As a small or medium-sized business owner, are you aware of the compliance regulations related to your business? Governments or industry institutions often put in place compliance regulations to ensure companies follow the laws and protect their clients. While these regulations can impact several aspects of your business, IT is often a key component.
What is IT Compliance & how does it impact your business?
IT compliance standards deal with everything from processing customer credit card information to organizational and financial transparency. In our current business environment, data protection is one specific example that is more important than ever. Over the years, there has been an increase in the number of data compliance requirements companies have to follow.
Following these regulations reduces your risk as a business. Non-compliant companies run the chance of being liable, incurring fines, damaging their trust and good standing with customers, not to mention potentially putting their customers at risk and potential lawsuits.
Some of the most well-known standards affecting IT compliance you might have heard of include:
- HIPPA: The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996
- This act protects private information. It prohibits patient data from being shared without prior consent.
- PCI-DSS: Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard of 2001
- This security standard was put in place to regulate how small, medium, and large businesses handle the processing of credit cards. If you are a business that allows people to purchase anything with a credit card, this applies to you.
- SOX: Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
- SOX regulates the financial transparency and reporting of publicly traded companies. Congress as a direct result of the Enron and WorldCom misconduct. Section 404 of the Act is significant for IT around financial reporting controls.
- GLBA: Gramm-Billey Act of 1999
- GLBA requires internal and external measures to prevent gaining access to data under false pretexts.
These general regulations are only the tip of the iceberg. Understanding IT compliance requirements and updates can be daunting if you’re running a business and already wearing multiple hats. Partnering with a managed service provider can help you stay up to date and prevent compliance issues.
How can Smooth-IT help?
At Smooth-IT, we work with you to understand your company, the industry you operate in, and any related rules you must follow. We can help you audit your existing systems and implement the necessary protocols. We help ensure your company complies effectively regardless of the regulations you’re facing. Even if you don’t need to comply with regulatory mandates directly, it is best to follow IT procedures and security that mimic these existing rules. Learn more about how we can help here.
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