Businesses these days hold a lot of data when compared to earlier times. Due to this, companies need to lay a lot of focus on how this data is stored, protected, shared, and used. If your company fails to look after the confidentiality of such data, it can impact the reputation of your business greatly.
Also, in case of a data security breach, companies may also be liable to pay huge sums as a penalty. In the past few years, the complexity and number of security regulations that companies need to comply with have increased immensely.
Authorities have done this to gain control of the data that is stored on the cloud and on servers throughout the world. The value of penalty fees, if such security regulations are not followed, has also increased.
This shows that focusing on data protection has now become more important than ever. If you want to know how to meet the most common data compliance management standards, read on!
HIPAA
HIPAA or Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act clearly detail the security measures that need to be taken care of by particularly the businesses in the medical and healthcare industry.
HIPAA is aimed at securing the confidentiality of the patient records and when a business fails to do so they would be liable to pay huge sums of fee as a penalty. HIPAA requires the health records of individuals to be viewed by only those people who have valid reasons.
This goes on to show that firms in the healthcare and medical sector need to take certain measures to make encryption a must and invest in strong access controls. The compliance standards of HIPAA also apply when any such data is shared and this is why monitoring, protecting, and controlling file transfers and emails are a must.
GDPR
GDPR or General Data Protection Regulation is one of the newest data compliance standards by the European Union. GDPR includes certain regulations regarding the right of an individual to know what data of theirs is stored by a business and how the businesses are processing this data.
GDPR also imposes tighter rules when it comes to reporting a security breach. Although this compliance standard is set by the European Union, its application is not limited to the firms located in Europe.
Even if you are involved in business with a company in European Union jurisdiction, you would have to comply with the rules given out by GDPR. The main rules given in GDPR can be broadly described by three principles that are given below.
- Getting consent
- Reducing the amount of data you have
- Ensuring that the data subject’s rights are not hampered
Although it may seem like a gruesome task, you can always assign an individual who can ensure that all the GDPR guidelines are being followed. Organizations that have or use large amounts of data compulsorily need to have a data protection officer.
SOX
The intention of SOX or Sarbanes-Oxley Act is to provide protection against corporate accounting scandals. SOX is more inclined towards financial reporting than the protection of data and this is why IT professionals can ignore it since it may seem less important to them.
However, IT departments need to ensure that some of the regulations of SOX which apply to them are fulfilled. For instance, they would have to make sure that the firm’s financials are reported in real-time to CFO and CEO.
This would mean that certain systems need to be put in place to make reporting automatic and alerts need to be set that get triggered on the occurrence of a key event that needs immediate attention.
PCI DSS
PCI DSS or Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is a vital part of a process aimed at compliance for all the companies who deal with the financial information of customers. PCI DSS clearly sets out certain rules that describe how a company must protect and handle cardholder’s data.
PCI DSS is an industry-mandated rule set and not a data security compliance standard that is mandated by the government. However, this does not mean that it is not important as companies who fail to comply with these set rules would be liable to pay huge penalty sums.
A series of detailed steps showing what a firm needs to do to comply with the PCI DSS standards as set out by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council. This series has everything from protecting cardholder data to having an effective firewall in place. It also details how a company should have certain measures in place to test systems and processes regularly.
These are some of the many data protection compliance standards which your business may be required to comply with to protect yourself and your partners, employees, and customers from data stealth or breach.
