Top Tips to be GRC-Ready in 2011

According to industry experts, 2011 is the year when IT firms will realize that expensive risk management and compliance solutions may not provide the desired levels of security. Integration and alignment of disparate compliance initiatives for enhanced security controls will therefore assume immense importance. Chris Mclean, Forrester research analyst, in his report Governance, Risk and Compliance(GRC) Predictions: 2011 and beyond claimed that “vast new regulations and monumental expectations for risk management will help propel GRC programs substantially — as well as the software market that supports them. These next 12 months will see strong growth in the GRC market, a focus on horizontal adoption, greater attention to business intelligence, and practical GRC value from emerging social and mobile technologies.” He also adds that risk and compliance experts need to emphasize on supporting internal objectives rather than abiding by market definitions. 2011 is definitely the year to leverage the best GRC solutions for enhanced security.

So is your enterprise truly GRC-ready? Here are some tips to help your enterprise effectively achieve GRC goals this year:

Develop a valuable risk management strategy: A perfect Governance, risk and compliance plan can be followed only when you develop an effectual risk management strategy. This strategy must incorporate essential processes and policies to enable optimum risk management and mitigation throughout the enterprise. A proactive approach is the best mechanism to tackle risks across your enterprise.

Entrench core enterprise processes with GRC initiatives: Automated GRC solutions offer immense benefits for your enterprise by ensuring cost savings, mitigating risks and also efficiently tackling compliance-related concerns. Therefore, pushing in GRC procedures into key processes can help you enhance business performance.

Opt for a 24X7 GRC solution: A solution that can offer best monitoring capabilities, and can scrutinize threats on a 24X7 basis is the most desirable.

Plug threats in advance: Swift and significant analysis can ensure that looming threats are dealt with effectively. Hence by capturing all data and analyzing them for threat patterns, incidents, or security events you can take proactive measures to tackle threats before they harm your enterprise.

Integration is the key: When you opt for Governance risk and compliance management software, an integrated solution is perhaps the best bet for optimized GRC. Therefore a solution which can offer an integrated governance risk and compliance support system works best. The idea is to simplify and reduce the time spent on regulatory compliance and its corollary certification requirements. Therefore the same solution needs to cater to and offer total end-to-end automated processes for security, risk management and compliance requirements.

Being GRC-ready is easier once your enterprise understands the importance of risk management and the need to abide by regulatory standards. And the above-mentioned tips can be quite valuable for your enterprise in its GRC endeavors.

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1.      IT Compliance

2.      HIPPA Compliance

Strategies to Avoid IT Compliance Defiance

Businesses include a network of processes and people, and therefore conflict of ideas, priorities, and procedures which are quite natural. Successful business is built on the foundation of achieving harmony amongst its people and processes. However, most organizations fail in this attempt, putting their business at risk. Violation of compliance regulations is often an outcome of such failure.  While several organizations view IT security compliance as a never-ending rigmarole that creates complications, inhibits productivity, and causes redundant expenditure, non-compliance is more harmful in fact.

Non-compliance or negligence in IT Security compliance can attract heavy penalties, not only causing financial loss, but also loss of reputation.  For instance, the US Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve issued individual sanctions against HSBC North America Holdings Inc. for violating the Bank Secrecy Act. And the penalty estimated is almost $500 million.  Also, way back in 2007 the Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) penalized the Providence Health & Services (PHS) in Seattle for violating HIPAA Compliance rules, as tapes and disks containing sensitive data of around 386,000 patients were found missing. PHS had to bear a hefty sum of $100,000 as penalty.

These apart, in several cases the casual attitude of employees has resulted in loss of laptops, and portable storage devices and hard drives containing critical information. And similarly, disgruntled employees have been the cause of security breaches in many cases. All this proves that the absence of an efficient compliance management system can be a major drawback for organizations. Since all businesses are vulnerable to security attacks, a compliance solution that can help track, control and rectify security lapses and fix vulnerabilities is a prerequisite.

