It is impossible to overestimate the significance of cybersecurity and regulatory compliance in a time when businesses are becoming more and more digital. Data security is affected by each email sent, payment made, and customer record kept.
Additionally, maintaining compliance is now necessary due to the increasingly complex regulatory environment. However, many businesses, especially small and mid-sized ones, are finding that it takes a lot of time, money, and effort to fulfill cybersecurity compliance standards internally.
For this reason, more companies are outsourcing cyber compliance. Not just to satisfy complex legal requirements, but also to substantially increase cybersecurity, free up internal teams, and save operating expenses.
What is Cyber Compliance?
The practice of following legal, regulatory, and industry-specific guidelines intended to safeguard sensitive data and digital assets is known as cyber compliance. It guarantees that a company runs safely within the parameters set by regulatory agencies, industry associations, and governmental entities.
Common compliance requirements include:
- HIPAA for healthcare data privacy
- PCI DSS for companies handling credit card information
- GDPR for organizations managing data of EU residents
- SOC 2 for service organizations storing customer data
- ISO 27001 for information security management systems
- NIST CSF for critical infrastructure and cybersecurity governance
Cyber compliance involves everything from writing formal policies and risk assessments to employee training, audit preparation, and evidence documentation. It is a continuous process of evaluation, validation, and development rather than a one-time certification. It can easily turn into a full-time commitment if improperly handled.
Why Cyber Compliance Can Become a Burden
At first glance, cyber compliance may seem like a straightforward task: review the regulations, complete a checklist, and pass an audit. However, in practice, maintaining compliance is an ongoing and resource-intensive commitment that requires a blend of legal insight, technical expertise, and organizational coordination.
Constantly Evolving Regulations
Staying compliant requires not only monitoring changes in regulations but also translating them into technical and procedural controls within the organization. Most internal teams are not equipped with the combined legal and technological expertise needed to do this consistently and correctly.
Shortage of In-House Expertise
Cyber compliance is a specialized discipline that goes beyond IT or legal knowledge. Yet, many organizations, particularly small and mid-sized businesses, lack dedicated compliance officers or information security managers. The responsibility often falls on already-overburdened general counsel or IT personnel, leading to fatigue, errors, and oversight.
Time-Consuming, Complex Workflows
A number of continuous activities are necessary for effective compliance management, including frequent risk assessments, risk management for third-party vendors, security policy documentation, vulnerability remediation, and employee training. None of these can be hurried; they are all essential to compliance.
Audit Fatigue and Uncertainty
Audits must act as a confirmation of preparedness rather than a last-ditch effort to find missing records or proof. Regretfully, a lot of companies go into audits unprepared, with no official records or enough evidence of compliance. This leads to audit cycles that are unpleasant, time-consuming, and frequently costly.