What's the difference between security and compliance?

Read Time 2 mins | Written by: Intlabs team

 

 

Data security and data compliance are integral to business in 2023. And they're both major industries globally.

According to Data Bridge Market Research, the global data compliance industry is projected to be worth $13.65 billion USD by 2030. And according to Fortune Business Insights, the global data security industry is projected to be worth $424.97 billion USD by 2030.

Knowing how data security and data compliance differ is the first step towards making sure you have the right practices and policies in place. 

So, what exactly is data security?

Data security generally refers to the people, systems, and practices that protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of systems and data. System security is improved by clearly understanding security (and privacy) goals, and acting consistently and diligently to achieve them. 

Good security practices:

  • Restrict access to data. Give careful consideration to who needs to access which data and then take the steps to adjust permissions so that only those who need access have it.
  • Manage dependencies. Software supply chain security is becoming increasingly important as we see increasing numbers of supply chain attacks (especially in javascript).
  • Monitor. Ensure that you have a system of alerts to make you aware of unusual activity. You can't fix what you don't know is broken.

And what is data compliance?

Compliance generally refers to the practices involved in abiding by all standards, regulations, and laws that pertain to a given jurisdiction. Compliance requires a keen awareness of which standards, regulations, and laws exist and which ones are relevant to your business. Compliance also requires that you're constantly watching for changes and updates. 

Good compliance practices:

  • List. Maintain a list of the standards, regulations, and laws that apply to your business.
  • Track. Keep an eye on those standards (via the news, google alerts, bookmarking their websites, subscribing to newsletters) so that you are notified when any major changes are made.
  • Remind. Set a reminder at a regular interval, like every 60 or 90 days, to actively research all standards, regulations, and laws that apply to your business to ensure that you have caught any changes that have been made. This might only take 30 minutes and you may not discover any changes but it will be a very important 30 minutes for securing the integrity of your business.

The ace in your pocket

In addition to the security and compliance best practices listed above, you can always speak with our team about how our ORIGIN platform can help you maintain your data security and keep track of your compliance.