If you are a company that works in an industry with compliance requirements, such as FINRA, HIPAA, PCI or another set of compliance regulations, you may be wondering exactly what it means to be compliant.
This is a question that companies and firms ask us on almost a daily basis. After all, more and more industries are finding themselves with regulatory compliance mandates to follow. This could be HIPAA, if you are working in the healthcare industry, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) for public companies, FINRA compliance mandates for those in the financial sector, PCI for the payment card industry and a number of others.
Compliance security is crucial
You know how important compliance security and protecting your information and data is, and so you want to make sure that you are staying in compliance with all the applicable compliance regulations in your industry.
So how can you make sure that you are compliant? New Jersey IT support professional, Krystal Triumph with Atlantic-IT.net shares insights into the world of compliance.
If you search up the word compliant using Google, you’ll see the following result returned: “Inclined to agree with others or obey rules, especially to an excessive degree; acquiescent.” So what does this have to do with the world of information technology? Well, in order to make sure that your company is in compliance with the state rules, federal mandates, or guidelines established by your industry that could apply to your company, you want to make sure that you are obeying the letter of the law when it comes to these regulations.
You have to make sure that you are completely obeying the rules if you don’t want to face heavy penalties.
Rules and regulations vary according to industry
It would be easy if every industry had the same compliance practices. However, the unfortunate reality is that different industries have different regulations in place based on the needs they have. For example, in the world of healthcare, there is HIPAA, or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, a set of federal regulations that place regulations on how healthcare companies use and interact with patient information and data and other sensitive medical records.
These regulations by necessity are different than those established by FINRA, or the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. This is because companies in each industry are handling different sets of data — patient medical records vs. financial data, for example. So it’s vitally important that you know exactly which compliance records apply for your industry and not assume that what applies for a different industry is the same for your line of work.
Industry, state, and federal compliance mandates
It’s also important that you know what sort of compliance mandates apply to your business — whether you are bound by state regulations, industry guidelines, federal law or any combination of the three. Some regulations, such as HIPAA, are nationwide and apply to everyone working in the healthcare industry.
No matter where you are in the United States, HIPAA regulations apply with the same severity. But other regulations are different state-by-state. In order to stay in compliance with all the required mandates, you should look up what the laws are in your state for your industry as well as federal laws that are applicable. This is the best way to make sure that you are adhering to the right regulation.
Managed IT service company
All this may sound complicated for a single business such as yours to take on. This is why you might want to hire a managed IT service company such as ourselves to handle compliance regulations. We can help you achieve compliance by keeping your compliance security up to date and ready to detect threats and by setting up an infrastructure that will keep your data and your information secure. In addition, we’re familiar with the different compliant regulations that your business is required to uphold, meaning that we can make sure that you are following the letter of the law.
Whether you’re unsure whether or not you are in compliance or if you are simply looking for advice, it never hurts to get some advice on your compliance procedures. Contact us today to learn how we can help your business stay in compliance.
Interesting related article: “What is Compliance?”