We’ve all been there—trying to manage multiple business challenges at once without a proper roadmap. Keeping up with industry and state regulation is a necessary hurdle to success. Thankfully, compliance frameworks, like a pre-packed solution; help you put pieces of the regulatory challenge together.
In this article, we understand what a compliance framework is, the key elements, and how to implement it.
What is a compliance framework?
A compliance framework is a set of processes, controls, best practices, and regulatory requirements that help organizations meet their business objectives and industry standards. It helps to:
- Identify gaps in the security posture to reduce incidents, ensure business continuity, and stay compliant to applicable compliance frameworks.
- Keep track of new technologies added to the system, changes of existing system, and issues and document it.
- Strategically deploy human and capital resources to improve efficiency.
- Boost operational efficiency by using a holistic approach that combines process, people, and technology.
What are the key elements of a compliance framework?
Key elements of a successful compliance framework interconnects policies, processes, people, systems, resources, and training programs to meet the necessary requirements. Compliance framework is not a one size fits all kinda deal – it should be tailored keeping factors like type of data, industry regulatory requirements, budget, and more in mind.
Here are the four key elements of compliance framework:
Policy
Outlines the key objectives, goals, and approach you want to implement to meet obligations of the framework.
Typically, it should address the following:
- Accountability assigned to employees for each activity along with an expected delivery date.
- The clause or subclause of the regulation applicable for each activity.
- A process to identify new compliance requirements, implement relevant technology to meet those obligations, and monitor the incorporated controls.
- Systems, controls, and processes to comply with new regulatory requirements and tools to review and test them.
Plan
The comprehensive compliance policy should also address the risk associated with each compliance, the frequency of reviewing, and applicable controls. Take the following into account while chalking out your plan:
- The type, complexity, and objectives of the controls.
- How achievable or your control metrics are and how well it aligns with the policy and processes.
- If there is a clear alignment between the selected controls and framework requirements.
A good practice to ensure timely delivery and visualization of the plan ahead is to use a compliance calendar. This helps all concerned parties understand their tasks, framework requirements, internal dependencies, and external dependencies better.
If you are stuck with planning your compliance budget – here is the complete guide
Compliance automation
Bringing spreadsheets, calendars, and task-based accountability together is not easy but works for some organizations. Most, however, find it challenging to execute everything flawlessly.
At this point, many consider Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) solutions to manage processes and reduce manual efforts. Governance functionalities include management approach, executory functionings, decision making, and information management. Risk includes control effectiveness, reporting capabilities, risk profile maps, risk assessment, addressing gaps, and risk analysis. Compliance involves requirement identification, analyzing compliance posture, documentation, compliance reports, calculation of non-compliance and risks, and management of contacts, and policies.
Also check out: Compliance automation tools
Independent audit
Audits review your controls against the requirements of the framework policy. It helps the management understand where the minor gaps or major non-compliance lies so that it can be fixed to avoid legal issues and ensure business continuity.
Generally, audits are performed by independent bodies to leave no room for a biased review. Once complete, the auditor will provide you with a detailed report on gaps, suggest corrective actions, and compile other useful observations.
Depending on the industry, number of controls, and nature of organization, it may take months to prepare for an audit. For example, the audit process for SOC 2 differs in many aspects from the ISO 27001 auditing process.
Must check out: List of Compliance audit software
List of compliance frameworks
There are more than what we have listed below, but these are some of the most common:
SOC 2
Systems and Organization Controls is a report that evaluates an organization’s controls based on five trust criteria. These include security, availability, processing integrity, and confidentiality. Security is a compulsory criteria while the others are applicable based on the industry or type of data processed.
It is applicable to cloud hosted companies that process, manage, and transmit customer data. SOC 2 is not a compulsory but voluntary compliance program that helps service organizations demonstrate trust.
HIPAA
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 standardizes the flow of information in healthcare and protects sensitive patient health care information. It applies to any individual or service in the US who meet the definition of Covered Entity (CE) or Business Associate (BA).
