Reason #2: Compliance Requirements
If your industry works with sensitive customer information, it is likely that you are required to have data security measures in place to protect that information. One major example of this is the Department of Defense’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC), which outlines a set of requirements for vendors of the DOD to follow when handling national security information. This three-tiered model has between 15 and 134 requirements that must be met before a business will even be considered as a possible DOD vendor, and can create a lot of work for organizations that have not invested in data and network security.
These requirements are also incumbent upon vendors that work with DOD vendors, and even includes ABS as we provide IT services to companies that work with the DOD. This means that it is likely that sooner or later, you will be required to invest in data and network security to the point where you meet one of the three tiers of these requirements.
Outside of matters of national defense, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) introduced regulations protecting the privacy and security of certain health information. The HIPAA applies to any organization that handles health-related information or transmits such information electronically, and ensures that end consumers of health services are protected. Vendors that work in this space must have cybersecurity measures in place in order to meet these standards, which can also create work for organizations that have not sufficiently invested in data and network security.
If your organization doesn’t work in a specially-regulated industry, we still recommend that you use NIST standards as a guide to ensure that you are meeting generally-accepted standards. Increasingly, we have seen customers holding their vendors responsible for data breaches and other cybersecurity vulnerabilities, which means our team of Cybersecurity Engineers can be an especially valuable resource for you to win the trust of your consumers and mitigate against potential legal challenges in the event of cyberattacks against your infrastructure.