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Digital transformation offers many benefits for today’s industries, boosting efficiency, lowering overhead, simplifying scaling, and increasing market opportunities. At the same time, online operations have unleashed new challenges, such as the rising risks of cyberattacks. Your business can enjoy the advantages of digital processes, but to get there, you have to comply with industry regulations for data security. This guide outlines compliance regulations by industry, helping you identify priorities and set goals for your organization.
Along with employment and tax laws, virtually every business must comply with industry regulations. Some standards are industry-specific, but others apply to a wide range of industries, from retail to restaurants. No overview of compliance regulations would be complete without the following frameworks.
Cyberattacks threaten companies in every industry, including healthcare, manufacturing, finance, retail, and professional services. In 2023, more than 70% of businesses experienced a ransomware attack, and 25% got hit multiple times.
To mitigate risks, many organizations use one of the following frameworks:
These frameworks have requirements for access controls, anti-malware tools, risk mitigation strategies, and compliance management.
PCI DSS compliance is mandatory for all businesses that process credit cards, debit cards, and mobile payments, such as:
PCI DSS mandates procedures and systems to protect sensitive data. Compliance regulations require up-to-date network security, system monitoring, vulnerability testing, and measures to prevent unauthorized access.
If your business has a location in Europe, sells products in the UK or EU, or serves overseas clients, you have to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation. This law gives individuals significant protections for personal data.
Businesses must obtain consent before capturing, storing, or processing data from EU residents. You must limit how much data you collect and how long you store it. GDPR also establishes strict data security controls for your organization and intermediaries when transferring data out of the EEU.
Medical records and health data are among the most sensitive information possible, so it’s not surprising that the healthcare industry has to comply with many government regulations. Laws apply to hospitals, private clinics, health insurers and HMOs, home healthcare providers, nursing homes, and third-party processing services.
HIPAA regulations require healthcare providers to safeguard the protected health information of patients, preventing unauthorized disclosure, access, or breaches. To be HIPAA compliant, you must:
HIPAA regulations also stipulate that medical records must be made available to patients on demand. This means you have to store patient documents (e.g., test results and insurance forms) in an organized but secure system.
HITECH regulations emphasize the need for strong cybersecurity protections and data breach prevention measures with electronic health records. HITECH also calls for periodic audits of privacy and security practices. Auditors look at policies, compliance documentation, and employee practices.
To be HITECH-compliant, healthcare organizations must use secure digital order entry tools for diagnostic images, medication, and lab tests. They must facilitate electronic documents promptly and notify affected patients (and potentially the Department of Health and Human Services) of any data breaches quickly.
Hospitals, home healthcare providers, and other healthcare organizations that participate in Medicare and Medicaid programs must continue meeting a list of standards for health, safety, and quality of care. These compliance regulations are called Conditions of Participation. Every 18 to 24 months, facilities must go through a recertification process that is usually administered by a state accreditation body. Non-compliance can carry financial penalties and result in loss of participation in all federal health programs.
This regulation prohibits medical professionals from receiving financial incentives (including non-cash benefits) in exchange for prescribing certain drugs or referring patients. The goal is to prevent quid-pro-quo exchanges with drug companies or other doctors. Compliance with AKS regulations means documenting any communications or transactions with other healthcare organizations.
The Cures Act requires hospitals, health information networks, physicians, and other healthcare providers to share electronic health records when requested. Patients can request copies of their EHR, and so can attending doctors. Non-compliant networks or healthcare providers can face civil penalties, especially in situations that endanger patients.
The financial sector is one of the most regulated in the United States. Some statutes focus on federally insured banks, and other standards apply primarily to investment businesses.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act affects all publicly traded companies and financial institutions. SOX regulations require enterprises to maintain accurate financial records and avoid deceiving investors or shareholders.
This framework also includes cybersecurity requirements for safeguarding financial data and preventing unauthorized access. Vulnerability assessments, data loss prevention measures, and breach mitigation play significant roles in SOX data security initiatives. Many businesses that are required to comply with SOX follow a governance, risk, and compliance framework.
SOX-compliant organizations must implement internal controls to prevent fraud or records tampering. The Securities and Exchange Commission requires periodic attestations and financial reports, including annual third-party audits. These audits evaluate the accuracy of financial records and the effectiveness of data security programs.
The Dodd-Frank Act aims to prevent the type of high-risk financial behavior that contributed to the 2007 and 2008 housing crises and global recession. Regulations such as the Volcker Rule ban proprietary trading and limit speculative investments for banks over a certain threshold.
