Although many elements make up a compliance management system, they can be broken down into three central pillars consisting of the following:
1. Board of Director Oversight
Your organization's leaders shoulder a lot of responsibility, but compliance always needs to be a priority. Having a compliance system that is implemented from the top down throughout the organization can help emphasize the importance of compliance to the rest of your organization's employees. Additionally, senior management can bring the expertise and experience needed to refine your compliance effort and help your organization achieve its long-term compliance goals.
Senior management should have a clear vision for their compliance expectations and clearly communicate it to the staff and third-party vendors or contractors through communications and training. These initiatives are often led and overseen by a compliance officer or chief compliance officer. The management team is consistently updated as to the state of compliance and receives reports of any compliance issues that require tactical or strategic shifts.
2. Compliance Program
Compliance is a continuous process, and it's essential to create a list of guidelines in order to maintain compliance in the long term. A compliance program will serve as the backbone of your compliance management system and be the center where all your compliance controls and countermeasures are planned, designed, and implemented. Most of these programs include documents that contain policies, internal controls, compliance standards, and processes that are maintained by leadership and serve as references for employees to use as a benchmark for their work.
The team in charge of this program may also assign tasks to other staff members and will track workflows and communications to ensure that these actions are implemented. The team will receive regular and consistent reports and will also be responsible for providing employee training programs that are essential to ensure employee compliance. Regularly scheduled training not only helps your employees keep up with evolving government regulations, it also upgrades your organization's overall security by turning your employees' education into an extra level of protection.
3. Compliance Audit
Compliance audits are an essential part of almost every industry. Audits involve having an independent party come in and review whether your organization complies with both internal policies and regulatory requirements. A report is then compiled to give leadership the information they need to maintain compliance and identify and mitigate compliance risks. Throughout the audit, the external party (auditor) will examine and assess your systems unbiasedly.
Consistently maintaining compliance becomes challenging over time, so having an impartial expert assess your compliance provides an invaluable opportunity to make improvements. While many organizations experience audits as stressful, preparing for the audit (for example, by familiarizing yourself with the compliance requirements and keeping your records and reports in order) can help streamline the process and help your auditor quickly locate the information they need.
Another helpful preparation method is performing continuous internal audits, compliance monitoring, and risk assessments in-between external audits. This allows you to monitor your organization's compliance efforts in real-time and makes it easy to find areas for improvement.
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Top 8 Compliance Systems Management Solutions for 2023
As compliance has become more of a priority, the amount of solutions available to streamline and simplify the compliance process has increased exponentially. Although each business and industry is unique, and each has its own needs and requirements, there are a few things you need to know before you begin identifying the best solution for you, including
What compliance management solutions do for your business
The benefits of implementing a compliance management solution
How to choose the right solution for your business
The best solutions currently on the market
We've given you a head start on the process by collecting all of the above information, as well as some of the top compliance management solutions for 2023.
6 Overlooked Tips to Automate Compliance Monitoring
Compliance monitoring is an intricate process that involves many people and tools, each playing a critical role in the process. With such a wide range of moving pieces, it can be challenging to keep track of where your compliance strategy currently stands, which is why monitoring is essential. But constantly monitoring operations is a massive undertaking so here's what you need to know before you start:
Why constant monitoring is essential
How you can automate the monitoring process
The benefits of automation
Overlooked best practices that make automation a breeze
You can learn all that and more by checking out our X Overlooked Tips to Automate Compliance Monitoring article.
The Principles of US Compliance Systems
There are a large range of compliance systems worldwide, and each uses its own specific regulations and is run by its own governing body, such as the GDPR in the EU. As compliance systems worldwide vary, and some are even specific to certain cities, keeping track of all the regulations can be complicated. For example, in the US, here's what you need to ask yourself:
What compliance requirements are expected of my industry?
Which regulations apply to which areas?
What are the legal penalties for non-compliance?
What are the foundational principles of compliance?
Start your US compliance journey with all this and more in our article on The X Principles of US Compliance Systems.
Launch Your PCI Compliance Program
In this guide, we covered general compliance concepts, including compliance management systems, what they are, why they matter, and how you can implement them. We also discussed how you can achieve compliance by developing a compliance strategy with help from automated tools and employee training. Now that you're ready to begin launching your own compliance management program, don't forget the following essential tips and best practices:
Keep up to date on the latest compliance standards and practices
Perform scans and audits as early and often as possible
Keep all sensitive data securely stored and encrypted
Segment your network to protect sections from breaches and reduce costs
Maintain data security- even while the data is in transit
Prepare thoroughly for audits and assessments
Hold regular employee education and training sessions
Only collaborate with third parties who maintain equally high compliance standards
Understand the scope of your environment and resources
Carry out regular and comprehensive penetration tests
Address non-compliance or security vulnerabilities as quickly as possible
Restrict access to sensitive information
Improve Your Compliance Management with CybeReady
Compliance is a broad and varied field, and there are many techniques, solutions, and practices you can implement to ensure its effective application, but one central pillar is essential, and that is education. Having all your employees play a role in your compliance strategy is a critical key to its success, and only by empowering them with education will your employees be able to take an active role and interest in your organization's compliance strategy and overall cybersecurity position. Cyber education gives personnel across all levels and departments the tools they need to quickly locate and mitigate compliance breaches, preventing the risk of full-scale non-compliance or, worse, a cyber-attack.
CybeReady helps you create up-to-date training programs that reflect your organization's compliance goals and continue to remain fresh and engaging for employees. Get in touch with us today to learn how you can begin implementing cybersecurity awareness training workshops right away.
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