What’s The Difference Between Security & Compliance?
As a managed support provider and IT support provider, we deal with both security issues and legal questions of compliance on a daily basis. It’s important that businesses and especially organizations that are required to remain compliant understand the basic differences in these two terms and how our company supports both in our services.
What Is Security?
Best practices for security involve mitigating the risks and installing deterrents to bad actors seeking to gain access to sensitive information or to those who seek to use a business' vulnerabilities to their own financial advantage. This may include using multi-factor authentication, adding firewalls, encrypting information, installing anti-virus, securing Wi-Fi access, limiting access to secure areas, and conducting risk assessments regularly. Additionally, training a workforce to recognize red flags in the form of phishing scams or virus software can help alleviate some risks. In short, security deals with technical, administrative and physical access to data in order to protect them from cyber threats.
What Is Compliance?
For organizations in the healthcare and legal fields, IT support must also consider how the business is staying in compliance with laws that regulate access to protected information. Compliance in essence looks at how to apply regulations (often legal in nature) to the operation of a business. In our IT world, this is most often our clients in the healthcare and dental fields, although legal offices also have regulations to abide by as well. Compliance could be required by a contract with a client, a government organization, or an industry standard.
The Interconnectedness of Compliance and Security
You may be thinking that these two aspects may seem similar… and they are in many ways. Both compliance and security have similar objectives around managing risks and securing sensitive data and systems. However, they often use different processes and workflows to accomplish their goals. Neither compliance or security lives in a vacuum. The reality is that they work together often making some business leaders feel like the lines between the two are blurred. Without security, compliance would not be possible and without compliance regulations, security may look quite a bit different. Whether your organization needs to remain in compliance or you are not dictated by any compliance terms, your IT systems need top-notch security systems to keep your data safeguarded at every step. Talk to our team at Spectra Networks if you need compliance and security services for your business.
