Businesses today handle large amounts of sensitive electronic data including client information, emails, payment details and employee information.
Much of this is considered sensitive data or data that must be protected from unauthorized access.
This data can harm your business and your customers if it were to fall into the wrong hands.
To circumvent these issues, governments around the world have come up with many security and privacy regulations.
These restrictions protect your customer’s information but have created challenges with many small, medium, and large businesses who can’t keep up with regulations.
Compliance as a Service is a solution to this and is a popular solution amongst many small to medium sized businesses.
What is Compliance as a Service?
Compliance as a Service is a service level agreement (SLA) that lays out how a Managed Service Provider (MSP) will help your organization meet its regulatory compliance.
The goal of Compliance as a Service is to reduce your organization’s burden for regulatory compliance with management tasks outsourced to a managed IT services provider.
This third party can help your organization reach the regulatory compliance laid out in:
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA): A federal law for the health care industry that restricts access to individuals Protected Health Information (PHI).
- The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX): A federal act for the finance industry that requires encryption for different sets of data.
- Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS): A federal law that requires retailers to have a business justification to access cardholder data.
- The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s DFARS 7012: A federal clause for all DOD Contractors that mandates that they will implement NIST SP 800-171 no later than December 31, 2017.
What services you need to have covered varies by industry.
How Can Compliance as a Service Help My Organization?
Many organizations benefit from a Compliance as a Service (CaaS) system for their data storage and compliance management.
Compliance as a Service providers can help your organization stay within the law while saving you the time and money associated with maintaining compliance.
1. Simplified Administrative Processes
CaaS offers resources and tools you can use to simplify your administrative processes to maintain security and compliance
2. Minimal In-House Business Related Compliance
Many organizations spend excessive time on the research of regulation changes, data security, and the documentation for regulatory bodies. CaaS can help keep this work to a minimum.
3. Automatic System Updates
When there are changes to regulations, your CaaS provider can provide automatic updates without your organization’s involvement. This help alone can help save small organizations hundreds of thousands of dollars and large enterprises millions of dollars over the years with a reduction in administrative overhead.
4. Reduced Legal Risk
CaaS from a knowledgeable third party offers reduced legal risk by following the strict guidelines laid out in many federal regulations.
5. Boosted Cybersecurity from Compliance as a Service
CaaS creates boosted cybersecurity by consistently following the strict guidelines laid out in federal regulations. Doing so provides an extra layer of security and the peace of mind that your organization performs every possible way to protect client data.
6. Proof of Compliance for Data Breach Insurance Providers
CaaS offers a way to manage and report your organization’s compliance for industry specific laws and data security standards. Without this proof of compliance your organization may not be covered by your data breach insurance.
How to Improve Your Company’s Compliance and Security
As businesses continue to compile large amounts of electronically stored customer, company, and employee data, regulatory compliance is becoming more of a necessity to protect an organization’s financial stability and public image.
Compliance as a Service offers a solution for your organization to navigate the rapidly changing compliance and technology landscape without being distracted from your primary business goals.
If you’re looking to improve your company’s security and compliance — consider reaching out to an expert.
Here at Spry Squared, Inc. we help businesses address the issues associated with data breaches and non-regulatory compliance, whether that means creating simplified administrative processes or providing proof of compliance to data breach insurers.
Schedule a quick call to learn more about how a CaaS solution can help your organization.
