Data security compliance is perhaps the biggest issue facing corporate IT teams today. While business IT systems have continued to grow and become more complex over the years, the threats they face have rapidly evolved too and can now spell disaster for any unprepared company caught out.
But compliance isn’t just about keeping your business safe, it’s also about following rules and regulations covering business security and data. Losing customer data through negligence brings serious penalties in many countries, while the theft of business-critical data can have dire financial effects for any company too.
Because of the serious nature of compliance, it’s often recommended that you don’t try to tackle it alone. Third-party experts are often employed to manage compliance issues for businesses, and in this post we’ll explain why.
The Cost of Non-Compliance
Firstly, it’s worth considering the costs of not being compliant. The risks are two-fold – financial damage and reputational damage.
The financial costs typically come in the form of fines that arise from breaking data security laws. Regulations like GDPR have been established to protect consumer data and failing in that duty, through non-compliance with the rules, carries a hefty cost. Financial costs can also result from rectifying problems and paying to retroactively solve your security woes.
Reputational damage is the loss of confidence from your consumers, staff, shareholders and other interested parties in your business following a breach. This can be long-term damage, leading to additional financial strains long after the fact.
We go into more detail on the cost of non-compliance in this blog post here
How Third Parties Can Support Compliance
Third parties support businesses in many ways, from advice and consulting through to the day-to-day management of IT systems. Here are two main ways in which your business can receive help from experts:
Consultation and Training
Many businesses need high-level help with their enterprise mobility and security in the form of consulting and training services. Through consulting, experts can help to say out an overall strategy for your in-house teams to follow, they can identify areas of weakness or non-compliance that need solving, and can help to manage transitions between your old and new way of working.
Training involves educating your staff so that they can do the necessary work themselves in a compliant way. From general compliance tips for a business through to specialist certification for select staff, many agencies are able to offer professional training that will benefit your business now and in the long-term too.
Managed Services
From planning a migration to a new secure mobile way of working, to putting the systems in place, monitoring compliance, and keeping your services running smoothly – there’s a lot involved in good IT security management. That’s part of why many businesses opt for some level of managed service, or using third parties to complete some of the tasks for you.
Services like this range from a full-scale supply and maintenance of your system through to smaller niche services like auditing your business, designing platforms or procuring and deploying new technologies. Which you choose will depend on the capability and resource available to you, of course.
Choosing a managed service or some form of consulting can have great benefits for the long-term compliance of your business. Not only do third-party experts know what they’re looking for when spotting issues, but they also have the tools they need to rectify problems too.
