The Content You Need to Be Compliant
HEALTHCARE
Protect PHI, Comply with Regulations, and Get Audit-Ready
ZenGRC provides a rich library of over 25 expertly curated regulatory, statutory and contractual frameworks and standards that help you adopt best practices and standardize risk and compliance across the organization.
Aligned with the Secure Control Framework (SCF) and NIST, the library provides cross-mappings of controls from SCF, NIST CSF and CIS to a multitude of global frameworks. Continuous, automated control testing eradicates audit fatigue, eliminates hours of manual work preparing for audits, and helps ensure compliance.
- Assess vulnerabilities to PHI within your network, applications, and Information systems
- Identify non-compliant data privacy behaviors like failure to encrypt data before sending it to the cloud
- Remediate weaknesses, either through software security patches or changes to data collection practices
- Map progress on remediation efforts to controls across HIPAA, NIST, PCI and others
- Easily report those risk assessments and remediations to other parties as necessary
- Integrate updated regulations into your compliance program as they arise
FAQs
How does GRC software help me protect sensitive data?
To protect your IT systems and data from unauthorized access or theft, you must first understand what gaps, if any, exist in your security protocols as well as the unique risks facing your organization.
Then, once your risks are identified and assessed, you can leverage insights for better decision-making for risk reduction strategies, including which controls to implement or improve data privacy.
But that’s just a start. From there, your compliance or cybersecurity program will need to be maintained, monitored and reviewed routinely to ensure that internal controls are still adequate to reduce risk and achieve compliance.
A governance, risk and compliance management solution like ZenGRC helps you identify, meet and maintain your risk posture, including threat and vulnerability importance and status.
ZenGRC ensures you always know where you stand and what action needs to be taken to improve your risk, compliance and security posture.
Who is required to be HIPAA compliant?
According to HIPAA, all covered entities and their business associates must demonstrate compliance.
Covered entities include healthcare providers, health plans and healthcare clearinghouses. Business associates are any entity or person that discloses protected health information (PHI) or provides services to a covered entity.
These entities must demonstrate that they are adherent to the current national standards set and have implemented appropriate access controls to preserve data security and privacy.
What are the four factors of a HIPAA breach risk assessment?
To ensure HIPAA compliance, breach risk assessments must include four factors to determine whether unsecured PHI follows the HIPAA privacy rule. These are:
- What kind of PHI was involved and what is the extent of its use?
- Who was the unauthorized organization or person?
- Did the organization or person procure or see the PHI?
- How has the risk been mitigated?
What are the most common violations that trigger HIPAA investigations?
According to HHS.GOV, the most common violations leading to a HIPAA investigation are:
- Impermissible use and sharing of unsecured PHI
- Lack of cybersecurity and encryption applied to protect the information
- Lack of or denying patients access to PHI
- Lack of security systems put in place to protect electronically protected health information
- Disclosure of too much PHI (see above about substance abuse treatment)
EDUCATION
Protect Sensitive Data and Enforce IT Cybersecurity Across your Organization
Given the number of students learning remotely and teachers and school staff working from home, educational infrastructure now extends far beyond the safe perimeters of school networks and security systems. This enhances cybersecurity threats.
Educational institutions have myriad data on student household finances, student medical conditions, research and development activities, and much more. They must use multiple frameworks to address security compliance and data privacy obligations.
For example, colleges can use the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) Cybersecurity Assessment Tool to help map security controls to privacy rules for personal data.
Colleges can also use the Institutions of Higher Education Compliance Framework to assess and manage security related to federal financial aid.
NIST 800-171 applies to security on government contracts, and CISOs concerned about commercial tech service vendors may want to use their own SOC 2 audits and remediation plans.
The bottom line is that while these frameworks are extremely helpful, they can quickly get too cumbersome to manage manually. That’s where ZenGRC can help, providing the guidance and automated workflows to:
- Assess the starting security posture of your information systems and any third parties you use
- Establish corrective steps that might be necessary and assign them to control owners
- Identify security gaps you must fill to meet regulatory requirements
- Monitor whether those fixes are on schedule
- Conduct any new risk assessments that might be necessary as new regulations emerge
FAQs
What are the key cybersecurity challenges for educational institutions?
