People familiar with the IT security business know that compliance is not the same as being secure. It is not even close. Compliance relies heavily on paperwork and auditing whereas security is a tactical approach.
To be specific, compliance answers questions like “Are you equipped to handle critical patches?”. Whereas security is figuring out which patch to apply, when, and then testing if those patches work properly. In reality, securing your business against cyber theft matters more than just passing an audit.
1. Regulations Take Forever To Change
The number of new viruses and malware released every day is on the rise. For the same reason, the IT industry also receives a lot of new security tips and updates. But regulations on the other hand, either do not get updated or take a really long time to do so.
These documents prioritize DMZs and three-legged firewalls. They pay little to no attention when it comes to protecting your cloud calls and password authentications. IT security needs to have more focus on nation-state attacks and supply chain management instead of managing documents.
2. Compliance Is A Mirage
Most businesses understand that compliance has nothing to do with security but they still choose to not care about it. The audited entity says that they have enough backups of their critical systems just to receive compliance.
But no one actually bothers to test them. No one realizes that backups are of no use if you cannot recover the entire system. The audit team in every IT business knows that their system has a lot of security loopholes. But they tend to ignore it just because they are compliant.
3. When It Comes To Risks, Compliance Is Irrelevant
Even after several advances in security, over 80% of companies are still vulnerable to phishing. Patching is another major threat with a vulnerability rate of 40%. Storage encryption, which most companies prefer, has several lines in compliance devoted to it.
Yet, it does not stand a chance against attacks like these. By just complying with certain standards, you are essentially doing very little to reduce the risks. A security risk could instantly have a huge ripple effect over your entire system where compliance will be of no use.
4. Compliance Can Only Answer Binary Questions
A major portion of most compliance documents can only answer binary “Yes or No” questions. Whereas, security requires you to think outside of the box from the perspective of the perpetrator. Almost every compliance regulation demands you to have a complex password and might lock your account if you enter the wrong passwords a few times.
This in turn increases the risks of a DNS event as hackers might lock users out. Whereas in reality, a secure password doesn’t necessarily have to be complex. It needs to be lengthy but easy to use and to remember.
5. CEOs Still Believe That Compliance Would Suffice
Even after hearing all this, most firms would still vouch for compliance and pay no attention to security. CEOs have to make sure that the company abides by the compliance standards. They aren’t patient enough to hear about making passwords stronger while keeping them simple.
They are afraid that by doing so, you might end up violating certain regulations. Most businesses still believe in ticking out compliance checkboxes. They are too blind to notice that it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are safe against hackers and malware.
Conclusion
This article, in no way, suggests that compliance is unnecessary. As a matter of fact, there is a huge list of problems that you could face if your company fails to satisfy the compliance standards. If you’d like to know more about them, consider reading this article: 6 Consequences Of Not Being PCI Compliant.
The crux of this particular content is to make you understand that compliance and security are two different entities. Companies must begin to treat them as such. YES! They are dependent on each other. It doesn’t mean that you can compromise security just because your company follows every compliance standard.
If you wish to have expert guidance in securing your company without compromising on compliance, feel free to Schedule A Free Demonstration.