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Cybersecurity Planning vs. Cybersecurity Compliance: What’s the Difference? Both cybersecurity planning and cybersecurity compliance are critical aspects of an organization’s information security posture and should work together to create a comprehensive security framework. Neither of these activities is a one-time effort but an ongoing process that must be monitored and managed.
A great cybersecurity plan has three primary fundamental concepts: • Confidentiality – Keeping information secure • Integrity – Ensuring data is accurate and unaltered • Availability – Being able to access data when needed and at the appropriate level of need
While cybersecurity planning and cybersecurity compliance are two interconnected concepts, they also have important differences that companies should know in order to have a strong security posture and meet any needed compliance requirements. Cybersecurity Planning vs. Cybersecurity Compliance: Objectives Proactive cybersecurity planning refers to safeguarding your financial institution’s IT assets (including systems and data) from damage or theft from cyberthreats. Cybersecurity compliance refers to understanding and adhering to applicable laws, regulations, policies and industry standards that apply to your organization. These may include laws related to data privacy, consumer protections and more. Cybersecurity compliance aims to minimize legal, financial, reputational and operational risk by following relevant regulations, whereas cybersecurity planning seeks to strengthen a company’s entire security posture to protect against attacks. While both ultimately seek to limit threats and protect companies and consumers against data loss, proactive cybersecurity planning considers your company’s larger IT scope and footprint, while cybersecurity compliance is more limited in scope and reactive in nature to conform to alreadyset guidelines.
Cybersecurity compliance involves ensuring that the organization operates in accordance with legal and regulatory requirements, as well as internal policies and guidelines, and encompasses ethical and professional standards. Because many cybersecurity compliance measures are designed to enhance a company’s security posture, there is some overlap between common compliance activities and common cybersecurity planning activities. For example, providing cybersecurity training to employees may be mandatory in your organization, but it also may be part of the proactive plan you’ve elected. Cybersecurity Planning vs. Cybersecurity Compliance: Approach Cybersecurity planning is a proactive, layered approach that involves implementing preventive measures, security controls and continuous monitoring to detect and respond to potential threats and vulnerabilities.
Cybersecurity Planning vs. Cybersecurity Compliance: Activities Proactive cybersecurity planning is all about protecting systems and data by strengthening network security, endpoint protection, application security, data encryption, incident response, security awareness training and more. It involves implementing security technologies, conducting risk assessments, security audits and creating incident response plans to address security incidents effectively.
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Compliance is more of a reactive approach that involves ensuring that an organization’s policies, procedures and operations align with internal or external required regulations and standards.