In 2021, the Educause IT Issues Panel shared the key technologies expected to impact cybersecurity for higher education institutions.
They were:
- Cloud computing vendors
- Endpoint monitoring and response
- Two-factor authentication (2FA) and single sign-on (SSO)
- Data integrity technology
- Research security
- Data privacy governance
What costs are associated with cyberattacks on educational institutions?
The Ponemon Institute recently shared that the average cost of data breaches in the education sector in 2022 was $3.86 million.
These costs were primarily associated with remediation tactics and productivity lost during an outage. Last year, for example, cybercriminals targeted the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest in the nation, with a ransomware attack, resulting in 2,000 student assessment records being posted on the dark web which included email addresses, student ID numbers and some driver’s license numbers and Social Security numbers.
Still, some higher education institutions have been forced to pay a ransom to regain their sensitive data stolen by cyber attackers. In 2020, the University of California San Francisco paid a ransom of $1.14 million in Bitcoin to retrieve critical data related to medical research.
How can educational institutions protect sensitive data?
Educational institutions have, in recent years, made use of large databases to manage data and data and governance programs. Having all of this data aggregated in a single location made it easier to manage and secure.
However, data, intellectual property and research are no longer stored in a single, central location managed by an IT manager or CISO.
Today, user authentication, security patch management, firewalls and anti-virus software must be managed and deployed across a far more complex IT environment.
Yet, the tasks involved should still be managed from one central point to assure effective security and compliance with regulatory obligations.
MANUFACTURING
Control Operational Risk, Monitor Third Parties, Get Compliant
Much of the data media companies collect is subject to protection from multiple regulatory frameworks that can reach across various jurisdictions. Potential compliance obligations include:
- GDPR if you do business with EU citizens
- CCPA if you do business with California citizens
- The NIST Cybersecurity Framework to protect your IT systems
- PCI DSS if you collect credit card information
Media companies can leverage a variety of risk management frameworks to protect their data and IT systems. However, manually managing regulatory requirements while trying to implement a cybersecurity and risk management program can be daunting and laborious.
Automation through ZenGRC empowers media organizations to:
- Take an inventory of data collected from site visitors, subscribers, and customers and identify which data privacy regulations apply to your business
- Perform a risk assessment of your IT systems and data collection practices
- Remediate weaknesses and non-compliance risks through improved data collection practices, appropriate data collection notices, and security patches or other controls
- Document everything from baseline measures to any vulnerabilities found during risk assessment and any mitigation strategies applied
- Study data collection practices for non-compliant behaviors like failure to secure consent for collecting social media profiles
- Diagnose breaches when they happen, with disclosure according to breach notification laws
- Implement an audit trail for all data collection practices, privacy notices, and retention of compliance documentation
FAQs
What does risk and compliance look like in manufacturing?
There are many industries that face cyber risk and regulatory compliance obligations. In manufacturing, organizations face both regulatory compliance and corporate compliance requirements along with the critical need to secure the IoT technologies across the organization and its supply chain.
While regulatory compliance relates to the state, federal and international regulations that impact a manufacturer’s operations, corporate compliance refers to the company’s internal procedures and policies, as well as any federal or state laws that impact the manufacturer’s internal operations.
Why is risk management and compliance in manufacturing important?
Both businesses and consumers rely on products developed by manufacturers. Those manufacturers achieving risk management and compliance objectives protect product users as much as it protects the manufacturer itself. Their risk and compliance program provides users reassurance that the products they buy and use are safe and responsibly sourced.
How can a manufacturing company implement a risk management plan?
While an organization’s exact program will be dependent upon the nature of their business, where they operate and what they produce, there are some simple tips that can help them get started on the right foot.
