What Is an IT Compliance Policy?

A compliance policy is a system for protecting and responsibly handling personal data within an organization. It must adhere to all applicable regulations and is subject to audits that grade its effectiveness. It should involve internal evaluations and concrete data proving that the organization’s IT security policies work.

Creating a strong strategy for IT compliance is more involved than updating passwords and putting digital failsafes in place. Many organizations rely on blanket solutions for data protection, skipping over the crucial strategizing phase.

Every compliance decision should address a specific threat within your unique organization. Imprecise measures can lead to poor performance on audits, data breaches and fines.

What Does Every IT Compliance Policy Need?

Standards for IT compliance vary widely by location and by industry. However, there are several key elements every organization should incorporate.

Strategy

The first step of many compliance audits and certification applications is strategy. Before changing anything on the technical end, an organization must first identify its security vulnerabilities and rank their importance on an objective scale. Remember that every device that can access private data — including cell phones — is a potential attack surface.

Vulnerabilities include people as well as machines. Phishing scams target employees at all levels of a company, up to and including executives. Partners and third-party vendors can also be potential vulnerabilities.

Documentation

Document every step of the policy-crafting process for auditing and certification purposes. Documentation also helps an organization adjust its security strategy based on incoming data. Run preliminary IT security tests as a baseline to prove the effectiveness of new policies.

Accountability and Data

Digital threats are always evolving. Every compliance plan needs continuous ways of generating concrete data on the organization’s security strength. Accountability tools include:

• Internal surveys and interviews
• Internal tests, such as a mock phishing email sent by the IT compliance team
• Automated data-gathering programs
• External penetration tests
• External audits from regulatory organizations

Up-to-date hard numbers are the best way to convince auditors, shareholders and customers that an IT compliance policy is effective.

Technology

Meeting and maintaining compliance is a costly and labor-intensive project. An enterprise-level business may have thousands of attack surfaces and hundreds of employees who must access sensitive information. A fully manual approach to compliance is inefficient and unlikely to be successful even for small businesses, as data security is a round-the-clock job.

Encryption tools, security information and event management programs, software patch management tools and user access management tools can all be part of an IT compliance strategy. More pieces of technology does not necessarily make data more secure, however. Too many unrelated programs can make compliance overcomplicated, risking oversights and mistakes.

An  all-in-one compliance platform  can give security data at a glance and even help craft new policies to address an organization’s specific threats. These platforms also automatically gather the data required to pass audits, guiding IT compliance teams through the process. Scalable platforms offer customized options for different industries and business sizes.

How Does IT Compliance Vary Across Industries?

Each industry and location has different guidelines for private information. While every IT compliance policy has fundamental aspects in common, an organization must also adjust to fit the needs of its specific oversight legislation or board. Some of the most common compliance standards are HIPAA, GPDR and PIC DSS.

HIPAA

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is a well-known U.S. federal law that regulates the use and security of individuals’ health information. Its regulations apply to anyone in the healthcare industry or those who electronically send or receive healthcare data.

To be HIPAA-compliant, an organization cannot share any medical information without the patient’s consent. It must also keep medical information secure against digital attacks and alert anyone whose medical information is compromised in an attack.

GPDR

General Data Protection Regulations — the EU’s IT compliance laws — are stricter than most. Any organization that does business in the EU with consumer data is subject to these many regulations, which include informing consumers before gathering or using any data. Many companies are not GPDR compliant, and the EU has issued thousands of fines over the past five years, totaling nearly €4.5 billion.

PCI DSS

If an organization processes any online payments, it is subject to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. These standards apply to e-commerce businesses that use consumers’ payment card data. This data must be on secure servers with access protection, meaning that employees cannot access the data unless it is vital to their role.

FAQs

IT compliance can be a difficult subject to conceptualize since it involves many nontangible elements. Here are two common concerns.

What Is an Example of IT Compliance?

One example of IT compliance is an e-commerce business that allows customers to save their credit card numbers for faster checkout. This data should be encrypted on a secure server, and IT professionals should ensure that only the necessary employees can access the data. Periodic penetration tests must ensure the data is protected from cybercriminals.

How Might IT Compliance Change in the Near Future?

Many governments are introducing new compliance regulations in the coming years. The new California Consumer Privacy Act applies to all organizations that do business in California and is based on the GPDR model. Many other states are passing their own privacy acts with stricter compliance regulations.

Related: Compyl’s policy management software handles drafting, approvals, attestations and control mapping in one place.