There are so many types of compliance protocols out there that it can often get confusing. PCI, HIPAA, SOC, NIST, etc... Not all compliance standards are created equal but all of them have a role to play and there is a beneficial compliance protocol for every industry.
Based on years in the compliancy industry, we have determined the most flexible and far-reaching compliance framework currently in existence is CIS. Designed specifically to address cybersecurity, CIS acts as an umbrella that helps shield organizations regardless of industry against costly attacks and ensures that they have the tools and the knowledge to prevent breaches.
As CIS experts, we can leverage this set of standards for your benefit. Not just to protect you against digital intrusions, but to provide the legal standard in the event that you are asked to demonstrate “due care”. This is the language judges use to describe “reasonableness.” Enterprises must use safeguards to ensure that risk is reasonable to the enterprise and appropriate to other interested parties at the time of the breach. Properly completed CIS assessments can help your enterprise demonstrate “due care.”
Let’s review:
THE COST OF A CYBER-BREACH
According to IBM’s 2024 analysis, the average financial damage from a cybersecurity event for companies with 500 employees or less is 3.7 million dollars. While that might be technically true, it has been our experience that the fiscal reality of a security breach for small businesses is rarely that excessive. Regardless of the financial cost, a data breach can be devastating. Once the initial cost of detection, isolation, reporting, and remediation are past it becomes evident that the true cost of a breach is not so obvious. Reporting to Federal Regulators, dealing with potential lawsuits from clients and vendors, recovering lost revenue from down time, and rebuilding trust from the reputation loss are just some of the unseen costs that come along with falling victim to hackers. A cyber-security breach can be devastating for businesses and the fallout can last years.
HOW TO FIND THE GOLDILOCKS-ZONE OF SECURITY
It’s clear the cost of neglecting cybersecurity compliance can be high but the cost of becoming overly compliant can have very real impacts as well. Implementing security protocols, policies, and practices that hinder productivity can actually be more costly and troublesome than a breach. For that reason, Laughing Rock has spent years developing LRAM (Laughing Rock Assessment Method). Utilizing our compliancy assessment tools and basing your security practices on the risk profiles within your business that have the highest exposure allows you to maximize security benefits with minimal impact on employee productivity. We call it the Goldilocks-Zone of Security. Not too little, not too much…just right.
WE ALREADY HAVE CYBERSECURITY, WHY SHOULD WE IMPLEMENT COMPLIANCY?
This is a great question that we get frequently. The best analogy we've developed to explain the difference is this: If cybersecurity tools are the medicine that treat cyber-risk symptoms, compliancy is the vaccine the protects you from ever getting sick.
The biggest issue we see with traditional cybersecurity solutions is that they are typically sold piecemeal to solve specific issues or alleviate specific concerns. While this is helpful in closing known security gaps, it never shows you where all those gaps are and how much risk they present. Implementing a standardized compliancy protocol gives you a 10,000 foot view of your organization where you can see every relevant risk and more importantly, allows you to prioritize them based on risk potential.