- Determine the scope of your compliance requirements
- The most prominent regulatory agencies for the manufacturing industry include OSHA, HACCP, FDA, EPA and ISO
- Determine your goals and any existing gaps
- Again, a tool like ZenGRC can help you quickly identify your compliance and risk gaps and tell you how to fill them so you can jumpstart your program
- Assess Your Risks
- In addition to your baseline compliance obligations, your organization will also face unique risks related to the scope of your business. Addressing your compliance objectives doesn’t necessarily mean all your risks will also be addressed. Thus, it’s important to evaluate what those risks are and ensure you have the controls in place to mitigate any unacceptable risks
- Take Action
- Once you understand your compliance gaps and remaining risks, it’s now time to implement a plan of action and assign roles and responsibilities. ZenGRC can help you define this plan and automate tasks so you can focus on business growth, instead of task follow-up
- Provide Risk and Compliance Training to Employees
- A compliance and risk management program is only as strong as those team members that uphold security controls over time, so make sure that awareness and training are part of your compliance program
RETAIL
Manage Security Controls, Comply with Regulations, and Protect Data
Data is the lifeblood of modern retail. The more you collect, the more you can analyze what your customers need and want. However, all of that data is subject to protection from multiple laws that can reach across jurisdictions.
U.S. retailers, for example, must demonstrate compliance with the PCI DSS framework to protect credit card data. But if a business collects data about European Union citizens, it also confronts the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
ZenGRC solutions automate the laborious, manual processes of tracking risk assessments, as well as performing gap analyses and remediation efforts across the multiple frameworks that impact your business.
Our governance, risk, and compliance solution continuously monitors your compliance stance and automatically provides real-time risk scores. At a glance, your centralized dashboard shows your compliance posture, how to fill compliance gaps, and how to reduce areas of high risk.
ZenGRC’s automated solution helps you:
- Assess vulnerabilities in your transaction systems, network, and application layers
- Analyze customer and payment data collection practices for non-compliant behaviors
- Remediate any weaknesses while organizing your documentation for potential audits
- Map progress on remediation efforts to ensure that risks are appropriately mitigated
- Report risk assessments and remediations for compliance certification
- Integrate new threat alerts or updated regulations into your compliance program
FAQs
Is PCI DSS legally required?
PCI DSS is not required by law, but often, it is required by contracts with major payment card brands. Thus, merchants and retailers who process transactions will likely be needed to fulfill its requirements.
How can retailers become PCI-Compliant?
PCI DSS lays out twelve requirements for merchants and retailers who want to achieve compliance with the framework:
- Safeguard cardholder data with a secure system and network firewalls
- Update weak or default passwords with unique, more complex versions
- Any cardholder data or customer behavior data should be secured if stored
- Encrypt cardholder data transmitted over networks
- Implement antivirus protocols and ensure all security software is updated
- Ensure IT systems and applications are protected and monitored
- Restrict access to sensitive data
- Assign team members with access to sensitive data a unique ID
- Restrict physical access to sensitive data
- Access to sensitive data should be monitored and routinely reviewed
- Routinely test all security measures to ensure they can reasonably withstand threats
- Create clear and consistent information security policies made available to all staff
What third-party risks should retailers consider?
As retailers implement their own risk management and security programs, they must also consider those of any third-party vendors that fulfill their supply chain. Here are some of the risks retailers should consider:
- Security vulnerabilities of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers
- Poor information security practices by third-parties
- Compromised hardware or software that integrates with your systems
- Subpar security controls for third-party data storage
Should any of these be present in your supply chain, that risk can impact your critical infrastructure, operations, and any sensitive data you store.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Avoid InfoSec Risk, Comply with Regulations, Get Audit-Ready
ZenGRC provides banks and fintech firms of all sizes with a cost-effective, unified system to manage controls across multiple frameworks and help CISOs monitor key performance indicators for compliance and IT security efforts. It’s a governance, risk management, and compliance solution that provides simple-to-use risk management templates to facilitate comprehensive risk assessments.
User-friendly dashboards identify your compliance gaps and give you actionable feedback on how to fill them. You’ll streamline operational risk management and compliance by automating repetitive, time-consuming, error-prone manual tasks.
