Information security is becoming a paramount issue for many companies and entities these days. It is a priority for businesses and extremely important for individuals. For businesses, it’s about maintaining the security of employee data, customer data, production data, documentation and other data critical to the operation of the business, and for individuals it’s about the security of data such as mobile banking data, payment cards, address and data that we don’t want to disclose or lose. For individuals, the simplest solutions such as password managers, antivirus software and awareness of the dangers of current threats are already effective. In the context of businesses, both small and large corporations, various standards and norms come to the rescue. In addition, companies must comply with relevant regulations depending on the region in which they operate.
Why is information security important especially for businesses?
Every company regardless of size and industry processes and manages a huge amount of its own or entrusted information, which requires an appropriate level of security related to relevant regulations, customer expectations or simply efforts to keep data as secure as possible. This is usually influenced by regulations and, in the case of larger companies, also by external and internal security standards, procedures and policies. Whether for B2C or B2B operations, a company will struggle to secure its own or entrusted information. This could be customer data such as personal data, designs, prototypes (entrusted data) or information about production processes, or own data (for example, company designs), employee data, business strategies or other business information. Due to the current computerization of management and production processes, threats to companies’ efforts to maintain information security include cyber attacks on IT infrastructure. This is not the only threat. One should keep in mind ordinary physical theft of intellectual property, economic espionage or even unintentional data leakage, for example, due to employee ignorance. Here, examples include: sharing photos of the production line, products, documents.
So why is protecting information so crucial? There are many reasons. One of the key mistakes is the lack of information security policies in companies and the effects it can have on the company.
Such consequences can be:
- Financial losses – possible lawsuits from customers and business partners and regulatory fines.
- Image losses – Failure to follow good security practices resulting in breaches can scare away potential customers and drive away existing customers.
- Loss of competitiveness – Leakage of product data, strategic plans of the company may result in their use by competitors. Thus, the company may lose competitiveness in the market.
- Loss of data – Lack of information security guidelines can lead to accidental loss or destruction of data, which can be disastrous for a company’s business.
- Regulatory violations – Many industries are regulated, and the lack of an information security policy can lead to regulatory violations and financial penalties.
These are just a few of the potential consequences that can be very dangerous for any business. This is why it is so important to maintain the highest possible level of information security in any business.
What regulations apply to entrepreneurs?
Depending on the geographic region, companies may be subject to different regulations. Such regulations may include state acts, e.g. laws, or regulations that apply in a particular region, e.g. GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) within the European Union. These are legal acts that apply every time in an overriding manner to the companies to which they apply. It is important to remember that companies are subject to regulations from the regions in which they operate, not just the regions in which they are headquartered. For example, companies originating from the United States that sell or provide services in the EU are obliged to comply with GDPR standards despite the fact that the regulation does not apply to the US market.
Examples of such regulations include:
- GDPR – Entire European Union
- PCI DSS (Payment card industry digital security standard) – This is a standard (not regulation) enforced on all payment card providers such as Visa and MasterCard – The entire payment card provider industry worldwide
- HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) – A 1996 law dealing with how health care centers and insurance companies process data. It does not apply to companies in other industries – United States
As we can see, regulations can be really diverse, can apply only to a specific industry or to other companies, and be globally or regionally applicable.
Is it worth using information security standards/legislation?
Standards, unlike regulations and legislation, are not forced on companies at the legal level. However, adherence to standards or norms may be required by some contractors or be written directly into the company’s business policy. An enterprise’s implementation of information security standards enables, among other things.
- A standardized approach to solving existing problems and preventing future security incidents, maintains unification and seamlessly scales solutions across the enterprise.
- Using the ready-made and tested methods contained in standards allows for faster and confident achievement of goals and the lack of need to build and test new strategies.
- Companies that apply well the standards widely used by other companies in the industry become more credible and reliable. They thereby increase trust among customers and potential contractors because they follow best practices tested by many.
- Minimize the risk of attacks and breaches – Information security standards contain best practices and guidelines that help identify and minimize the risk of attacks