How Security Leaders are Adapting to Compliance Issues -

Organizations only have a certain amount of their budgets that they can dedicate to security and regulatory commitments. Sometimes security takes a backseat because compliance keeps your organization in business. However, technology and business leaders know both are important so they’re changing the approach to security.

Key Compliance Considerations for Security Leaders

Security leaders have a lot to juggle with growing threats, budget complexities, and collaboration with other teams. Here are some key considerations for today’s leaders:

1. Compliance drives security strategies

As compliance requirements increase for businesses, security teams are being forced to reprioritize projects. Compliance is essential to keeping organizations running, retaining customers, preventing penalties, and protecting their reputations. With limited resources, leaders must make difficult spending decisions. However, if all teams understand business priorities and the impact of compliance on their departments, they can work together to meet organizational goals.

2. Security teams take on data privacy controls

Data privacy is impacting all digital organizations, and technology leaders understand the importance of data privacy. Consider touting a strong data privacy program as a selling point for your customers. Companies have a lot of their own regulations to deal with, and if you pass down compliance to your customers, that’s less that they have to manage. That’s particularly important to smaller companies that don’t have enough resources to adequately manage risk.

3. How to close the gap between security and compliance

Technology leaders often try to meet both compliance and security needs by looking for tools that do more than one essential job. Some SaaS solutions are able to bridge the gap and provide multiple functions. However, a lot of multipurpose tools don’t work well. There are new cybersecurity tools being developed all the time, so it can be hard to make these purchasing decisions. Look for tools that integrate and that aren’t “aspirational,” recommended survey author Christopher M. Steffen, CISSP, CISA, Managing Research Director, EMA. Aspirational tools are those that address issues that don’t even exist yet.

“You have to evaluate your realistic risk,” said Steffen. “You have to understand how that tool or set of tools augments your overall security, decreases your overall risk, or increases your overall business profitability. That's really the key when it's all said and done.”

How Compliance Budgets Can Advance Security

Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) surveyed 204 business leaders from a variety of industries to learn how they’re prioritizing spending while ensuring necessary compliance and threat mitigation. The report, “Using Compliance Budgets to Advance Security Priorities,” was sponsored in part by Sumo Logic. Here are a couple of the top takeaways:

76% of security teams say they have significantly or completely shifted security strategies for compliance priorities.
40% of survey respondents said they’ve postponed or halted a security project to handle compliance issues.

Security teams have been putting the well-being of the organization first, and now it’s up to executives to give information security officers a seat at the executive table, Steffen explained. When that happens, everyone will know more about what’s going on in the business as a whole. Then everyone can make informed business decisions about initiatives and budgets.

Aligning Compliance and Security Goals

Without compliance, you won’t be able to stay in business. Security teams realize this and are generally in alignment. Since compliance is having a big effect on how organizations budget for information security, it makes sense that they work together toward the same goals. By collaborating not only on goals but also on how resources are spent, you get stronger security for your organization.

The survey shows that compliance spending continues to increase. You can use that to your advantage by making regulatory compliance a competitive differentiator. If your solution helps your customer take a little off their plate — including due diligence and data breach insurance — that will help you stand out from companies that aren’t already compliant and covered.