Plug Security Breaches with IT Security & Compliance Management Solution

Thanks to the advancements in technology, enterprises today are able to collaborate, communicate, and share information online. Technology has opened up new business avenues and a pool of opportunities for enterprises to explore, expand their businesses, and enhance their profitability. Though technology has made things easier, smoother, and faster for enterprises, it has exposed businesses and organizations to a variety of new and emerging information security risks, like security breaches, data leaks, and cyber-attacks. As a result, enterprises face huge risks and liabilities, which cost them millions of dollars per breach. The following are some of the data breach statistics that clearly point out the need to develop a threat management environment.

• In the first quarter of 2012, there have so far been 93 incidents, exposing 2,140,987 records. (Source: Identity Theft Resource Center)
• In 2011, 37 percent of data breach cases involved malicious attacks and averaged $222 per record. Negligence accounted for 39 percent of reported breaches. (2011 Cost of a Data Breach: United States, Ponemon Institute and Symantec)
• Total number of records containing sensitive personal information involved in security breaches in the U.S. is 544,817,607 in 3,002 data breaches since January 2005. (A Chronology of Data Breaches, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse)
• The average total cost per company that reported a breach in 2011 was $5.5 million. (2011 Cost of a Data Breach: United States, Ponemon Institute and Symantec)
• In the United States, data breach incidents cost companies $194 per compromised record in 2011. (2011 Cost of a Data Breach: United States, Ponemon Institute and Symantec)

Hence, what enterprises need is to invest in enterprise compliance management software that allows their users to access applications and information where and when it is required, without exposing the organization to security threats, data loss and compliance risks.This automated and on-demand integrated IT security and compliance management solution provides end-to-end integration of security monitoring with IT Governance risk management and compliance (IT GRC) using a cloud based delivery model. The following are some of the advantages of deploying IT security and compliance management solution.

• Automates all Security, Compliance, Audit, and Risk management needs
• Ensures faster regulatory compliance
• Combats cyber-security threats with proactive assessment, forensics, compliance and security
• Offers Continuous security and compliance
• Reduces Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) dramatically through automation and governance
• Provides Complete Risk Management

IT compliance solution thus provides a safe and secure environment for enterprises to carry out business activities effectively.

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HIPAA compliance

Compliance management

How To Implement a Successful VRM Strategy?

Global economic conditions today have caused almost every enterprise to pay greater attention to risks related to their service and supply chain. In addition to that, with the new and expanding compliance regulations many enterprises are also focusing on better ways to manage their ongoing vendor risks and compliance issues.

Global economic conditions today have caused almost every enterprise to pay greater attention to risks related to their service and supply chain. In addition to that, with the new and expanding compliance regulations many enterprises are also focusing on better ways to manage their ongoing vendor risks and compliance issues.

Vendor management is therefore looked upon as a project for staying compliant and efficiently managing third party risks. It is all about attaining the best possible returns and generating additional value from vendor investments. Furthermore, it involves, adopting a holistic approach for monitoring every aspect of the vendor relationship, i.e. from sourcing, selection, performance management to risk and compliance monitoring. Any effective vendor relationship management (VRM) strategy aims at harmonizing the appropriate people, business processes and supporting VRM software to derive the best possible results. It also includes conducting targeted vendor audits to uncover high risk vendors or instances of non-compliance and resolving the identified issues.

In order to ensure successful implementation of a VRM strategy, it is essential for organizations to follow the three essential steps. They are:

* Conduct risk analysis - Organizations need to understand the significance of the vendor to the organization, the nature of activity performed and the innate risks present in it. Only when the risks are recognized appropriate measures can be arrived at.

* Document a vendor relationship contract - All vendor relationships regardless of the risks should be defined in a written contract format in order to avoid any disagreements.

* Supervise the vendors on an ongoing basis - All the vendor policies associated with internal controls and security must be reviewed to determine whether a vendor is following the controls need to be developed as well.

Improve vendor collaboration
Today esteemed service providers specializing in enterprise compliance management software have introduced advanced vendor management solutions that make sure enterprises and their outsourced partners remain compliant. This results in improved collaboration with vendors and other benefits, such as:

* Automates the monitoring of technical controls and critical data
* Manage risks with a Vendor Manager
* Assess vendor risks by using multiple assessment types and library of questions based on best practice standards
* Attain risk, IT security and compliance rating of vendors from assessment results
* Evaluate vendor compliance to procedures and regulations
* Tracks and recognizes non-compliance areas

An enterprise that implements an effective vendor management strategy backed by appropriate vendor management processes, is better positioned to drive growth, manage expenses, and alleviate risk across every department and business unit.

