Global cybersecurity compliance and regulation requirements are constantly shifting, making it increasingly difficult for U.S. companies to expand internationally. Due to laws like GDPR, the U.K. and Europe have typically been ahead of the U.S. on data privacy regulation and compliance. This regulatory gap challenges American businesses wanting to expand globally and offers valuable lessons.
Understanding these regional differences is crucial. Here’s what U.S. businesses can learn from EU and U.K. cybersecurity compliance.
Navigating the Contrasts: Privacy Regulations Across Different Jurisdictions
It's become commonplace for the EU and U.K. to be ahead of the U.S. in implementing data privacy regulations. After Brexit, the U.K.'s state of privacy laws are primarily governed by its own version of the GDPR (UK GDPR) alongside the Data Protection Act 2018, which maintains standards similar to those of the EU's GDPR.
The U.S. is much more fragmented, with both federal and state laws governing data privacy. The first major data privacy law was the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which was amended and extended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (CPRA).
CCPA is the most common privacy regulation applied in the U.S. Many companies, even those outside California, often state that they follow CCPA guidelines and plan to adhere to other forthcoming regulations. Many of these regulations are based on or are similar to GDPR, and much of the proposed privacy legislation that is coming out also takes inspiration from GDPR.
Overall, Europe tends to be much stronger on the regulatory side, while the U.S. tends to be much more against regulation. A good example is when the E.U. required Apple to switch from Lightning adapters to USB-C for all devices. This wasn’t even considered in the U.S., but it was more cost-effective for Apple to standardize on USB-C globally.
The U.S. favors letting the market decide how companies should operate, whereas Europe is more prescriptive with its regulations. There’s a sentiment in the U.S. that AI should not be regulated too early, as its capabilities are not yet fully understood, and premature regulation could limit its growth.
Overcoming Challenges Faced by U.S. Enterprises in Global Compliance
U.S. companies often face overlapping compliance regulations across different states and countries. This regulatory fragmentation can hinder a company’s cybersecurity and privacy strategy by creating complexity and inconsistency in security measures.
Luckily, many new companies focused on improving data privacy, protection and security have emerged to make this process easier in recent years. They aim to help automate some tedious parts of these processes and help businesses comply with regulations like GDPR and CCPA.
While complying with these regulations does add some burden to companies, it is essential for establishing and maintaining critical security and privacy controls and protecting against a wide range of cyber threats. This is an important area where the U.S. can learn from the U.K. Every organization should implement strong data management practices, whether mandated by law or not, to ensure a strong baseline for managing internal data and the data of customers and partners.
Look for Strong Security and Privacy Partners
One way to help ensure the implementation of strong security and privacy controls is to partner with organizations that offer cybersecurity as a service.
Companies focused on cybersecurity and privacy can help you implement best practices, scale security and compliance offerings to support your customers, and help them adhere to all compliance regulations, both in the U.S. and internationally. They can also help your customers prepare for and complete an audit and integrate technologies that offer customers a customized solution based on their unique security requirements.
Using AI to Streamline Cross-Border Compliance
AI is already starting to play a big role in privacy and security compliance. Generative AI can assist in remediating and detecting security and privacy issues as they arise, helping to enforce data security controls and ensure consistency between different frameworks.
Many data privacy frameworks, such as GDPR and CCPA, have overlapping requirements. Using AI can help identify similarities across these frameworks to save time. For example, most frameworks require securing data at rest and in transit. AI tools can address this once and then apply it broadly.
In the U.S., companies must comply with standards like SOC 2® and HIPAA for data security and federal frameworks like NIST 800-53 and FedRAMP for government work. In Europe, ISO 27001 is what some consider the international equivalent of SOC 2. U.S. companies often achieve both certifications to facilitate international business. Using AI can help avoid duplicative work for certifications like SOC 2 and ISO 27001 by helping you determine which unique requirements overlap significantly.
International Collaboration on Cyber Regulation and Compliance
The U.S. has significantly improved cybersecurity regulation over the past several years, particularly with global databases like CVE that alert us to new vulnerabilities. Now, tools allow for quick patching, significantly improving response times.
Nevertheless, the U.S. could improve collaboration with the E.U. on data privacy issues, like the U.K.'s approach. This cooperation could focus particularly on regulations for data storage locations for European and U.S. residents and rules governing data transfers between regions as an extension to GDPR.
Having a federal data privacy standard in the U.S. would make collaborating with other countries on data regulation easier. Greater cohesion within the U.S. and internationally would improve how every country handles data.
The Future of Cybersecurity Regulations
U.S. regulations have largely focused on data privacy, such as data storage and cookie consent banners, but we’ve seen less emphasis on security. There aren’t many regulations requiring U.S. companies to be SOC 2 or ISO 27001 compliant based on their consumer base or business type, for example. Customers' requirements usually dictate this type of compliance.
The U.S. needs to establish baseline security standards in addition to data privacy standards. Although that hasn’t happened yet, growing legislation, such as the Proposed American Privacy Rights Act of 2024, aims to create a stronger regulatory landscape for security. This development will ensure that U.S. companies adhere to consistent security practices, complementing the existing privacy laws.
