more like a never-ending battle for your business. A single miss makes you end up with huge debt or bankruptcy. As and when a business expands, there are more rules to follow, more threats to be defended and more security holes to be looked after. There comes a stage when a minor act of putting together a compliance initiative may seem like an overwhelming task to handle.

Noting, compliance issues can pop from anywhere across the businesses operations, there are chances that you might not see them coming or worse, ignore them at first sight. In the most basic terms if you have access to sensitive customer data, no matter what the size of your company is, chances are your data can be breached and you may end up in a compliance lawsuit filed against you by your client. In the case of financial institutions, a third-party vendor’s vulnerability becomes your vulnerability that needs to be thoroughly tested. That’s precisely why you need an external security testing service provider to keep a constant check on your business and make sure you meet compliance standards at every strategic business move you make.

 

Must Read: Which is better, Bitdefender or Kaspersky? 

 

Below mentioned are six of the most basic security compliance issues companies come across:

1. Multiple Compliances

Any large size organisation with business centres across the globe may be subjected to dozens of compliance regimes that need to be abided by at every stage of their business. Even figuring out which product or service falls under which compliance regulation is a task. To add to this tussle, laws change constantly. There are local standards and cross border regulations that are incorporated to safeguard the interests of residents. Every other day a new trade treaty is put into place to ensure data privacy. The more your business grows the harder it becomes to keep up with these regulations and the complex these issues become.

2. Inadequate Implementation

With the above pointer, it’s obvious that the chances you’ll fail to abide by compliances are much more than succeeding in it. Companies that follow them diligently also fall under the red zone of multiple compliance issues. Most companies fail at interim PCI penetration testing. The regulations in this category are so many that nearly everyone fails at something or another.
Following compliances individually is difficult, tedious and confusing and hiring external help can be expensive. The reason why major companies fail at this is that any leadership is unwilling to commit the required money and time to do it right.

 

 

3. Partner Compliance

Initiatives like HIPAA are majorly designed in a manner that keeps your data secure. The ultimate objective is to make sure your client’s sensitive information is safe that helps you maintain a safe goodwill in the market. If in case a business partner or vendor breaches information, your business could be on the hook as well. Now, there are various contracts like HIPAA Business Associate Agreement (BAA), CJIS Management Control Agreements, etc that help save you from such breaches. Unfortunately, there’s little that can be done to ensure your partner holds his end of the bargain. Contractual employees, for example, can be asked to sign a BAA but ensuring they do not leak any information cannot be guaranteed.
Contracts, such as HIPAA Business Associate Agreements (BAAs) and CJIS Management Control Agreements (MCAs), can help somewhat. They put rules in place for information access, security, and responding to breaches, helping both partners stay compliant, and provide crucial legal cover should your partner lose control of protected data. In the end, all you can do is take your vendors on their word, even when your company’s reputation is on the line.

4. Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD)

With the new trend of remote working on the place and aggressively promoted across the world, more and more companies ask their employees to Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD) at work. Though companies get to save a lot of money for setting up devices and workstations for their employees, it usually comes with a compromise on data privacy. To avoid such breaches, tools such as encryption, firewalls, and anti-malware programs can be put in place. The problem arises when employees don’t take this seriously, and put convenience ahead of compliance.

Stored passwords for example are an easy gateway for hackers to get unrestricted access to your company’s data. Devices can be infected by malware and become vulnerable to data breaches.

5. Poor DLP Management

DLP or Data loss prevention is a clause that should be mentioned in every employee’s contract. Noting that to expose sensitive information, all that a hacker needs is one email containing access to internal information i.e an ID or password and the next thing you know is a wrong person having access to all your employee information. Any hacker can hack anything that any employee has access to. That is precisely why you need to filter out your company data along with limiting the number of people who have access to all your sensitive documentation. No matter how strong passwords, encryption, firewalls, and other security tools you use, you cannot protect your company against such data leakage. A strong DLP planning can come to the rescue here that helps you minimise data exposure.

 

How to Avoid Such Security Compliance Pitfalls?

Majorly all your legislation or technological changes in all possible geographical regions of the world can cause possible compliance issues or security breaches for a set compliant business as well.

Keeping a continuous security check also referred to as continuous security testing is an essential practice that needs to be adopted in every organisation. You need to be sure to understand the loopholes that come with data security whenever a new vendor and technological change has been incorporated. ImpactQA’s dynamic application security testing services effectively expose software vulnerabilities within your system to minimize risks and ensure better application security and scalability.

Leverage ImpactQA’s software & application security testing services to ensure your business is forever compliant. Schedule a call now and our security experts will get in touch with you.

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