Navigating cybersecurity regulations: A practical guide for security integrators
Security integrators need to consider much more than just the practicality and efficiency of the solutions they install. As the cybersecurity landscape grows more complex and demand for responsive threat management evolves, so do regulations and laws surrounding what’s expected from service providers.
Guidance regarding cybersecurity is always changing. Given changing trends in artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT), compliance and regulations exist to protect everyday people in line with new technology.
Service providers, therefore, need to ensure their cybersecurity measures are planned and installed by integrators who are in tune with industry compliance standards and regulations. Let’s explore what that means in practice.
Understanding Cybersecurity Regulations
It’s important to understand that there are different cybersecurity regulations that apply to different industries and businesses. For example, HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, specifically safeguards healthcare data.
Then, there’s the GLBA, or the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which ensures financial data is securely handled and processed. That’s without mentioning the important PCI DSS regulations, or the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.
Cybersecurity frameworks in play covering widespread networking and data provision include ISO/IEC 27001 and NIST compliance standards; however, these are purely acronyms on a page without some form of practical action.
It can be complex for security integrators to navigate regulatory compliance, particularly when laws and measures are always changing. However, provided they follow a series of best practices, they can ensure service providers and clients remain compliant for their customers and protected against lawsuits.
Role of Security Integrators in Regulatory Compliance
The role of security integrators in regulatory compliance is pivotal. Business owners are reliant on integrators to ensure their systems are fully compliant and are protecting sensitive data around the clock.
Integrators have a duty to analyze client needs and to propose solutions that are not only fit for purpose but also fall in line with compliance requirements. That means integrators will do well to immerse themselves in conversations regarding regulations and to work with others to build best practices and knowledge about what’s required and what’s recommended.
Staying ahead of threats and keeping in line with regulatory recommendations will require research. It will also require integrators to completely immerse themselves in their work and to genuinely care about ensuring clients receive the best possible cybersecurity that’s compliant and effective.
Ultimately, security integrators have a duty to not only adhere to compliance standards and expectations but also to go above and beyond. Otherwise, the companies they work with will risk falling behind when technology evolves further.
Technologies Enhancing Compliance Efforts
Multiple technologies can help integrators and cybersecurity experts enhance compliance efforts. For example, several AI and machine learning applications can build knowledge regarding new threats and vulnerabilities and can alert end users when compliance is at risk.
Integrators can also use IoT devices to ensure that networking devices communicate with each other automatically, reducing and removing human oversight and errors. By collating threat data and analysis regularly, clients and integrators always have real-time information to work with. That reduces guesswork and essentially helps people to make more informed decisions when it comes to adhering to compliance.
Integrators can also use specific framework templates, such as Airbyte’s EtLT, which helps to extract and transform data to ensure compliance with GDPR.
Data encryption is an absolute must when it comes to ensuring information is protected in line with changing compliance standards. Although compliance methods and measures will change over time, the need to encrypt and safeguard data will remain just as vital.
Therefore, integrators will frequently consider using complex cloud setups, for example, to secure data away from on-site locations and to encrypt it across multiple disparate servers. It is just one solution for data protection that can futureproof companies against compliance breaches.
Ultimately, any technology that security experts recommend to help safeguard data will help to support compliance needs. The issue remains, however, that everyone involved with handling said data and the technology involved needs to stay educated and up to speed on what compliance actually looks like—and what the latest changes are.
Integrators can help their clients understand compliance basics and help them understand where to find the latest news. This isn’t necessarily in their job spec—but as knowledgeable experts, they’re in a position to impart useful insight.
Moving forward, they could even help businesses collaborate on compliance knowledge in-house—with compliance communication solutions.
Continuous Compliance and Monitoring
Perhaps most important of all, end users need to stay compliant with various practices and laws by regularly monitoring their cybersecurity standards. Cybersecurity is not a one-and-done arrangement.
As any qualified, conscientious security integrator and cybersecurity expert will advise, continuous monitoring ensures companies are on top of updating software and upgrading hardware when needed.
For example, an arrangement as simple as vulnerability scanning can help firms to spot and take action against emerging threat vectors. Working with integrators, they can also run penetration tests to mimic would-be attackers—and find any gaps in security that could put compliance at risk.
Crucially, you can never monitor cybersecurity too much—which is why it’s important to set up a strong relationship with integrators and cybersecurity personnel.
Conclusion
Security integrators are many businesses’ first contacts when it comes to ensuring their data is safeguarded within measures set by complex compliance laws.
Therefore, they have a duty to keep up to speed on best practices surrounding cybersecurity compliance standards and how emerging threats challenge them.
Thankfully, there are various tools and supports integrators and experts can use to keep ahead of big changes—but everything starts with education!
