How MSSPs Help with Cybersecurity Compliance

While always a part of business, compliance demands have skyrocketed as the digital world gives us so many more ways to go awry. We all remember the Enron scandal that precipitated the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). Now, SOX compliance means being above board on a number of cybersecurity requirements as well.

Fortra’s Tripwire recently released a new guide: How Managed Services Can Help with Cybersecurity Compliance. It anticipates the need for organizations to rely on Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) to manage relentless compliance obligations and showcases innovative solutions from Fortra’s Managed Services for Compliance that can help lift the load.  

The Burden of Compliance

While SOX applies to all publicly traded companies in the U.S., those companies also have a variety of other compliance regulations to look forward to. We’ll start with the broad strokes. Anyone doing business in Europe has to account for GDPR, any company out of California has CCPA and CPRA, any company that transmits cardholder data has PCI DSS, power companies have NERC, healthcare has HIPAA, federal agencies have FISMA, everyone who wants to has NIST and the CIS controls, and those doing business in specific localities might just run into ISO 27001, TISAX, CBE, UAE IA and others.

It’s a big world out there where compliance is concerned. And the depth is even greater than the breadth – NIST 700, for example, protects controlled unclassified information (CUI) through no less than 110 distinct cybersecurity requirements. And that’s just one subset of information. GDPR outlines six specific principles, HIPAA around three, and others from there, but remember – the fewer the specifications, the more far-reaching and often the more difficult to complete entirely.

The Looming Threat of Non-Compliance

While it is tempting to stick one’s head in the sand and focus on other business-critical matters, compliance is an issue that cannot be ignored. If it is, there can be profits to pay.

• The threat of non-compliance with GDPR is “a reprimand, a temporary or definitive ban on processing and a fine of up to €20 million or 4% of the business’s total annual worldwide turnover.”
• The penalty for double-crossing PCI DSS includes fines ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 USD.
• For not complying with HIPAA, an offender “may face a criminal penalty of up to $50,000 and up to one-year imprisonment.”
• Where NERC is concerned, “the maximum Penalty amount that NERC or a Regional Entity will assess for a violation of a Reliability Standard Requirement is $1,000,000 per day per violation.”

Juggling Daily Security Demands

With so much on the line, it becomes obvious that compliance is both an issue that cannot be taken lightly and a juggernaut element that can present some challenges.

Organizations walk a tightrope trying to pass audits, keep the security wheels on the bus, and fulfill every compliance requirement for which they are responsible. The average company receives at least 1,000 alerts per day, and some reports indicate that up to one-fifth are false positives.

All this to say – companies need help. It takes a whole division dedicated to compliance to make sure each ship stays above water when it could otherwise be drowning in a sea of rules, regulations, and opportunities to misstep. Some organizations can afford a dedicated department. Many can’t.

And yet every organization, great or small, is under the same legal obligation to comply with industry-specific and region-specific guidelines – however they choose to do it.

Offloading the Burden with MSSPs

With over 700,000 unfilled cybersecurity jobs in the U.S. alone, it is safe to assume many organizations are feeling the pinch. Managed Security Services can go a long way in alleviating the strain of relentless, increasing, and demanding cybersecurity requirements and helping keep companies on the right track.

In this guide, we dive into the need for offloading the compliance burden, how to leverage managed solutions, and what companies stand to gain from making the switch. From Managed Detection and Response to Managed Services for Fundamental Security Controls, find out all the ways your organization can save time, cycles, and resources by catching up on business-driving factors.

It’s necessary to stay compliant, but it’s not necessary to do it all on your own.

Learn more about how Fortra empowers compliance in our guide, How Managed Services Can Help with Cybersecurity Compliance.