With ZenGRC, you can:
- Assess cybersecurity vulnerabilities within your organization, and within fintech third parties
- Comply with privacy rules at international, federal, and state levels
- Map progress on remediation efforts
- Integrate new regulatory requirements into your compliance systems
- Identify weaknesses in internal controls and have a framework to fix them
FAQs
How do SOC 2 and NIST differ?
SOC 2 is a framework that applies to most service providers (often SaaS providers) and their ability to securely manage sensitive data and safeguard the interest of their clients. When SOC2 is required, it results in an independent service auditor’s report and certification of compliance.
NIST is a voluntary framework that can define and improve the security protocols necessary to secure a service provider’s IT systems and enhance information security.
Both standards focus on analyzing an organization’s internal security controls.
Is PCI DSS mandatory for banks?
It is often a prerequisite for participation with the major payment card brands for your financial transactions. Financial institutions, issuing banks, merchants, and financial service providers that process transactions need contracts with the five card brands that facilitate them.
How do I become PCI-Compliant?
There are 12 primary requirements to prove PCI compliance:
- Protect all cardholder data with a system of well-maintained firewalls.
- Change all passwords from any defaults to unique and secure options.
- Any stored cardholder data should be protected.
- Encrypt any cardholder data that is transmitted via open networks.
- Use antivirus software and make sure it is up-to-date.
- Make sure that your systems and applications are secure.
- Access to cardholder data should be permitted only on a need-to-know basis.
- Any staff members with access should be assigned a unique ID.
- Any physical access to cardholder data should be restricted.
- All access from staff should be closely monitored.
- All security measures should be tested regularly.
- Your information security policies should be consistent and clear to all employees.
How does GRC software help me protect sensitive data?
To protect your IT systems and data from unauthorized access or theft, you must first understand what gaps, if any, exist in your security protocols as well as the unique risks facing your organization.
Then, once your risks are identified and assessed, you can leverage insights for better decision-making for risk reduction strategies, including which controls to implement or improve data privacy.
But that’s just a start. From there, your compliance or cybersecurity program will need to be maintained, monitored and reviewed routinely to ensure that internal controls are still adequate to reduce risk and achieve compliance.
A governance, risk and compliance management solution like ZenGRC helps you identify, meet and maintain your risk posture, including threat and vulnerability importance and status.
ZenGRC ensures you always know where you stand and what action needs to be taken to improve your risk, compliance and security posture.
HOSPITALITY
Manage Compliance and Risk, Protect Data, Increase Customer Trust
In the process of serving customers, hospitality organizations usually collect Personal Identifiable Information (PII), sensitive financial information, customer behavior data, and preferred customer data like IDs, passwords, and location data.
All of that data is protected by multiple data privacy laws, not to mention the cybersecurity and quality standards that impact this industry, including GDPR, CCPA, PCI, NIST, and ISO.
While smaller organizations may begin managing compliance and risk through manual tools and spreadsheets, this is not s ustainable long term.
ZenGRC leverages automation, universal control mapping, and real-time monitoring to streamline data governance, risk management, and compliance requirements for hospitality companies.
Accomplish your risk and compliance goals faster and with greater accuracy, ensuring that data is protected and customer satisfaction and trust sustained.
ZenGRC provides automation, reporting features, and guidance to help hospitality organizations:
- Encrypt all payment card data
- Map sensitive data to the systems, processes, and people who access it to ensure you know where your vulnerabilities are and fortify them
- Limit access to sensitive information to authorized personnel
- Continuously monitor your compliance stance across all applicable frameworks
- Get real-time risk scores to expose hidden and changing risks
- Quantify and convey the impact of risk on key aspects of your business to stakeholders
FAQs
Do I need a data retention policy?
A data retention policy is important for hospitality organizations as they must make certain they have retained the right data, properly disposed of the data they don’t need, and have proper data backup policies.
If the hospitality organization doesn’t back up the right amount of data, disaster recovery won’t be effective. On the other hand, backing up too much data may cause confusion and delay the recovery process.
