Your company needs IT compliance consulting to ensure it follows the regulations and standards established for your industry. Virtually every industry in the business landscape today utilizes an IT infrastructure somehow, making IT compliance necessary at all times.
The government and private institutions, particularly the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS; the conglomerate which issues credit cards, such as Amex, Visa, and Mastercard), set the compliance standards.
The compliance needs may vary per industry, making it difficult for smaller companies to keep up with compliance. However, these businesses can team up with third-party companies dedicated to IT compliance to improve their regulatory operations.
At Digital Maelstrom, our team navigates the compliance needs established in any industry to keep your business compliant. We keep up with the constantly developing IT security measures so your small or medium enterprise can focus on core competencies. Here is a closer look into IT compliance and how a dedicated consulting company can improve your business operations.
What Is IT Compliance?
IT compliance refers to the relevant guidelines and laws in a specific industry. Regardless of your industry, you must be dependent on tech for efficiency. For instance, if you run a business in the healthcare sector, you may manage Personal Health Information (PHI).
PHI protection is necessary under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH). As such, you must take all necessary precautions to protect PHI confidentiality, integrity, and availability under the HIPAA/HITECH and other federal or state laws.
Compliance involves the tailored adoption of controls and measures that are relevant for your business in alignment to established standards. Failure to meet any standards relevant to your industry may lead to a breach, which could result in further consequences, such as loss of business, loss of reputation, fines, lawsuits, and criminal prosecution.
Suffering these consequences due to failure to adhere to some compliance frameworks can block your ability to process credit cards. After all, the PCI DSS plays a part in compliance needs. Furthermore, you would lose contracts and partners, ultimately losing money.
Despite its necessity, IT compliance is hard and costly work. Large businesses dedicate entire teams to keep up with these changes. These teams would implement risk assessment and management strategies. Meanwhile, these large companies can afford to have another team remain aligned with their core business goals.
Since small businesses have limited resources, an IT compliance consulting service provider could help them focus on their primary operations. Our IT experts at Digital Maelstrom can work with small and medium businesses as their dedicated IT compliance team.
Why Is IT Compliance Necessary?
Customers and clients expect to entrust their private information to a secure and reputable company. They could face harmful repercussions if they lose their data due to non-compliance on your end. For instance, your clients could have had their identity stolen in a real estate scam that would cost them their entire life’s savings.
You want to avoid data breaches that would expose your clients’ and customers’ private information. In 2020, at least 155.8 million individuals suffered data exposure. Affected individuals have the right to seek legal action against your company should they determine that you failed to protect their data.
In other industries, failure to meet compliance standards may require your business to take remediation programs. These programs essentially teach you what the industry expects your business to know but are not following. Remediation programs can also be expensive, contributing to your company’s potential losses.
As such, having a secure IT organization builds trust between you and your clients. In addition, it protects you from the costly fees associated with leaked information (data breaches cost $4.24 million in 2021). While cyber insurance can help cover these expenses, remaining compliant from the beginning may boost your chances of saving money.
How IT Compliance Consulting Companies Help
A third-party company dedicated to the rapid changes in Information technology helps businesses focus on their core competencies. Small and medium businesses with limited resources can especially benefit from consulting IT compliance companies.
IT compliance consulting companies ensure that your company and people understand the current rules relevant to your industry. They would guide you through the existing processes. Accordingly, you would adopt strategies and implement controls to ensure you avoid breaches.
Note that rules may change at any time. The IT compliance consulting service provider is in charge of monitoring for changes in compliance requirements, laws, regulations, and other frameworks, ensuring that your company remains compliant amid the updated rules.
In particular, the IT sector sees rapid changes that could reflect in other industries one way or another. For example, businesses may utilize the constantly evolving communication technology. Most modern instant messaging platforms have utilized encryption in-motion for years. However, what they often fail at is to implement a form of encryption at-rest. This encryption form is a means to ensure that a breach of your account today cannot access personal data sent months to years ago.
To adapt with such changing rules and guidelines, part of IT compliance consulting services is education. Professional service providers like Digital Maelstrom ensure that people in your team understand these things. Understanding the rules is the first step in avoiding breaching the regulations.
Conclusion: When Does My Company Need IT Compliance Consulting?
Your company needs IT compliance consulting when it utilizes information technology in one way or another. Nearly all businesses in any industry use technology in their everyday operations, whether it is to keep company data or store client information. Any company must comply with the regulations in place to protect everyone’s information.
Small and medium-sized businesses may not have as many resources as large companies to remain compliant with the ever-changing IT regulations. Rules change and vary per industry, making a dedicated team necessary for a company to remain compliant with IT regulations.
These smaller companies may benefit from an IT compliance consulting company such as Digital Maelstrom. We can serve as your business’s IT team dedicated to the rapidly changing industry regulations, ensuring your company’s compliance with the set rules. Get in touch with our experts to determine your options and next steps toward IT compliance.