Since the scandals that eroded public trust in the early 2000s Compliance Management across the business and corporate sectors has grown tremendously. The bankruptcy, which is one of record breaking, of energy provider Enron was quickly followed by an even bigger failure and bankruptcy by the world’s second largest telecommunications provider, WorldCom. That put personal profitability above the protections of the consumer by their own decisions the two institutions cited were brought down.   

Due to increased reliance on technology and consumer expectations, as data and information sharing increased, businesses found themselves culpable of information failures because of insufficient infrastructure and weak or non-existent compliance measures. They damage public confidence and can lead to significant financial harm to both their customers and the company, while these kinds of breaches are not criminal. As a result, most of today’s businesses struggle with the policies, pressures, and procedural upheavals of increased regulation.

The abilities to maintain and remediate problems, protect information, and provide adequate compliance reports are essential, when it comes to compliance management. To consider, there are two areas internal compliance makes assure adherence to the regulations, rules, and best practices as defined by internal policies, and external compliance, which is the practice of following the guidelines, laws, and regulations imposed by external governments, industries, and organizations.  

Federal, local, or international laws typically require proof of compliance. But organizations and industries can also impart their own standards, such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) that provides security in financial transactions and was created by top credit card companies. 

What Are Governance, Compliance, and Risk Management?

In a personal sense, to understand compliance, signing a HIPAA form at your doctor visit, think of receiving a yearly privacy notice from your bank, or experiencing a lockout for using a password incorrectly. Compliance includes the activities, for the IT professional, that provide and maintain systematic proof of both adherence to external laws and the internal policies, guidelines, or regulations imposed upon the company.

Through a defensible process this is done. Mainly two elements there are of compliance-  one gives attention to the management of compliance, and the second manages the probity of the system used to adhere to and prove compliance. In these days, the work of IT compliance regulars to grow as the electronic sharing and storing of information impacts sections such as human resources, finance, and operations that all depend on the services of IT in their dissemination, information gathering, and reporting.    

How it is obtained and stored, including IT Compliance, is taking appropriate control of and protecting information, how it is secured, its availability, how it is distributed internally and externally, and how the data is protected. Revolve around the goals, policies, and organizational structure of the businesses, it is the internal compliance functions. Satisfying the customer/end user while protecting the company includes external considerations and end users from harm. To continuously identify, report, monitor, and audit achieve and remain in compliance, specialized tools are used.