How can a hospitality organization ensure GDPR compliance?
A great starting point for hospitality organizations is to begin with an audit of your hotel website. Identify where data is requested on the website. For each of these areas, you must ensure that you have clearly outlined your data use policy for site visitors to see.
Your data use policies must observe the following consumer rights:
- The right to be informed
- The right to access/modify data
- The right to give/withdraw consent
- The right for data erasure
- The right to transfer data
How does GRC software help me protect my sensitive data?
To protect your info systems and data from unauthorized access or theft, you must first understand what gaps, if any, exist in your security protocols as well as the unique risks facing your organization.
Then, once your risks are assessed and mitigated, your compliance or cybersecurity program will need to be maintained, monitored, and reviewed routinely to ensure that internal controls are still effective and that you are aware of emerging risks.
With compliance and security frameworks built-in and maintained by experts along with suggested risk and threat scores and real-time connections between control assessments and risk scoring, you get a unified, real-time view of risk and compliance and significant efficiency gains so that you can stay ahead of threats, reduce risk and strengthen compliance.
How can the NIST Cybersecurity Framework help hospitality organizations implement GDPR data protocols?
The NIST Cybersecurity Framework can be used to provide additional paths toward tackling GDPR data privacy objectives through its “Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond and Recover” principles. As GDPR is so broad, the NIST CF provides a holistic approach to security so your organization can accelerate its GDPR compliance journey.
MEDIA
Deter Cyber Threats, Comply with Regulations, Protect Your Data
Much of the data media companies collect is subject to protection from multiple regulatory frameworks that can reach across various jurisdictions. Potential compliance obligations include:
- GDPR if you do business with EU citizens
- CCPA if you do business with California citizens
- The NIST Cybersecurity Framework to protect your IT systems
- PCI DSS if you collect credit card information
Media companies can leverage a variety of risk management frameworks to protect their data and IT systems. However, manually managing regulatory requirements while trying to implement a cybersecurity and risk management program can be daunting and laborious.
Automation through ZenGRC empowers media organizations to:
- Take an inventory of data collected from site visitors, subscribers, and customers and identify which data privacy regulations apply to your business
- Perform a risk assessment of your IT systems and data collection practices
- Remediate weaknesses and non-compliance risks through improved data collection practices, appropriate data collection notices, and security patches or other controls
- Document everything from baseline measures to any vulnerabilities found during risk assessment and any mitigation strategies applied
- Study data collection practices for non-compliant behaviors like failure to secure consent for collecting social media profiles
- Diagnose breaches when they happen, with disclosure according to breach notification laws
- Implement an audit trail for all data collection practices, privacy notices, and retention of compliance documentation
FAQs
Why should a media company conduct a PCI DSS risk assessment?
Conducting a PCI DSS risk assessment can provide insight into vulnerabilities in your transaction and payment data collection practices. Specifically, it empowers organizations to identify, assess, document and manage information security risks that may impact cardholder data.
Media companies can pinpoint these vulnerabilities through penetration testing, risk assessments and security audits. Furthermore, PCI DSS provides guidance around mitigation strategies so they can get started implementing comprehensive risk management strategies.
How does GRC software help media companies with data privacy?
To protect your info systems and data from unauthorized access or theft, you must first understand what gaps, if any, exist in your security protocols as well as the unique risks facing your organization.
Then, once your risks are assessed and mitigated, your compliance or cybersecurity program will need to be maintained, monitored, and reviewed routinely to ensure that internal controls are still effective and that you are aware of emerging risks.
A governance, risk and compliance management solution like the ZenGRC Pro Platform can provide a number of options to help you identify, meet and maintain your regulatory requirements and safeguard your organization against cyber threats.
Through automation, control mapping and a dashboard that can provide real-time views of your compliance and risk stance, ZenGRC Pro ensures you always know where you stand and what action needs to be taken to improve your security posture.
How can the NIST Cybersecurity Framework help media companies implement data privacy controls?
