IT Compliance: The Top 6 Regulations For Business

Doing business successfully today often involves dealing with data. Handling the sensitive data the results from online credit card transactions is just one example of why IT compliance is important. Make sure your IT team or managed service provider is monitoring for and addressing your compliance issues.

What Is IT Compliance?

IT compliance is the process of meeting a third party’s requirements. These requirements allow businesses to operate in a particular market while aligning with laws and regulations or even a certain consumer type. IT compliance centers around the following:

Industry regulations
Security frameworks
Government policies
Consumer contracts

Failure to effectively follow compliance regulations can have a serious impact on your business. A lack of IT compliance may result in a poor reputation or worse — your business could be banned from a certain geographical area or market. That’s why it’s important to have a solid understanding of key regulations that help your business become compliant.

Top 6 IT Compliance Regulations

HIPAA Compliance

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protects the privacy of medical records of all individuals and was signed into law in 1996. This law prohibits people or companies from obtaining protected personal information on a patient or consumer. It applies to insurance companies, medical providers and many other entities.

PCI DSS Compliance

The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council sets standards to protect consumer information and help reduce fraud during the processing of electronic payment transactions. These standards apply to every industry or business that accepts credit card payments and are referred to as PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards).

GDPR Compliance (and Similar)

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regulates how companies manage personal consumer data of European Union (EU) citizens. It ensures that businesses can only access data after an individual gives permission and requires companies to assess their privacy programs.

California adopted a similar privacy standard named the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), as did many other countries and localities, from Brazil (LGPD) to South Africa (POPI). GDPR is generally considered the most stringent of these regulations, therefore complying with GDPR may check other boxes as well.

Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act pertains to U.S. public companies, management firms or accounting firms. It was initiated by Congress in response to the high-profile Enron and WorldCom scandal, one of the most notable examples of corporate fraud in U.S. history. The act exposes conflicts of interest, encourages transparency and holds companies fully responsible for financial disclosures.

GLBA Compliance

Financial institutions and companies that sell financial goods and services to consumers are bound by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA). It requires financial institutions to disclose what types of consumer information they share and why. Most importantly, it allows consumers to opt out of sharing their personal data with third parties.

FISMA Compliance

Any company that has a contractual relationship with the United States government or a government contractor is bound by the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) of 2002. This federal law sets IT security standards in relation to the economic and national security interests of the U.S. All government entities also need to be FISMA compliant.

Leveraging IT Compliance Experts

It can be challenging for companies without a large internal IT team to keep up with regulation changes. Some managed services providers, such as ArcLight, can manage your IT compliance or support your internal IT staff with expertise in your industry. Contact us or book a meeting to start the conversation.