Dodd-Frank also contains strict regulations for derivatives and requires increased disclosure regarding trading risks. This wide-ranging act primarily applies to banks and lending institutions (especially mortgage lenders), but it also affects insurance companies and credit agencies.
The GLBA establishes compliance regulations for data integrity, cybersecurity, and customer consent for data processing. Its purpose is to make clients aware of how their data is used, protect their financial information, and prevent data breaches or unauthorized changes of non-public personal information.
GLBA impacts banks, alternative lenders, insurers, plans, brokers, investment advisors, and other organizations that offer financial services or products. To comply with GLBA, your organization must:
Many U.S. financial institutions use SOC 2 Type 2 or ISO 27001 frameworks for cybersecurity compliance with GLBA.
BSA and AML compliance regulations require banks to take steps to fight money laundering. Under these standards, financial institutions must verify all transactions, keep careful records, and report any suspicious activities (especially related to terrorism) to law enforcement agencies.
Fintech companies, payment gateways, merchant underwriters, and other financial services companies often have a much larger scope under PCI DSS regulations. Unlike businesses that mainly interact with credit card data through a point-of-sale system, financial businesses often deal with cardholder data directly. PCI DSS compliance can involve more than 300 controls, including:
Financial organizations that process more than 6 million transactions a year (or 2.5 million+ with American Express) have to pass an annual audit by a PCI Security Standards Council certified Internal Security Assessor or Qualified Security Assessor.
Financial companies must also comply with regulations imposed by their respective government oversight agencies. Brokerage firms and traders have to adhere to SEC guidelines for registration of securities, financial reporting, tender offers, and trading practices.
The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council oversees regulations for banks and credit unions. In addition to other standards, the FFIEC requires lenders to implement the IT safeguards outlined in 10 detailed handbooks. Rules outline data security practices for architecture, infrastructure, operations, third-party vendors, payment systems, and more.
Many financial organizations must also comply with the Federal Trade Commission’s Standards for Safeguarding Customer Information, a set of standards for implementing an information security program. Consumer finance companies, wire transfer businesses, collection agencies, tax preparers, investment advisors, and mortgage brokers are subject to the Safeguards Rule.
Manufacturers have to deal with a vast number of regulations — more than 210,000 restrictions for manufacturing in general. To make matters more complex, new regulations are added every year, often hundreds of major requirements from a variety of federal agencies. Here are some of the most prominent regulations for manufacturers.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration requires manufacturers to meet strict safety standards for workers. These regulations govern everything from walking surfaces and access points to personal protective equipment and facility maintenance.
OSHA also has specific guidelines for hazardous materials, electrical safety, fire safety, and noise levels. All in all, there are more than 250 separate standards.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration oversees Good Manufacturing Practices for food and beverage manufacturers, pharmaceutical enterprises, medical device manufacturers, and cosmetics companies. The purpose of GMP regulations is to minimize manufacturing failures, contamination problems, errors, deviations, allergies, and other product safety issues.
To achieve GMP-compliant, organizations must:
Each step in GMP compliance must be documented. FDA inspectors regularly perform facility audits for current GMP standards and review production records. Serious failures can lead to wide-ranging product recalls.
The Environmental Protection Agency regulates the oil and gas industry, petrochemical manufacturers, automotive manufacturers, and other manufacturing businesses that process or create hazardous materials, toxic chemicals, pesticides, emissions, or wastewater. EPA compliance regulations are highly specific, targeting each area of manufacturing individually. For example, there are standards for plastics manufacturing, textiles, petroleum products, chemicals, and even furniture coatings.
Automobile manufacturers must additionally comply with NHTSA regulations for safety, identification numbers, theft prevention, fuel economy, and vehicle certification. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards require objective safety tests and adherence to performance standards for vehicles and safety components.
Compliance with ISO 9001 isn’t mandatory in theory. There’s no government requirement to follow ISO guidelines for quality management systems. In practice, however, customers often expect manufacturers to have ISO 9001:2015 certification.
Careful recordkeeping is essential at every step to document customer interactions, product development, manufacturing processes, and the quality of finished goods. ISO 9001 compliance also requires records of internal audits, corrective actions, and results.
What nearly all industry regulations have in common is the need for compliance monitoring, documentation, and audits. Compyl is a state-of-the-art solution. Automated workflow and compliance management tools give your organization complete control over reporting, document generation, compliance processes, and data security implementation.
Unify policies, risk assessments, and workforce follow-through seamlessly. Discover Compyl’s extensive list of frameworks and compliance regulations by industry today.