The NIST Cybersecurity Framework can be used to provide additional paths toward tackling GDPR data privacy objectives through its “Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond and Recover” principles. As GDPR is so broad, the NIST CF provides a holistic approach to security so your organization can accelerate its GDPR compliance journey.
GOVERNMENT
Protect Sensitive Data, Manage Risk, Gain Compliance
Governmental organizations collect a myriad of highly sensitive information on individuals and organizations—information subject to multiple regulatory frameworks, including:
- FedRAMP
- HIPAA (health information)
- The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (financial information)
- State breach disclosure laws (other personal information)
- GDPR if you collect personal data about EU citizens
Additionally, government agencies can enlist the help of
cybersecurity frameworks like the Cybersecurity Maturity
Model Certification (CMMC) or the NIST Cybersecurity
Framework to help protect sensitive data and meet various
compliance requirements.
However, doing this manually through spreadsheets and other legacy tools can quickly become error-prone and unmanageable.
With ZenGRC, you can:
- Assess vulnerabilities in your IT systems and network
- Study data collection practices for non-compliant behaviors
- Remediate any weaknesses, either through software security patches or through changes to data collection practices
- Map progress on remediation efforts
- Report risk assessments and remediations to other parties as necessary
- Integrate new threat alerts or updated regulations into your compliance program as they come along
FAQs
What are the steps to becoming CMMC compliant?
- Engage with the DoD
- Establish a procurement account and obtain and active status
- Conduct a self-assessment
- Understand the scope of the assessment
- Develop a plan
- Submit your assessment scope
- Demonstrate CMMC readiness and remediation
- Get a C3PAO assessment
- Pass (or fail) certification
Who needs FedRAMP Certification?
If you’re a cloud service provider (CSP) that plans to work with the federal government or a federal agency, you need to obtain FedRAMP certification. Without FedRAMP certification, cloud providers wouldn’t be eligible to obtain federal contracts.
While the time and cost investment of obtaining FedRAMP authorization may cause hesitation, you’ll find the investment well worth it when you realize that a single ATO can unlock the opportunity to work with multiple agencies.
Who should use NIST?
If you answer yes to any of the following questions, utilizing NIST standards to help you achieve your compliance objectives may be a good idea:
- Do you handle data protected by HIPAA?
- Do you routinely manage controlled, unclassified information?
- Do you have many third-party vendors and contractors?
- Will you ever compete for a contract with the U.S. government some day in the future?
- Do you hope to enter the national security business, either as a service provider or a small business contractor?
- Do you perform any work that must be compliant with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA)?
INSURANCE
Protect Sensitive Data, Manage Risk, Gain Compliance
The insurance industry is a target for many types of cyberattacks due to the amount of high value information it manages. Insurance companies also possess personally identifiable information (PII) on finances and health collected as part of the underwriting and claims processes that bad actors can use for fraud and other malicious purposes.
The insurance sector is regulated on both the state and national level, creating a thicket of applicable regulations.Framework to help protect sensitive data and meet various compliance requirements.
ZenGRC provides a risk and compliance management solution that helps insurers assess and remediate risks, get real-time updates of risk and compliance postures, as well as a view of trends over time.
With compliance and security frameworks built-in and maintained by experts, we provide a unified, real-time view of risk and compliance that helps you detangle the regulatory thicket.
Leverage ZenGRC automation and framework content to:
- Assess your data privacy and cybersecurity requirements
- Identify security gaps that must be filled to meet regulatory requirements
- Continuously test the effectiveness of controls and remain audit-ready
- Get real-time, automatically updated risk scores to surface hidden or changing risk
- Ensure remediation tasks are assigned appropriately and executed on a timely basis
- Monitor third parties that have access to confidential data and assess their security postures
- Communicate the financial impact of risk to executives and the board
- Understand and respond to any new regulations
FAQs
What types of protected data do insurance providers collect?
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) has determined that types of protected data include:
- Social Security numbers
- Driver’s license numbers
- Banking account data, credit or debit card numbers
- Security codes, passwords, etc
- Biometric data
- Healthcare information
- Any data that can materially impact a business in an adverse way
In other words, nearly any data that helps a company determine insurance coverage or calculate the premium for a consumer’s insurance policy should be protected.
