July 17, 2025
First off, I just want to say that I’ve never met a business owner who was happy about having to comply with regulations. Meeting compliance can require time and money, often from organizations that have a scarcity of both. And if that weren’t enough, regulations aren’t static. They change, and they can be difficult to interpret, and they can be especially tough on the little guy.
However, in my field, regulations are designed to protect an individual’s safety and privacy. And if your experience is like most Americans, for the rest of your life, you will be fighting off hackers who got your social security number off the dark web because just one company was shockingly irresponsible with the data it collected. That’s not okay. So in this blog, I’ll provide some clarity about cybersecurity compliance and what various industries need to know.
What Is Cybersecurity Compliance?
Cybersecurity compliance means following the rules and standards set by governments and industry groups to keep your business and your clients safe from cyberattacks. These rules help protect your company's digital information and computer systems from hackers who might try to steal, damage, or disrupt your data.
The specific protections you need will depend on what kind of data you handle and the industry you’re in. However, requirements are designed to protect your systems and data against:
- Malicious access or use
- Unauthorized disclosure
- Disruption
- Destruction
- Unauthorized modification
A Simplified Cybersecurity Compliance Framework
I speak for most cybersecurity professionals when I say that cybersecurity compliance isn’t just about checking a box. These regulations outline what you should be doing to protect your organization from a cybersecurity attack that could be far more devastating than a fine. Remaining compliant is in your own best interests, every way you look at it.
But because regulations can contain vague language, here’s a simplified list of what effective cybersecurity compliance should look like in your organization:
1. You’re Following the Rules
You’re complying with any cybersecurity laws and regulations you need to follow for your industry and your location.
2. You’re Meeting the Standards of Your Industry
Beyond legal requirements, there are proven frameworks like ISO 27001, the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF), and the Center for Internet Security (CIS) that provide clear roadmaps for strong security.
3. You Have Clear Policies That Are Known and Enforced
Every regulated organization should have written policies and procedures that spell out how your team should handle data and security, as well as a way to make sure these policies and procedures are followed.
4. You’re Managing Risk Effectively
While no security solution is a 100% guarantee, you’ve taken steps to control who can access sensitive data and when, to protect your data when it’s at rest and in transit, and to regularly reassess your vulnerabilities as threats to your industry evolve.
5. You Have a Plan for Worst-Case Scenarios
You have a clear incident response plan (IRP) and a business continuity plan (BCP) that are reviewed at least annually, and whenever relevant roles, processes, and tools change.
6. Your Staff Is Trained To Spot Threats
You provide regular, engaging security awareness training to your employees so they can help you protect your organization from phishing and malware attacks.
7. Your Systems Are Monitored Continuously
You’re confident that your current monitoring and auditing solutions will alert you if there are any signs of unauthorized access, so you can mount an effective response quickly.
8. You Keep Detailed Records
Your current solutions make it easy to quickly gather the data you’d need in case of an audit.
If all of the above sounds like your organization, then at least at a glance, you appear to be in good shape.
More Specific Cybersecurity Compliance Standards
Because every industry faces different threats, compliance standards aren’t always the same.
Here are a few examples that some business owners may not be aware of:
1. Credit Card Security Requirements
Do you process credit card payments? If so, your business needs to follow the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), which requires encrypting card numbers and secure payment systems.
2. Financing Requirements
Do you offer financing? If you do, then your organization must follow the Standards for Safeguarding Customer Information as outlined by the FTC. That may come as news to quite a few car dealerships, colleges and universities, and mortgage lenders.
But once again, the requirements are designed to keep your business and your customers safe, and are exactly what any cybersecurity professional would recommend for an organization that stores a high volume of sensitive financial data — multifactor authentication (MFA), penetration testing, and regular vulnerability assessments, as well as the monitoring and logging solutions.
3. Data Privacy Requirements
Newer privacy regulations like Europe's GDPR and California's CCPA give consumers more control over their personal data. But here's where it gets interesting — if you're a U.S. company with European customers, you must store their data in Europe and follow European privacy laws, even though your business is based in America.
4. Healthcare Privacy Requirements
Healthcare organizations must protect patient health information when sharing it between doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies. HIPAA sets the rules for how this sensitive data can be handled and transmitted, and these tend to change more frequently than other regulations, which brings me to my next point.
Upcoming Changes to HIPAA Regulations
Healthcare organizations are facing a perfect storm of new HIPAA challenges in 2025. With ransomware attacks up 264% last year, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is cracking down hard on data security, including the launch of a new Risk Analysis Initiative specifically targeting organizations that skip proper security risk assessments or just go through the motions with superficial reviews.
Meanwhile, HHS has proposed major updates to the HIPAA Security Rule that would require things like multi-factor authentication, encryption, and regular penetration testing. As I’ve been saying throughout this blog, these are what any cybersecurity professional would recommend anyway. Still, smaller healthcare organizations that have fallen behind may soon see increased pressure on an already tight budget.
Patient access continues to be a hot-button enforcement issue, with OCR settling multiple cases throughout 2024 for organizations that didn't provide timely record access. Many of these enforcement actions started with just one patient complaint, which illustrates how a single incident can expose widespread compliance problems and lead to significant penalties.
The intersection of AI and healthcare data is also creating new compliance headaches. While HHS hasn't issued AI-specific HIPAA requirements yet, I’d advise healthcare organizations to be especially careful about third-party AI tools and tracking technologies that might inadvertently access protected health information. There's also ongoing legal drama around reproductive health privacy rules, with Texas challenging the new protections in federal court.
Cybersecurity Compliance Consulting Services
If you’re not sure you’re meeting current compliance requirements, or your current solutions are costing you too much time and money, we offer fractional CISO services to help organizations deal with regulatory changes and evolving threats on a budget.
That way, your team can focus on what matters most to your organization, while a world-class cybersecurity and compliance expert keeps an eye on exactly what’s changing when, and how you might make a few adjustments to your cybersecurity tools to save money and time.
