Finding your way through the maze
In today's interconnected world, the realm of cybersecurity regulations and compliance requirements has expanded exponentially, impacting organizations across all sectors. Cybersecurity has transcended its former status as a niche concern to become a cornerstone of risk management and a strategic imperative. According to IBM’s 2024 Cost of a Data Breach Report: the average cost of a data breach jumped to USD 4.88 million from USD 4.45 million in 2023, a 10% spike and the highest increase since the pandemic. What’s even worse, the consequences of cyberattacks extend far beyond direct financial losses - encompassing reputational damage, legal liabilities, and disruptions to critical infrastructure (even potentially affecting national security).
Cybersecurity and compliance frameworks, with their extensive catalogs of technical controls and processes, have emerged to address this complexity. Employing such frameworks can lead to enhanced risk management, streamlined compliance, structured incident response and recovery, the building of a cybersecurity culture that can help prevent events, and improved customer trust. However, the sheer proliferation of frameworks, each with its own unique context and purpose, has created a convoluted and challenging landscape for organizations to navigate. These frameworks can be voluntary or mandatory, descriptive or prescriptive, sector-specific or general, making it increasingly difficult for organizations to determine which ones apply and how to align with them effectively. This creates a significant challenge for organizations as they strive to achieve and maintain compliance.
Regulatory changes gain momentum
As cyber threats grow, so too does the regulatory response. Governments worldwide are enacting new laws and frameworks to strengthen security and resilience, but this has led to an increasingly fragmented and complex compliance landscape. Regulators worldwide have been increasingly active in recent years, introducing many new rules like the EU’s NIS2, CRA, and DORA, the UK’s anti-greenwashing rule, and the US Corporate Transparency Act (CTA). In the US alone, federal agencies issued a record 66 significant final rules in April 2024.
Outside the US the EU’s AI Act is leading the way for future AI regulations, requiring organizations to have strong systems and processes for AI risk management, ethics, safety, transparency, and data governance. Operational and digital resilience will also be a key focus, especially with the EU’s DORA and the updated NIS2 Directive. We can expect future regulations to emphasize effective cyber risk management, quick incident reporting, and stricter control over third-party risks.
Within the US, while a recent federal law has mandated that critical infrastructure organizations report cyber incidents to DHS CISA, cybersecurity regulation in the United States are increasingly focused on specific requirements for organizations in specific sectors, or for those doing business with specific federal entities. This means federal regulation remains narrow, sector-based, inconsistent, and incomplete. At the state level, every state in the U.S. requires organizations to notify affected individuals and often regulators when a data breach occurs. Nearly 40% of the states have added requirements for covered entities to adopt proactive data security measures to protect PII.
Challenges of the various security and compliance standards
The global regulatory landscape is a complex and ever-evolving tapestry, with organizations often needing to comply with multiple security standards and frameworks depending on their industry, location, and business operations. This can create significant challenges for organizations in navigating and ensuring adherence to these diverse requirements.
In the United States alone, the patchwork of legislation at both federal and state levels means that businesses must often comply with multiple, and sometimes overlapping, security standards. For example, a company that contracts with a U.S. federal agency and also processes credit card payments would need to comply with both the NIST Special Publication 800-53 and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).
Furthermore, the reach of these regulations extends beyond national borders. If that same organization decides to expand its operations and offer financial services within the European Union, it would also need to comply with the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA).The challenges inherent in managing and aligning multiple compliance frameworks are multifaceted and complex:
- Heterogeneous structures: Each compliance standard is designed with its unique structure, terminology, and control categorization. This lack of uniformity creates significant difficulties when attempting to identify equivalent controls across different frameworks and to map them accurately
- Overlapping and conflicting controls: While there are similarities between compliance standards, there are also instances where controls overlap or even conflict with one another
- Resource intensive process: Mapping compliance controls is a labor-intensive and time-consuming process, especially for organizations with large and complex IT environments. It requires significant resources, including personnel with specialized knowledge and expertise
- Evolving regulatory landscape: Compliance standards are not static; they evolve and change over time. This constant evolution adds another layer of complexity to the mapping process, as organizations must continually update their mappings to ensure ongoing compliance
Untangling the mess
Some organizations attempt to manage compliance manually using spreadsheets and documents, but this approach is prone to errors, inefficiencies, and quickly becomes unsustainable as regulatory requirements evolve. Other organizations may opt for point solutions that address specific compliance needs, but these can create a fragmented compliance landscape, leading to integration challenges and a lack of visibility across the organization's overall compliance posture.
Given the complexity and rapid evolution of compliance requirements, organizations need a smarter, more scalable approach to managing cybersecurity and compliance frameworks. At Openlane, we're working to develop a cutting-edge cybersecurity and compliance automation solution to help organizations of all sizes and industries secure their systems, navigate the increasingly complex web of privacy laws and regulations, ensure continuous compliance, manage risks, and get ahead of evolving cyber threats. Our open source platform and transparent pricing provides not only state of the art compliance management tools but a community that values transparency and collaboration which encourages innovation and sharing of best practices - ensuring that everyone has an opportunity to navigate today’s complex regulatory landscape.
By adopting a proactive approach to compliance management, organizations can build resilience, reduce risk, and gain a competitive edge in an increasingly interconnected and security-conscious world.
Stay tuned!
We’ve been engaged with industry leaders and have brought on advisors with deep audit, security, and compliance backgrounds and expertise. Our team is hard at work incorporating feedback from our design partners in preparation for our initial platform release - stay tuned for more information about our private beta!