How should insurance firms conduct a risk assessment?
The NAIC had designated five critical steps to perform an effective risk assessment.
Step 1: Designate a Risk Manager
Step 2: Identify Reasonably Foreseeable Internal and External Threats
Step 3: Assess the Likelihood and Estimate Damage
Step 4: Review Current Policies, Procedures, Systems, and Safeguards
Step 5: Implement Procedures and Safeguards
What is the difference between risk management and risk assessment?
Risk assessments measure various risks and help insurance companies determine which risks are the most severe, and thus, should be prioritized.
On the other hand, Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) for insurance companies encompasses implementing, managing and monitoring security controls for mitigated or acceptable risks.
OIL & GAS
Deter Cybersecurity Threats and Ensure Data Privacy
A 2021 Security Directive requires critical pipeline owners and operators to report confirmed and potential cybersecurity incidents and designate a Cybersecurity Coordinator.
It also requires critical pipeline owners and operators to review their current practices as well as to identify any gaps and related remediation measures to address cyber-related risks and report the results within 30 days.
In addition, any security risks for corporate financial or operational data must be protected with the appropriate governance measures, and as employers, oil and gas companies have all the usual regulatory obligations around personal data.
For security officers building a compliance strategy, these obligations can seem insurmountable. This is where ZenGRC can help to streamline and guide risk, cybersecurity, and compliance efforts.
In addition to providing a central repository for organizing and cataloging all compliance documentation, ZenGRC’s expert-provided framework and standards content, initial threat and risk scores, and automated workflows can help you:
- Take an inventory of all the systems that control data assets, facilitate the pipeline, and connect to the rest of your IT infrastructure
- Assess your baseline security posture—for both your internal systems and any third-party vendors that make up the supply chain
- Cross-check your baseline controls with any pertinent frameworks (NIST, ISO, SOC 2, etc.) and identify the security gaps that need to be filled to meet regulatory requirements
- Establish necessary mitigation steps and assign them to control owners
- Routinely conduct new risk assessments to ensure continual compliance and keep up with new regulations and emerging threats
FAQs
Who regulates the oil and gas industry?
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is the main regulatory body for the oil and gas industry. However, several other federal agencies provide oversight for various components of the industry. A few examples include:
- The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
- The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
- The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)
- The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
- The U.S. Department of Energy
What are the benefits of risk and compliance software in the oil and gas industry?
There are several benefits to organizations in the oil and gas industry who opt for risk and compliance software to manage their regulatory requirements. These include:
- Gain a unified, real-time view of risk and compliance — framed around your business priorities — to help you clearly communicate the impact of risk to stakeholders
- Reduce audit fatigue by reusing controls and evidence across frameworks
- Continuously test for effectiveness to ensure your organization is always audit-ready
- Audit traceability and task notifications. Having all of the compliance task steps recorded creates a comprehensive audit trail to reference when improving business processes
- Get real-time risk scores and automatically surface changes in risk so you can stay ahead of cybersecurity threats
- Bringing ease to task management and organization. With the ZenGRC Pro Platform, you know exactly what needs to be done with clear priorities and objectives
What is the role of compliance and risk in the oil and gas industry?
Due to the critical nature of oil and gas to the global economy, the industry is heavily regulated. From emissions concerns to process safety management to standard corporate oversight, environmental compliance requirements of many kinds are deeply rooted in this industry.
Many of these frameworks have unique requirements for oil and gas companies, often requiring significant upfront costs and investment to manage and implement.
Accordingly, oil and gas organizations must rely on technology solutions, like GRC software, to understand and navigate the numerous challenges and enterprise-wide risks they’re facing.
What exploits and security breaches threaten the oil and gas industry?
Digital transformation in the oil and gas industry has increased the frequency and veracity of cyberattacks. As the energy industry works hard to create cleaner, more dependable, and affordable energy, this involves new technologies and business opportunities and dealing with changing rules and policies.
