Cybersecurity and compliance go hand in hand. And as cyber threats grow and evolve, it’s important to make sure you are not only meeting the compliance requirements for your business or industry but exceeding them.
Last month, we went through 3 types of data compliance, what business types they affect, and why you should care about them. The three types we covered in that article are CMMC (Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification), GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), and CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act).
This month, we’re going to go through four more types of data compliance: DFARS, ITGC, SOX, and PCI compliance.
Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS)
Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) compliance is a group of regulations related to cybersecurity that all defense contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers must follow to be eligible to be awarded and accept Department of Defense or DoD contracts.
To keep and benefit from this compliance, participating businesses must uphold the cybersecurity standards as they are set forth by NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) SP 800-171. This publication codifies the requirements that must be followed by any non-Federal computer system in order to “store, process, or transmit Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) or provide security protection for such systems,” according to Carnegie Mellon University.
This protection also means your business and its cybersecurity systems must be able to identify threats and incidents, report them to the DoD, and maintain incident-related information for a minimum of 90 days.
If your DFARS compliance requirements aren’t met, your business is subject to fines, loss of current DoD contracts, and even the revocation of your ability to bid on and obtain future DoD and other government contracts.
There are 14 families or requirement areas of NIST 800-171:
- Access Control
- Awareness and Training
- Audit and Accountability
- Configuration Management
- Identification and Authentication
- Incident Response
- Maintenance
- Media Protection
- Personnel Security
- Physical Protection
- Risk Assessment
- Security Assessment
- System and Communication Protection
- System and Information Integrity
IT General Controls (ITGC)
IT general controls are considered some of the most important IT compliance requirements of today’s digital landscape. These controls apply to all systems, components, data, and processes within an IT environment.
The most common ITGCs include:
- Logical access control over applications, data, and supporting infrastructure
- Program change management controls
- Backup and recovery controls
- Computer operation controls
- Data center physical security controls
- System development lifecycle controls
These controls are responsible for ensuring the proper development and implementation of your applications, data, programs, and operations. This can affect everything from application development to password policies.
Prioritizing a powerful, well-governed set of ITGCs from the onset of your business practices or technology upgrades can set you up for success from a cybersecurity standpoint and can help keep your operations running smoothly in the long run.
Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX)
SOX internal controls refer to the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, a federal law that was passed to help regulate and improve the reliability of financial reporting while also protecting investors from becoming victims of corporate fraud activity.
SOX Regulation Section 404 requires organizations to implement effective internal controls to ensure that financial reporting is accurate and not being tampered with. These controls are put in place to prevent and uncover any problems in an organization’s financial processes and must be applied to every step of the organization’s financial reporting and results.
For organizations to succeed here, SOX standards are actually allowing the organizations themselves to define the controls they will be using to meet regulator goals.
This data compliance type has a few different requirements, including addressing senior management responsibility, internal control reports, data security policies, and proof of compliance. This includes automated controls that are outside the scope of ITGC requirements.
Payment Card Industry (PCI)
Payment Card Industry or PCI compliance is also sometimes called PCI DDS (Data Security Standard) compliance. This type of data compliance refers to the requirements those organizations that are handling credit cardholder data must meet.
This compliance must be validated annually, and any lapse in compliance could mean credit card companies will not accept charges from your organizations.
There are 12 requirements of PCI compliance, compiled into 6 specific goal areas:
- Build and maintain secure networks
- Protect cardholder data
- Maintain an effective vulnerability management program
- Implement strong measures for access control
- Monitor and test networks regularly
- Maintain an information security policy
CyberFort: Your Comprehensive Data Compliance Solution
CyberFort Advisors’ data compliance solutions are based on a bespoke framework. That means they are built and tailored to fit your business compliance needs perfectly. That framework is based on NIST Cybersecurity Framework guidelines, the most robust compliance framework available today.
We offer both DFARS and CMMC compliant security requirements so you can retain your DoD-related business opportunities with ease.
Cybersecurity compliance isn’t something you want to wait to optimize – it protects your business operations and your ability to serve your customers and clients. Talk to us today to request a consultation and learn how you can safeguard your organization’s data with expert-level security and compliance services.