Imposing a system to efficiently tackle all security and risk issues in a comprehensive and cohesive manner is the need of the hour. Enforcement of stringent measures encompassing all governance, risk and compliance functions can deliver profound results. And an integrated and automated security system can ensure elimination of all manual processes thereby minimizing the possibility of errors.

Not only do such tools normally have significant operational benefits—including early detection of breaches, a major factor in limiting risk—but they can prove that the organization had continuous compliance rather than point-in-time compliance, as assessments do. The organization’s bargaining position when dealing with a regulatory association is therefore greatly improved and avoiding a half million-dollar fine is enough to easily justify the cost of several such tools, though breaches often lead to more than a single fine. But most of these tools also bring side benefits such as tracking unauthorized changes, detecting reliability and performance issues, or simply indicating suboptimal configurations in operational systems.

Therefore, a unified compliance software solution with a centralized management system can provide the capability for comprehensive threat management. By generating real-time reports of the compliance status across the organization, such a solution can help take timely action to curb threats. It can also execute processes to assess risks and offer remedial measures. Such an intuitive system can also help devise preventive measures to combat anticipatory threats. With such a highly capable system businesses can be saved from bearing the brunt of defying IT Security compliance norms.

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·         incident management

·         log analysis

·         sox compliance

Are You Equipped to Deal with Sophisticated Hacking?

The hacker community has grown over the years despite all protective and preventive measures taken by organizations. The current generation of hackers can execute security attacks ranging from the simplest to the most complex. They can steal passwords and account numbers from laptops and personal PCs, infiltrate company networks and dig out trade secrets, support terrorist networks and induce attacks, destroy satellite systems of the neighboring countries, or cause financial turbulence and create economic pandemonium for political gains.

While this is a matter of great concern giving organizations sleepless nights and unending worries, a number of hacking activities go unreported as companies fear negative publicity. Institutions like Heartland Payment Systems and Microsoft have been victims of such hacking activities. Also, security lapses in the websites of British Royal Navy, the US Army and NASA were exploited by hackers. Monster.com, an online recruitment agency was also hacked twice to extract details from member databases. Similarly, in 2008 Facebook users suffered in the hands of a virus named Koobface. These hackers use highly advanced methods, which makes it very easy for them to get into company systems and create havoc. They employ sophisticated programs to support their skill and knowledge. This results in permanent and irrecoverable damage to companies.

With so much of ongoing hacking, every company has to assess whether they are competent enough to battle the onslaught of hackers? Are IT managers in every company ensuring that compliance metrics are updated and in sync with the business goals? To ensure efficient IT compliance, companies need a system that can help identify risks that make the existing environment vulnerable. It is also very important to develop a clear understanding of security issues to develop a suitable security strategy. And the system also has to provide solutions that restrict possibilities of hacking and guarantee safety of critical assets.

A competent system that can predict and analyze threat management with continuous real-time monitoring is therefore the need of the hour. And only capable compliance management software can help achieve this. Such software can perform a synchronized, streamlined and automated procedure and employ best practices with timely measures and prompt responses. It can provide updated reports which help evaluate the existing compliance status, and prepare organizations for unforeseen incidents.

An outdated compliance management system therefore may not serve the purpose anymore. In an era of industrialized hacking, where hackers employ more sophisticated tools, an equally, if not more sophisticated security system is a must. By using advanced compliance management software, organizations can be saved from becoming victims to unforeseen, innovative hacking attacks.

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·         IT risk management

·         Intrusion detection

·         Incident management

Compliance Management Challenges for 2011

Forrester research defines compliance management as “a process of establishing an appropriate set of controls within the IT environment and managing the implementation of those controls”. Going by this definition, it would be appropriate to note that more than half of the enterprises today have un-patched vulnerabilities in their applications (controls) with regulatory compliance still ranking high on their security teams’ agendas. The lookout for an effective and efficient vulnerability and compliance management solution still remains on top of all enterprises’ ‘must do’ lists. Security experts across enterprises are looking for a solution that can provide optimal compliance management without any security lapses.

