The Regulatory Burden
Financial institutions must prioritize trust to win and keep customers. They can do this by safeguarding confidentiality, ensuring systems and services are available, and protecting data integrity.
However, the financial services sector already contends with a maze of regulations, and there are numerous new cybersecurity regulations being proposed which will only add to the complexity.
A recent U.S. regulatory change was the establishment of requirements to report cyber incidents to government agencies which is in addition to the existing personal data breach notification requirements.
Other proposed rules include submitting a report to regulators after experiencing a significant service disruption, network intrusion, or unauthorized access to sensitive information. In some cases, such as under the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) regulations, there is also an obligation to report to regulators if a ransom is paid.
All this means that fintech firms must be able to prove their security, reliability and compliance — and their clients must be able to assess those factors, too. With the anticipated changes to the cybersecurity regulatory landscape and the complexities around compliance requirements, financial services organizations can benefit from a solution that breaks down silos, reduces complexity and uses automation to help stay ahead of threats and ensure compliance.
A Framework for Information Security Success
Frameworks can help financial firms address any of these objectives. Still, the firms must simultaneously manage multiple frameworks to achieve progress on various needs, each moving at its own pace. These can include anything from:
- PCI DSS can empower financial firms to implement strong credit card security controls
- The NIST Cybersecurity Framework can help banks to implement cybersecurity risk management programs
- SOC 1 for greater accuracy in financial reporting and to ensure that financial data are protected from data breaches
- SOC 2 can help an organization ensure that its IT systems and organizational controls are effective
Additionally, financial firms need to track what they’ve already assessed, consider corrective steps that might be necessary, determine whether those fixes are on schedule, know what still needs review and what new assessments might be required as new regulations emerge.
That’s a lot of moving parts. Accuracy and timeliness are essential in the financial sector, and there is little room for error. Thus, financial firms can benefit significantly from solutions that enable a unified view of risk and compliance along with automated, real-time risk scoring and continuous control assessments to ensure all a firm’s obligations are met.
Manage Compliance and Risk with Confidence and Ease
RiskOptics ROAR provides banks and fintech firms of all sizes a cost-effective, unified system to manage controls across multiple frameworks and help CISOs monitor key performance indicators for compliance and IT security efforts.
ROAR is a governance, risk management and compliance solution that provides simple-to-use risk management templates to facilitate risk assessment on a comprehensive level.
Our user-friendly dashboard identifies your compliance gaps and gives you actionable feedback on how to fill them.
ROAR empowers financial institutions to streamline operational risk management and compliance by automating the repetitive, time-consuming tasks that typically monopolize your day, so you can focus on growing your business.
Compliance Objectives
Ultimately, your financial company’s compliance objectives will vary depending on the scope of your business, your clientele and your geographic location. However, financial agencies will be expected to have robust enterprise risk management, cybersecurity and compliance programs.
With RiskOptics ROAR, you’ll be empowered to:
- Assess cybersecurity vulnerabilities within your organization as well as any 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
Ready to See Risk Differently?
The RiskOptics ROAR Platform gives you the ability to see, understand and take action on your IT and cyber risks.
Sign up for a Free DemoFrequently Asked Questions
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 the RiskOptics ROAR Platform helps you identify, meet and maintain your risk posture, including threat and vulnerability importance and status.
ROAR ensures you always know where you stand and what action needs to be taken to improve your risk, compliance and security posture.