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Compliance Management

HIPPA compliance

Prevent Security Breaches with Vulnerability Management Solutions

Today enterprises face danger not only from external but also from internal sources. With cyber criminals always on the lookout for vulnerabilities, loopholes, and weaknesses in procedures, processes, and systems to make quick money, enterprises need to ensure that all loopholes and vulnerabilities within the enterprise are plugged. Hence, what is required is a proactive approach because proactively managing vulnerabilities will reduce the potential for misuse and involve considerably less time and effort than responding after exploitation has occurred.

Wikipedia defines vulnerability management as “the cyclical practice of identifying, classifying, remediating, and mitigating vulnerabilities”. Vulnerability management is not a one-time solution for an enterprise’s security issues. Nor it is a solution for protecting only digital information. Instead, it is an ongoing process to protect an enterprise’s valuable data, customer information, critical network assets, and intellectual property. In simple terms,  vulnerability management involves protection of not only digital information and the physical hardware assets in which they reside, but also the non-digital and intangible assets. Hence, asset management is an important aspect of vulnerability management that includes the discovery, identification and classification of hardware assets such as servers, desktops, laptops, etc. and business information assets whether tangible or intangible,of any organization.

Moreover, in today’s increasingly regulated and compliance driven business environment, enterprises need effective solutions not only to counter the growing number of security threats but also to comply with the increasing number of stringent regulations. Compliance with regulatory directives such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 (GLBA), the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS),Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies (COBIT) and so on are very essential for enterprises to avoid penalties.

Hence, enterprises must invest in a good vulnerability and compliance management solution that ensures not just effective IT compliance and vulnerability management but also asset management. This helps enterprises to

• Manage the functions, data and tasks associated with assets and related vulnerabilities
• Identify potentially exploitable vulnerabilities in network infrastructure
• Detect, prioritize and address complex IT risks
• Map assets and vulnerabilities to regulations

Vulnerability management is not something to be done after a security breach has occurred but it is a way to prevent security breaches from occurring. Hence, enterprises, irrespective of big or small, must put in place an effective vulnerability management solution to keep the cyber criminals at bay.

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Compliance Management

HIPAA and HITECH

Protect Your Enterprise with Adequate IT Compliance

While adequate security measures are necessary for safeguarding people, assets and information, compliance ensures that these security measures are effective and enterprises act responsibly towards customers, staff, environment and shareholders. How well organizations comply with these compliance standards can have a dramatic impact on their success or failure.

Government regulations such as HIPAA, SOX and the GLB Acts, usually require changes to many components of the network security infrastructure and IT procedures. In order to fully comprehend the complicated demands of some regulations, it is essential for organizations to employ specialists and consultants and produce special documentation that can assist with proper regulation deployment procedures. An enterprise that is able to enforce strict corporate policies and adhere to all the latest regulatory requirements will be able to protect vital information assets, keep customer confidence and safeguard business interests.It is therefore essential to have a healthy compliance program that is most likely to bolster your security measures and find and rectify weaknesses before they become a problem.

By integrating compliance data across the enterprise, corporate governance and risk management activities naturally mesh with corporate security protocols. This strengthens the organization’s overall security posture, while reducing the chance of unsafe activities, breaches in protective layers or instances of fraud which compromise their position.Most organizations have understood the importance of compliance to their core business and have deployed solutions that can address the issues.

Most solutions in the market today fail to provide sufficient protection and management guarantees needed to tackle threats caused by a dramatic rise in Internet usage and rapid advancements in consumer technologies. To better balance today’s compliance requirements, organizations are starting to look for a more comprehensive approach to solving the IT GRC problem. The best way to meet these challenges is for organizations to adopt an approach that reduces business risk, ensure better compliance and thereby, gain competitive advantage.

To minimize risk and maximize profitability enterprises can take the help of a reputed service provider who can ensure an effective compliance risk management program that involves people, policies, processes, and technology. They can help implement an end-to-end compliance and IT risk management program that will reduce business and IT risks, cut compliance costs, and help increase ROI. Purchasing sophisticated security equipment, configuring it to minimize risk, and implementing a host of policies and protocols that comply with the latest data security standards is another option.

With an effective IT compliance solution, organizations can secure efforts and improve vulnerability management and increase the visibility of risk throughout the enterprise.

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Compliance management

HIPPA compliance