Data compliance entails meeting any regulations that an organization must follow in order to protect sensitive data (typically personally identifiable information and financial data) against misuse, theft or loss. These regulations vary across geographies and may be industry standards or state/federal laws or even regulations that span nations such as GDPR. Each regulation details what types of data must be protected, what is accepted under legislation and specifies the penalties for lack of compliance.
Playing It Risky
Despite the numerous data compliance regulations that are legally mandated, many organizations fall pretty to the misconception that it’s easier to simply pay the penalties for lack of compliance. This is due to the false notion that ensuring data compliance for regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA, etc. is too expensive or too complex.
Organizations that decide not to take compliance measures often imagine a huge cost in terms of:
- Time
- Effort
- Paperwork
- Investment in tools & resources
This lack of compliance often leads to huge fines that can have severe consequences for the sustainability of a business. For instance, in 2020, GDPR fines broke records with Google being fined $56.6 million. Although the fine was technically from the previous year, an appeal lodged by Google was dismissed by France’s top court for administrative law and Google had to pay the massive fine in 2020.
In October, the ICO slammed British Airways with a $26 million fine for a GDPR breach that occurred in 2018. Hackers gained access to 400,000 customers’ PI information and payment details. In both cases, the breaches were preventable, but proper precautions were not followed by Google and adequate security measures were not in place at British Airways.
Even if a company does not have its operations in the EU, if it handles the information of customers in the EU, GDPR still applies to them. In the US compliance regulations vary per state, so companies must keep an eye on the criteria specified under the regulations that apply to them.
Aside from the risk of huge fines due to lack of compliance, companies that fail to take compliance measures also suffer from loss of reputation in the event of a compliance breach. This can do long-lasting damage to a company’s image and the harm may be irreparable.
Compliance is Easier Than You Might Think
The reality is that many companies are dissuaded from compliance due to the perceived cost of this endeavor. In reality, it is not that complex or that expensive to ensure that your organization meets data compliance regulations. Achieving data compliance does not require expensive tools that will break the bank or employing a large team of resources.
Although the terms data compliance and data security are used together, they’re not the same thing. Compliance and security require different levels of protection.
Digital technology is paving the way for innovative compliance enablement solutions that do not break the bank. Investing in such modern solutions can be the answer to compliance challenges and prove far less expensive than the cost of paying compliance penalties which can amount to tens of millions of dollars, bankrupting organizations. These solutions can cover the various stages of compliance tasks from:
- Discovering sensitive data across the enterprise.
- Identifying vulnerabilities and recommendations on how to seal these gaps.
- Providing guidance on how to remedy data compliance issues.
In our next blog, we’ll take a more in-depth look at the cost of non-compliance and cases of non-compliance that resulted in huge fines for companies.
If you’d like to explore data compliance for your organization, the ComplyD team would be glad to help. Leverage our SAP-native data discovery and compliance enablement tool. Enjoy comprehensive visibility through a user-friendly, unified dashboard with analytics. You’ll be able to take pro-actively take steps to meet any compliance regulations for ANY industry or geography. Our scientific, robust DASH approach discovers vulnerabilities and secures and hardens your perimeter to meet compliance regulations and avoid regulations. If you’d like a taste of compliance simplified for your entire enterprise please request a demo
