IT, security and compliance officers discuss the issues relating companies these days and what steps organizations can take to reduce potential regulatory compliance risks and security threats.

“Failure to meet rules and guidelines set by compliance standards could mean fines, penalties and loss of trust.” Andrew Hodes

IT departments are not only to be entangled by the security risks these days but also have to comply with the various industry and federal regulations to keep sensitive customer data safe and to uphold the trust levels of the potential customers. With the ongoing notion of BYOD

(Bring Your Own Device) it’s an up keeping task for the organizations to comply to the industry and federal regulation standards. Its very vital for the organizations to tap these potential compliance vulnerabilities to function and deliver in alignment to the industry and federal regulations. Some of the biggest hiccups to the organizations to keep complaint are

1. Employees: Employees play a vital role in compliance .Adherence to industry and federal standards are purely employee oriented and controls to tap this leakage is very essential for an organization. To overcome this threat, it’s important to educate all employees on different ways information can be acquired through very low-tech methods and give them tools they can use.
2. Cloud Service Providers.To ensure that sensitive data is being properly protected in the cloud, choose a trusted service provider. Cloud services present significant benefits in of cost savings, scalability, flexibility, however, to ensure that your or your customer’s data is properly protected and in compliance with all relevant regulations, the vendor/service provider should meet the underlying regulatory requirements, whether the cloud is engineered to be HIPAA-ready or to comply with PCI or FISMA standards.
3. To avoid the potential theft of data from mobile workers, provide travel laptops to employees and create specific information security policies to protect the network from cyber penetration.
4. Third-Party Apps (S hadow IT).The biggest compliance-related issue facing CIOs today is shadow IT, a threat caused by the use of unseen third-party solutions including devices and apps, the flow of data and information in an unregulated unchecked manner causes a potential compliance threat to the stakeholders.  Educate end users; give CIOs the controlled power to constantly assess services for suitability; and deploy modern enterprise cloud solutions to solve overall compliance problems.

ASHUTOSH JOSHI
MBA (IT) 4th SEM