Your Guide to Security & Compliance Terms
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Comprehensive Compliance Glossary
Introduction
In today’s fast-evolving regulatory landscape, understanding key compliance terms is essential for organizations aiming to maintain data security, privacy, and legal adherence. This glossary is designed to clarify critical compliance terminology, offering simple explanations and relevant examples to help businesses confidently navigate their compliance programs.
A
Access Control: Measures and policies that restrict or grant user access to systems, data, or resources based on defined security rules. For example, multi-factor authentication ensures only authorized personnel can access sensitive databases.
Audit Trail: A chronological record of system events, changes, or transactions that provide visibility into activities for monitoring and auditing purposes.
B
Business Continuity Plan (BCP): A strategy to ensure that an organization can continue operations during and after a disruptive event, such as a natural disaster or cyberattack.
Breach Notification: The process of informing affected individuals, regulatory bodies, and stakeholders when a security breach involving sensitive data occurs, as mandated by laws like GDPR or CCPA.
C
Compliance Monitoring: Continuous or periodic assessments to ensure that an organization meets regulatory and internal compliance requirements.
Control Mapping: The process of linking controls across multiple compliance frameworks to avoid duplication and streamline audit preparation.
Confidentiality: The principle of ensuring that sensitive information is only accessible to those authorized to view it.
CCPA: The California Consumer Privacy Act, which grants consumers greater control over their personal data collected by businesses.
D
Compliance Monitoring: Continuous or periodic assessments to ensure that an organization meets regulatory and internal compliance requirements.
Control Mapping: The process of linking controls across multiple compliance frameworks to avoid duplication and streamline audit preparation.
Confidentiality: The principle of ensuring that sensitive information is only accessible to those authorized to view it.
CCPA: The California Consumer Privacy Act, which grants consumers greater control over their personal data collected by businesses.
E
Compliance Monitoring: Continuous or periodic assessments to ensure that an organization meets regulatory and internal compliance requirements.
Control Mapping: The process of linking controls across multiple compliance frameworks to avoid duplication and streamline audit preparation.
Confidentiality: The principle of ensuring that sensitive information is only accessible to those authorized to view it.
CCPA: The California Consumer Privacy Act, which grants consumers greater control over their personal data collected by businesses.
F
Framework: A structured set of guidelines and best practices for managing risk and ensuring compliance. Examples include:
- ISO 27001 An international standard for managing information security risks, helping organizations protect data and ensure confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
- ISO 27002 Provides guidelines for implementing the security controls outlined in ISO 27001 to enhance information security.
- NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) A risk-based approach to managing cybersecurity, focusing on five key functions: Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover.
- NIST 800-53 A set of security and privacy controls for federal information systems, widely used by U.S. government agencies and contractors.
- SOC 1 Evaluates controls that impact financial reporting for service organizations, ensuring the accuracy of financial transactions.
- SOC 2 Assesses an organization’s security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy controls based on Trust Services Criteria.
- SOC 3 A public version of SOC 2, summarizing the security practices of an organization without detailed audit information.
- PCI DSS A set of security standards for organizations handling payment card data, ensuring the protection of cardholder information.
- GDPR A European regulation that protects the privacy and personal data of EU citizens, requiring organizations to follow strict data processing and security rules.
- HIPAA U.S. regulation that ensures the privacy and security of healthcare information, mandating safeguards for patient data protection.
- FedRAMP A U.S. government program that sets security standards for cloud services used by federal agencies, ensuring the protection of government data.
- CMMC A cybersecurity certification for U.S. Department of Defense contractors, designed to enhance the security of the defense supply chain.
- SOC for Cybersecurity Evaluates an organization’s cybersecurity risk management program to ensure it effectively protects sensitive data from threats.
- NIST 800-171 Guidelines for protecting Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) in non-federal systems, especially for government contractors.
- SOC 2 Type I vs. Type II SOC 2 Type I assesses control design at a specific point, while Type II evaluates the effectiveness of controls over time.
- FedRAMP: The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program certifies cloud service providers for U.S. government use.
- SAMA: Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority’s framework focuses on improving cybersecurity within financial organizations.
G
Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC): An integrated approach to aligning IT practices with organizational objectives, managing risk, and ensuring regulatory compliance.
Gap Analysis: The process of comparing current compliance practices with regulatory requirements to identify areas of improvement.
I
Identity and Access Management (IAM): A system or set of processes to manage user identities and their access rights to systems and data.
Incident Response Plan: A predefined strategy to address and mitigate the impact of security incidents, ensuring quick recovery and minimal damage.
M
Identity and Access Management (IAM): A system or set of processes to manage user identities and their access rights to systems and data.
Incident Response Plan: A predefined strategy to address and mitigate the impact of security incidents, ensuring quick recovery and minimal damage.
P
Policy: A set of principles or rules that guide decision-making and ensure compliance with standards and regulations.
Penetration Testing: A simulated cyberattack conducted to identify and fix security vulnerabilities in a system.
Privacy by Design: Embedding data privacy into the design and development of business processes, systems, and products.
R
Risk Assessment: The process of identifying, analyzing, and evaluating risks that could impact the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information.
Risk Mitigation: Actions taken to reduce the likelihood or impact of identified risks.
S
Security Incident: An event that compromises the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of information or systems.
SOC 1: A type of audit focused on the internal controls related to financial reporting. It ensures that service organizations’ processes are effective in managing data that could impact financial statements.
SOC 2: A compliance standard for organizations handling customer data, focusing on security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.
SOC 3: A publicly available report that covers the same five trust service principles as SOC 2 but is designed for a general audience, providing assurance without sensitive details.
SaaS Compliance: Adherence to regulatory and security standards for Software as a Service providers.
V
Vendor Risk Management: The process of evaluating and monitoring third-party vendors to ensure they meet security and compliance requirements.
Vulnerability Assessment: The practice of identifying and evaluating security weaknesses within an organization’s systems.
Virtual Private Network (VPN): A secure network connection that encrypts data transmitted between remote users and corporate systems.
Conclusion
Understanding compliance terminology is vital for organizations to develop effective security programs, meet legal requirements, and build trust with customers. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our compliance experts.
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