How Security Compliance and Identity Management Impacts your Business

"For the best return on your money, pour your purse into your head."- Benjamin Franklin

Security, Compliance, and Identity Management (SCI) is vitally important for any organization in any type of industry. From retail to customer service to manufacturing, all industries must address SCI management needs. New challenges in these areas arise daily for business owners; join me as we dive into what the impacts are for your business and why addressing them is important

Putting the Security in Cyber Security

It can be argued that your companies data IS your company. Sure, there are physical assets like cubicles, offices, and chairs, and of course personnel, but the data defines your company and should be the number one priority when planning an IT strategy. Breaches are incredibly expensive (the average malware attack costs companies 2.6 million dollars in 2020), so it makes sense to invest in a security strategy that works.

Cybersecurity protects all categories of data from theft and/or damage. This includes sensitive data, personally identifiable information (PII), protected health information (PHI), personal information, intellectual property, data, and governmental and industry information systems. Not only is your data and money on the line with a lack of security, but your company’s reputation can be tarnished in just 1 minute, which is the average time it takes hackers to crack a 7-character password that uses numbers, uppercase, and lowercase letters.

Fees, Fees, and More Fees

Compliance is a state of being in accordance with established guidelines or the process of becoming so. Regulations such as the GDPR and FISMA are established to ensure the privacy of customers' information provided to companies.

Other than following federal laws and guidelines, there are some valid reasons for companies to remain compliant. Here are three major impacts that staying compliant can have on your company.

1. Minimize loss: Not only can fees from regulators quickly become costly but legal fees are also known to add up. By meeting compliance requirements, you are saving your company valuable time and money.
2. Credibility: Earning the trust of customers, and becoming a company that people can depend on, takes hard work and years of properly executed customer service. However, credibility can vanish overnight in the face of a cyber-attack that leaves customers out to dry. Warren Buffet was famously quoted saying, "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it."
3. Higher Employee Retention: Great employees can be hard to find, and even harder to keep, especially in our current market climate. Most compliance regulations are in place to protect employees and their information. People want to feel valued so having policies in place to protect them leads to higher retention.

Controlling the Controllable

Control what you can control! This advice is always given to the constant worriers, and it also applies to business. Companies have complete control over Identity Management and it’s time to take it seriously. Allow me to break it down. Identity Management deals with the lifespan of the primary user and the management of self-service accounts, management, and user privileges. The major challenge companies are facing is the ability to merge identity across organizations while maintaining clear trust, liability, and cost responsibilities. Adopting more secure and efficient ways, such as multi-factor authentication, to verify an employee’s identity can make a huge impact on the company’s wellbeing.

Takeaways

Security, Compliance, and Identity Management (SCI) are the three top priorities when it comes to business. Without properly securing your data your business is at risk, without compliance regulations employees are subject to unsafe working conditions, and without identity management, there is no way people can work from anywhere safely. All this information can easily become overwhelming and sometimes you have no idea where to start! Allow me to put your mind at ease. Software companies, such as Microsoft have launched new training courses on how to handle these three major pain points in business.