Chief information security officers (CISOs) must navigate these complexities while protecting their organizations from ongoing and incoming cyber threats. A unified risk, cybersecurity and compliance solution can help CISOs and InfoSec leaders better see, understand and act on risk while communicating the financial impact of risk and compliance to key stakeholders.
TECHNOLOGY
Avoid InfoSec Risk, Comply with Regulations, and Ensure Audit-Readiness
Several frameworks can potentially impact technology companies and each has its own requirements. For example, a technology provider might be expected to:
- Obtain a SOC 2 certification
- Undergo an audit to ensure NIST CSF, 800-53, 800-171, or ISO 27001 security protocols are enforced
- Adhere to HIPAA data privacy regulations if their tech is used to house personal healthcare information (PHI)
- Provide GDPR privacy notices and rights to users if they’re located in the EU
- Achieve CMMC certification if they work with the Department of Defense (DoD)
ZenGRC equips your security and compliance teams with a unified, real-time view of risk and compliance, revealing information security risks across your business while providing the actionable information required to mitigate them.
You gain built-in compliance and security frameworks maintained by experts, along with suggested risk and threat scores and real-time connections between control assessments and risk scoring.
With ZenGRC:
- Implement strong access controls and limit access to sensitive data and systems
- Enforce strict password policies and multi-factor authentication for users
- Perform a risk assessment to determine the quantity and severity of risks
- Create a risk reduction strategy to address vulnerabilities and potential threats
- Plan for business continuity and disaster recovery- including redundancies and backups
- Adopt continuous monitoring to detect and respond to potential threats
- Encrypt sensitive data and protect systems with firewalls and strict security policies
FAQs
How do SOC 2 and NIST differ?
SOC 2 is a framework that applies to most service providers (often SaaS providers) and their ability to securely manage sensitive data and safeguard the interest of their clients. When SOC2 is required, it results in an independent service auditor’s report and certification of compliance.
NIST, however, is a voluntary framework that can define and improve the security protocols necessary to secure a service provider’s IT systems and enhance information security.
Both standards focus on analyzing an organization’s internal security controls.
How does GRC software help me protect sensitive data?
To protect your IT systems and data from unauthorized access or theft, you must first understand what gaps, if any, exist in your security protocols as well as the unique risks facing your organization.
Then, once your risks are identified and assessed, you can leverage insights for better decision-making for risk reduction strategies, including which controls to implement or improve data privacy.
But that’s just a start. From there, your compliance or cybersecurity program will need to be maintained, monitored, and reviewed routinely to ensure that internal controls are still adequate to reduce risk and achieve compliance.
A governance, risk and compliance management solution like ZenGRC helps you identify, meet, and maintain your risk posture, including threat and vulnerability importance and status.
ZenGRC ensures you always know where you stand and what action needs to be taken to address vulnerabilities and improve your risk, compliance, and security posture.
What are the benefits of NIST compliance?
Although NIST compliance is voluntary, there are several benefits to incorporating the NIST cybersecurity framework into your business, including:
- Creating standardized business processes for mitigating cybersecurity gaps across the organization
- Developing a set of best practices for a variety of information security concerns
- Decreasing the risk and severity of a data breach
- Greater cost-efficiency in the long term for cybersecurity and incident response
- Control mapping for several different related compliance frameworks
Additionally, with ZenGRC, you can increase the velocity of your NIST CF implementation. With our built-in compliance templates and automation functionality, you can get organized, move quickly and offload much of your manual compliance tasks.
What do I need to do to be CMMC compliant?
To achieve CMMC compliance certification, you must prove that you’ve implemented NIST 800-171 and 20 CMMC control requirements within your organization.
To verify this, you will need to submit your organization for third-party verification by a C3PAO assessor who will attest to your maturity level and grant the certification.
Furthermore, CMMC rules and roll-out are in flux and frequently change. Our tool, ZenGRC Pro, coupled with our Risk Insider experts, and partners, can help you get started quickly with CMMC and stay up to date as changes emerge.