Over the last few years, IT, compliance, finance, and other corporate departments have incorporated cybersecurity controls to meet audit evidence needs. The US Federal government and some US States are taking a closer look at how organizations protect consumers’ sensitive data and are enacting privacy laws. California pioneered data privacy with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and now the newly amended California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (CPRA) with other states with signed privacy legislation signed into law, such as Virginia and Colorado. While data privacy intersects with compliance and cybersecurity, it has come to a life of its own, as seen from the US State Privacy Legislation Tracker by the International Association of Privacy Professionals.

Companies often face A significant compliance hurdle in identifying who can take on data privacy, governance, IT compliance, cybersecurity tasks, and their primary responsibilities. These tasks usually fall on an executive who needs more resources or time to deliver attention to these vital compliance tasks effectively. These additional unwanted responsibilities can lead to poor execution, gaps in the organization, and overall weakness when complying with corporate and IT compliance that is mandatory for many businesses. Furthermore, it can also lead to fines, poor public relations, and overall customer churn.

If this is a role in your organization, they are most likely feeling overwhelmed with all the new responsibilities and options. Even well-versed leaders in corporate compliance, frameworks are complex and encompass many aspects of the business. Human Resources, Information Technology, Finance, and Operations are some of the hardest hit departments by these frameworks, and if leadership has never been a compliance advocate before, conveying and executing a governance or compliance program successfully is nearly impossible.

Knowing these struggles, organizations can leverage firms that have developed services to meet these needs, such as a virtual Chief Information Security Officer (vCISO), which puts a governance program in place quickly. Businesses attempting to implement IT compliance, data privacy, and cybersecurity frameworks benefit from the experience of an expert who has met compliance before. The primary goal of these services is to make compliance responsibility (whoever has it) easier by taking the guesswork out and guiding them to obtain the needed certifications and ensure that your organization is compliant. 

For more information about our services can help your cybersecurity, compliance, or operations programs work better, please get in touch with us.