Practical approach to managing growing cybersecurity compliance challenges

Every organization has compliance, regulatory, contractual, and privacy obligations it must meet – no one is exempt. However, individual organizations have different risk appetites, tolerance levels, missions, and goals. As we talk with our clients about this, we have found the following to be some of the biggest challenges they continue to face:

1. Cybersecurity issues are a board-level concern: There is mounting pressure for security leaders to quantify (metrics), baseline, and optimize their security programs and frame the benefits in terms of the value to the business. New laws are being passed that hold executives personally accountable.
2. Struggling to adopt a unified approach to find, classify, and protect critical data: It has become incredibly challenging to build the right data security governance and controls for responding to threats and the constantly changing data-sharing requirements and privacy laws. This becomes more challenging in hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
3. Knowing how much to spend on cybersecurity risk, audit and compliance: Compliance costs vary of course, with highly regulated industries paying more, but the average annual cost of regulatory compliance, across all industries, is $5.47 million dollars(1) if you chose to be proactive. Otherwise, for organizations experiencing non-compliance issues the cost almost triples to $14.821 million dollars(1) due to fines, penalties, business disruption, productivity, and revenue loss. You can pay now or pay later, but compliance comes with a real cost – and it requires a more efficient approach that can properly cover the dramatic increase in cybersecurity risk within today’s complex hybrid environments.

Cybersecurity risk and compliance is a journey. Organizations that shift compliance from a cost of doing business to a position of strategic value can generate significant competitive advantage by enhancing their reputation and meeting broader obligations to society at large. Keep in mind that 75% of consumers will not purchase, regardless of the amount, from companies they don’t trust to protect their data.(2)

Here in IBM Security, we know our clients are looking for solutions and it’s one of the many reasons that we have invested in the development of IBM Active Governance Services (AGS). IBM AGS helps take the guess work out of managing cybersecurity risk and compliance – all with proven technology, techniques, complete visibility, and ongoing expert support. It operationalizes cybersecurity compliance across the enterprise by providing:

• Proactive governance services that are tailored to support CISOs, regulators, and auditors
• Risk reduction strategies that are scalable and centrally managed to resolution
• Custom and standard metrics, tests, and reports to support the effectiveness of the cyber risk and compliance program in effectively protecting critical data. For example, recently IBM collaborated closely with the world’s leading banks to develop a Hybrid-Cloud Metrics Model. AGS can help clients support these and other models with appropriate metrics in the reports.  
• Both manual and automated aspects of compliance across cloud, on premise, and hybrid environments

For those that need fast and demonstratable results, IBM Security’s Active Governance Services together with launch partner Telos addresses the massive increase in regulatory and compliance requirements with stringent governance and proven technology. This approach is designed to significantly move the needle of your compliance posture and reduce cyber risks at an accelerated pace.

We believe that security is a team sport, and no one can do it alone. I welcome you to learn about IBM AGS ... more announcements coming soon on LinkedIn! If you are going to the RSA Conference, visit us at booth 5759 in the North Expo hall for more insights.

Sources:

(1) Securefame Blog, 70 Compliance Statistics to Know in 2022

(2) Cybersecurity Risk: A Top Issue in the Boardroom ©2021 CyberRisk Alliance