2011 is the year when enterprises will be facing off on issues related to compliance and regulatory demands. Here is a sneak peek into some issues that could be the focus in 2011 as far as compliance management is concerned:

Enhanced focus on regulatory compliance: The weight of all regulatory compliance issues will remain on IT teams and they will need to be resourceful and competent to fulfill all the industry compliance standards including ISO, PCI Compliance and HIPAA Compliance. With varied susceptibilities existing across hundreds of application silos, there is often zero interaction and communication between these silos, which then leads to incomplete assessment of business risks. Therefore, threats and vulnerabilities could further increase, making IT teams focus even more on matters concerning regulatory compliance.

Emphasis on effective compliance management software: Compliance management software can easily integrate and automate GRC tools by effectively combining compliance workflow with control assessment automation. Ideally a “pay as you grow” solution/model would work best for enterprises because such a model could be easily deployed on the cloud.

Advanced risk mitigation systems–a must for every enterprise: Enterprises need to use a solution which ensures greater flexibility and also seamlessly addresses all compliance requirements effectively. The onus will remain on systems that ensure real-time capturing of transferred data and analyze them for possible threats. Additionally these systems or solutions also need to provide real-time information in the event of any violation.

By efficiently addressing Governance, Risk and Compliance issues across the enterprise, most challenges concerning security can be effectively overcome. And this can also improve bottom line profits. Therefore, it is time for every enterprise to look inward and see if they have sorted out their GRC issues, because only an enterprise which is fully compliant with all regulatory standards can be successful in the long-run.

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·         SOX Compliance

·         Vulnerability management

·         IT Risk Management

Dealing With IT Compliance Challenges in Mergers & Acquisitions

In general, mergers and acquisitions are the result of expansion of a new range of services, or entering into new markets. However, during the recent economic recession, enterprises were forced to merge because there was a desperate need to boost revenue and cut costs. While companies usually benefit from these mergers, IT departments within these companies face formidable challenges while trying to integrate individual companies and making them a cohesive and consolidated entity.

Mergers and acquisitions may incapacitate the security of organizations in cases where disgruntled employees and inconsistent policies add to the prevailing disorder. And one of the biggest risks in mergers and acquisitions is the messaging system. For example, email messages are an integral part of every business process, and negligence in using these electronic messaging systems can cost the company a heavy price exposing it to high security risks. Therefore it is extremely important to have a well-defined management process for identifying and providing access to the right users.

While this in itself is an enormous challenge, IT departments also have to ensure that security and compliance standards are maintained throughout the process of authorization and control, auditing as well as reporting. Moreover, it is quite possible that the two individual organizations may have varying business processes, goals, technology platforms, and organizational culture. Hence, a transparent perspective with regard to control of the IT environment can help avoid regulatory violations.

However, in order to address all security and compliance related issues, organizations need to ensure the following:

·         Employ solutions that foster communication between different systems and applications and allow the integration of different frameworks

·         Deploy an automated process to handle resources on a centralized platform in a unified and comprehensive manner. This helps reduce the time and effort wasted in repetitive tasks

·         Use the best IT solution for handling processes and technology efficiently thereby reducing all wasteful expenditure

·         Execute solutions that take care of all governance, risk and compliance needs and employ best practices for risk assessment and IT risk management

·         Use a capable audit tracking system to monitor compliance levels and provide reports for log analysis on demand.

·         Maintain a regular auditing schedule to check for irregularities, and close security gaps

A successful merger or acquisition would mean bringing together two business units into one with solutions that integrate people, processes, technology and policies. And only an efficient compliance solution can enable this. Moreover, compliance management software offers great potential for effective maintenance of compliance with stringent security regulations, while also empowering organizations with compelling security metrics. It has distinctive features to foresee vulnerabilities and risks, and to keep organizations completely secure. With its identity and access management capabilities, compliance software can also ensure a thorough investigation of protocols.

