Every organization has different risks and compliance mandates. Often, risk management efforts tie directly to regulatory compliance mandates -- allowing you to “kill two birds with one stone.” But it’s not easy. Too often, risk management and compliance efforts aren’t in sync -- which leads to wasted time and money.
Whether it’s social media risks, hackers, malware or any of the myriad threats to IT operations, you need to identify and handle potential issues before they result in compliance violations. In this tutorial, you’ll learn some of the latest risk factors that threaten every organization, and how you can tie your risk management efforts to your compliance functions and avoid wasting valuable resources.
This guide is part of SearchCompliance.com’s Compliance GRC Briefings series, which is designed to give chief compliance officers strategic management and decision-making advice on timely topics.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Identify risk early to stay compliant
Increased sophistication -- of users, hackers and regulatory compliance standards -- could make 2012 an interesting year for IT compliance officers, experts say. As always, staying proactive and ahead of the compliance threats will be necessary.
There’s an increasing focus on business performance and value in governance, risk and compliance, said Brian Barnier, principal analyst at ValueBridge Advisors and one of the distinguished fellows of the Open Compliance & Ethics Group. But Barnier said that if done correctly, meeting regulatory compliance standards can ultimately improve business performance. For governance, risk and compliance professionals in 2012, this means increased focus on financial, operational and customer satisfaction performance to meet compliance standards.
Learn more in “Staying vigilant key to meeting regulatory compliance standards.”
Analyze leading risks to fill compliance gaps
When profiling risk management indicators at your organization, are you sure about what triggers your risks, or are you guessing? If your assumptions are incorrect, what do you think this does to the integrity of your risk assessment? Furthermore, how do you think this compromises your entire governance, risk and compliance (GRC) system? If these questions are unsettling for you, it behooves you to spend some time validating these risk management indicators.
Risk triggers are a critical component of risk management efforts, which is a vital subset of an entire GRC program. Similar to the way midlevel management connects lower management to executive management, risk connects governance to compliance. Risks uncover compliance objectives while simultaneously putting management efficacy (i.e., governance) into perspective. This middle ground is based on uncertainty -- the probability and impact of an unknown future event -- which we label risk. Once characterized, risk must be controlled (ergo, the discipline of risk management). Consequently, to control risk properly the causes of these risks must be thoroughly understood.
Find out more in “False alarms: Analyzing your leading risk management indicators.”
Compliance and proper encryption management
Encryption management is a necessary, but not sufficient, line of defense for protecting data within a business ecosystem. The basics of digital data encryption -- encoding and decoding data in a way that renders it unintelligible to unauthorized third parties -- have been well understood for decades.
There’s a Catch-22 to encryption, however: Processing-power advancements have made stronger encryption techniques available. These same advances are available to those with malicious intent, however, which has made better encryption algorithms necessary.
There are three reasons to encrypt your data, and they’re interrelated: regulatory compliance, reputation risk and "oops" moments.
Learn more in “Avoid the 'oops' moment: Tips for encryption management best practices.”
Adhere to government risk management and compliance regulations
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is emphasizing the importance of enterprise-wide social media guidelines and compliance, after the agency charged an investment adviser with offering fictitious securities through social media sites.
To remind businesses of social media guidelines, the SEC released a risk alert titled "Investment Adviser Use of Social Media." The alert reviews concerns that may arise from social media use, and offers suggestions for complying with the antifraud, compliance and record-keeping provisions of federal security laws. The alert further notes that firms should consider how to implement new social media guidelines, or revisit their existing programs as technology evolves.
Find out more in “SEC stresses importance of social media guidelines and compliance.”