HIPAA consists of five titles, of which title 2 (Administrative Simplification) lays out guidelines to handle protected health information (PHI) relating to privacy, security, and breach notification rules. There is no “certification” for this regulation, but if you fail to comply, legal action such as penalties or jail time can be levied against you.
GDPR
The General Data Protection Regulation is probably the most difficult and comprehensive regulation. It prevents businesses operating in EU member states from misusing personal customer data to protect privacy and freedom. GDPR consists of 11 chapters divided into 99 articles. You can get GDPR certified by an accredited body to demonstrate compliance.
PCI DSS
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is applicable to merchants who process customer payments through credit or debit card. Its goal is to prevent card related fraud using a set of recommended baseline security measures.
There are 12 controls that every vendor, irrespective of the number of transactions they process, must implement. If you fail to comply, lawsuits and heavy penalties may apply against your business. You can gain PCI DSS certification.
ISO
The International Organization for Standardization provides guidelines and best practices around which organizations can effectively manage, improve, and create their Information Management Security System (ISMS). This helps demonstrate sufficient measures and controls to identify, detect, and mitigate risks to information systems.
Organizations of all sizes and industries can implement its requirements and demonstrate compliance to this framework through ISO certification.
How to implement a compliance framework?
New to the compliance game? Here are some of the basic, generic approaches to get started.
The beginning
The first step to implementing a compliance framework is to choose the right for your organization. As previously outlined, it boils down to the type of data you process and the industry regulation applicable to you.
For example, if you are a service organization who processes customer data, SOC 2 is beneficial. If you store or process patient health records in the US, HIPAA is compulsory.
GDPR is compulsory if you collect personal information of those residing in an EU state and PCI DSS is a must if you process cardholder data. In many cases, more than may apply; if you collect personal data of EU residents and process payment cards, you should be PCI DSS and GDPR compliant.
Figuring things out
Once you have finalized the framework, sort the regulatory requirements. This entails identifying the relevant controls mandated by the framework. If your framework is SOC 2, implement controls based on applicable trust principles. The ISO offers a family of guidelines that help businesses address specific security concerns.
Regulatory requirements also include necessary activities around it such as reporting, working up a delivery estimate, setting up a budget, and more. It is a good practice to document the plans and activities. Updating changes, new requirements, and processes – especially areas of high risk, must be an ongoing activity.
Here a gap, there is a gap
Everywhere gap, gap. And you won’t know it exists until you conduct a risk assessment. A proactive risk management and monitoring program should include:
- A process to categorize all assets, wherever it is deployed into the level of vulnerability.
- A system to identify the types of risk that threaten the integrity of the assets.
- Gain clarity into the granularity of functions, processes, workflows, and interdependencies to identify gaps.
- Analyze the impact of these risks and vulnerabilities.
- Implement controls and systems to identify, remediate, and mitigate vulnerabilities.
- Assign the owner to handle each vulnerability.
- Continuously patch systems and deploy new tools as required to manage continuously evolving threats.
Also read: Components of the compliance management system
Champion of tedious tasks
Compliance is challenging, hard, and costly. But at the same time, it is crucial and in many cases, compulsory. How do you address the challenges with minimum effort and cost?
Sprinto’s compliance automation platform helps to be compliant for popular frameworks at lightning speed, a fraction of cost, and zero manual effort. It continuously monitors your infrastructure for risks, non compliance, and trains employees. Don’t wait up. Talk to an expert today!
FAQs
What are the components of the compliance framework?
The four elements of a compliance program are:
- Choosing the right framework
- Selecting right controls
- Conducting risks analysis
- Continuous improvement.
What are the four types of compliance?
Four major types of compliance include:
- Financial compliance
- It compliance
- Health and safety compliance
- Legal compliance specific to industry or government.
Anwita
Anwita is a content marketer. Her love for everything cybersecurity started her journey into the world of viruses and vulnerabilities. With multiple certifications on cybersecurity, she aims to simplify complex security related topics. She loves to read nonfiction, listen to progressive rock, and watch sitcoms. She wishes to master the piano and learn unicycling. Reach her at [email protected].