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·         Audit Log

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Assessing Risk Management Portfolio for Effective Compliance

IT risk managers are responsible for ensuring a secure and compliant business environment. Hence, they are constantly in search of resourceful, credible and result-oriented risk management processes that can facilitate risk forecasting and risk intensity assessment to prevent security lapses. However, mitigating risks and ensuring complete security are possible through effective compliance, with conscious efforts to seal security gaps throughout the enterprise.

So, there is a need for organizations to maintain stringent security parameters and plug in every gap. Realizing these requirements of the IT realm, organizations are now investing in highly sophisticated tools with analytical capabilities, which not only prevent known threats but also detect unknown threats. These tools provide advanced threat management support that can help identify potential risks and recommend strategies to curb them.

Compliance management software platforms simplify operations by offering integrative features which deal with every component of the enterprise that is directly or indirectly related to IT security. They not only provide end-to-end solutions for all concerns related to IT security Compliance, audit and risk management needs, but also prohibit unauthorized access to sensitive and confidential data thereby ensuring complete security.

The software also generates reports of the existing compliance status, and also periodically schedules compliance audits, in order to provide valuable vulnerability scanning and management capabilities. This not only helps in detecting compliance gaps but also in implementing remedial measures. These solutions also improve transparency in organizations, which in turn provides high visibility into processes and builds awareness about the existing security status. And that’s not all.  While these tools ensure efficient execution of compliance regulations in an enterprise, they also strictly monitor their progress.

Today’s business scenario and economic climate make it essential for organizations to make every possible attempt to ensure security. However, not all security software or GRC solutions can offer complete protection. But some advanced tools in the market, possess the capabilities mentioned above. With such competent solutions, enterprises can be thoroughly protected. Automated compliance management software has come a long way to include several advanced features which can cater to every aspect of governance risk and compliance needs.  Such a software solution along with a compelling risk management portfolio can help build a secure, positive and progressive IT environment.

IT Compliance Best Practices for a Progressive Future

Compliance can be an overwhelming task with ever-growing demands for adherence to various industry regulations such as HIPAA Compliance, GLBA Compliance, SOX Compliance and many more. However, it is possible to achieve complete compliance and security by encouraging the members of organizations to follow a streamlined path towards effective management of IT resources and efficient operations.

Hence the need is to enforce a strategy that will help accomplish compliance requirements and yield positive results. And the basic aim of such a strategy is to inculcate business best practices, including the following:

Comprehending & Evaluating Compliance Performance: Enforcement of compliance policies should be undertaken with the explicit approval of  the management and the technical teams. The technical team has to ensure that the system and network devices are configured with standards approved by the management team, in a manner that does not hinder compliance.

Implementation of Risk Assessment Measures: An intrusion prevention system proficient in risk assessment provides solutions against anticipated threats. The employees of an organization need to realize that merely understanding the worth of compliance will not serve the purpose. They need to be aware of the present compliance status and the areas that lack compliance, so that standard risk assessment procedures can be implemented. Risk assessment would involve the following:

·         Formulate a plan to optimize available resources

·         Collect all relevant data have for further analysis

·         Review all business processes involving the process owners

·         Test and analyze Technical and technology solutions involving the technology owners

·         Document analytical findings and risk levels, and report the remediation measures and improvisation techniques

Enforcing Appropriate Policies: While ensuring IT Compliance with existing regulations, organizations should also ensure that the security infrastructure is capable of identifying risks and compliance gaps, and reporting the status. A centralized management process can help in this regard, and the controls used should provide both preventive and detective solutions.

Tracking, Enforcing & Reporting: It is very important to ensure that compliance practices are working properly and in the event of non-compliance, matters are dealt with promptly and effectively. Internal audits can be very helpful in tracking and reporting the compliance status.

Organizations are completely secure and compliant only when all governance, risk and compliance issues are addressed effectively. The key is a competent compliance management software solution with automated and integrated processes, which has the capability to perform all the above-mentioned functions efficiently.

Read More On:

·         Compliance Management Software

It Security Compliance