What is Compliance Management? Types and Improvement Tips

Compliance management is the systematic process of maintaining an organization’s integrity and security by ensuring adherence to laws, regulations, standards, and ethical guidelines. It involves developing and implementing policies and controls, using technology and tools to monitor compliance status, and conducting regular audits to identify and address noncompliance.

Compliance management used to be considered just another task. Today, business and IT leaders increasingly view it as a strategic imperative – and there are good reasons for this shift.

The typical organization must comply with dozens, if not hundreds, of global, local, and federal regulations and industry standards. New regulations regarding data privacy, data breaches, financial reporting, and other mandates are constantly being introduced.

Complying with regulations — whether general regulations like National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) or industry-specific regulations like the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HIPAA) — helps compliance officers and teams make the right investments in tools and training.

Regulations strengthen cyber defenses by ensuring adequate data privacy, security, and cybersecurity policies and processes, which helps lower the chances of a data breach or other harmful cybersecurity events.

Adhering to compliance is also crucial in helping organizations avoid violations, which can result in heavy fines and damage to their reputations.

In this post, we’ll define compliance management and why it’s essential for organizations, including what makes compliance management different than frameworks like Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance (GRC), common types of compliance risks, and list some of the most common compliance standards by industry.

Let’s examine what it takes to develop an effective compliance management program and provide helpful recommendations for improving existing ones. We’ll also explain why the conventional approach to compliance management is often insufficient in addressing today’s cybersecurity challenges and the benefits of integrating compliance with risk management efforts to achieve a holistic, improved approach.

• Compliance management defined
• How does compliance management work?
• Is GRC the same as compliance management?
• Common types of compliance risks
• Compliance types by industry
  • E-commerce and retail
  • Education
  • Energy, oil, and gas
  • Federal/Government
  • Financial services
  • Healthcare
  • Manufacturing
  • Technology
• What’s required to develop an effective compliance management program?
• How to improve your compliance management program
• Why compliance management alone is not enough

Compliance management defined

Compliance management involves following procedures and policies to meet laws, regulations, and industry standards. To achieve this, organizations must continuously track for new and evolving regulations to stay updated on the latest laws and standards, create and implement policies, and educate employees on adhering to these policies. Additionally, regularly performing risk assessments is also a crucial part of compliance management, as it helps organizations identify and mitigate vulnerabilities that could result in noncompliance.

However, you should not limit this compliance monitoring to only your organization. Monitoring the service providers, suppliers, or partners you work with for third-party compliance is vital, as their noncompliance can impact your organization.

By complying with relevant regulations, third parties protect sensitive data, keep operations running smoothly, and preserve your organization’s reputation.

Third-party noncompliance introduces additional risks, including data breaches and legal repercussions. To secure sensitive information, you must regularly evaluate your partners’ security measures, establish contractual protections, and continuously oversee compliance activities.

Now, we’ll delve into how compliance management actually works in practice. By exploring the mechanisms and processes involved, we can gain a deeper insight into the strategies organizations employ to ensure adherence to regulatory standards and mitigate compliance risks.

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How does compliance management work?

Historically, organizations have used a range of compliance management software to spot potential problems or efficiently fix compliance issues. However, these tools are often limited to specific regulations or require additional context from other tools, custom dashboards, and manual processes to compile data from internal audits and risk assessments and gain actionable insights.

These efforts to gather information from different tools to gain sufficient oversight and control of compliance activities often create significant visibility gaps, making an organization more vulnerable to security breaches, data loss, and penalties for noncompliance.

Compliance management programs should not depend on complicated processes. Instead, they must seamlessly integrate into daily operations and strategic planning to drive operational improvements.

With the right compliance management solution, organizations can more easily adapt to new regulations and emerging risks by proactively addressing the complexities of today’s compliance needs.

You may be thinking, why do I need a dedicated solution? Isn’t compliance already addressed with Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC)?

People often confuse GRC with compliance management, as these concepts are closely related and frequently overlap in practice. Let’s explore the differences between GRC and compliance management to understand their unique roles and how they complement each other.

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Is GRC the same as compliance management?

Governance, Risk, and Compliance, or GRC, is like compliance management but different. While compliance management is essential to GRC, it’s a broader system that includes governance and risk management.

GRC is a concept created by the Open Compliance and Ethics Group (OCEG) to describe the integrated collection of governance, risk management, and compliance capabilities that enable an organization “to reliably achieve objectives, address uncertainty, and act with integrity.”

GRC highlights the importance of risk assessments for achieving compliance. The framework also points to the importance of governance, including policymaking and implementing compliance processes throughout an organization. By ensuring adherence to compliance regulations, organizations can help mitigate compliance risks.

On the other hand, compliance management focuses on ensuring that an organization follows regulatory requirements and internal policies. It involves monitoring regulations, anticipating changes, and integrating controls into operations to avoid fines and legal issues.

Understanding risks is integral to developing effective mitigation strategies and ensuring organizational compliance. Next, we’ll summarize common compliance risks, including where they can originate from and their ramifications, including their impact on operations, reputation, and legal standing.

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Common types of compliance risks

Compliance risks span a wide range of activities, from lax data security and privacy practices to sloppy accounting, improper handling of confidential information, and outright bribery and fraud.

Typical violations of regulatory compliance include:

• Data mishandling: Data mishandling involves improper storage, processing, or transmitting sensitive information and disclosing financial information to unauthorized parties. It can also lead to significant liabilities for organizations, such as government sanctions, loss of customer trust, and reputational damage.
  
  Failing to adhere to data privacy and security rules or neglecting known vulnerabilities can result in unauthorized access and exposure of sensitive information in a data breach, leading to significant financial penalties, business disruptions, and legal actions.
• Process failures: Failure to follow mandated procedures for reporting and other business processes can lead to noncompliance with regulatory standards, often resulting in inaccurate reporting, operational disruptions, quality control issues, an increased risk of violations, and fines.
  
  Regulatory bodies expect organizations to be aware of and follow all relevant laws. Ignorance does not exempt an organization from responsibility or penalties due to process failures, so organizations must stay informed about regulatory changes and implement measures to ensure compliance. Failure to do so can result in significant fines, lawsuits, and loss of credibility.
• Illegal activities: Corruption, bribery, and fraud are major compliance risks as they can lead to severe legal and financial consequences, including hefty fines and criminal charges.
  
  These activities also damage an organization’s reputation and erode trust with customers and stakeholders. Preventing and addressing illegal activities is crucial to maintaining compliance and protecting an organization’s integrity.
• Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS) violations: Failure to adhere to workplace health and safety regulations, including labor laws, can have severe consequences for an organization. Not only can noncompliance result in accidents or injuries, but it can also lead to litigation, damages, and increased scrutiny from regulatory bodies.
  
  Business practices harming the environment or communities and gaps in corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies can also result in financial penalties, lawsuits, reputational damage, supply chain disruptions, and threats to operating licenses.

Many workplace regulations apply to organizations in every industry, such as those established by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Beyond these general categories of compliance risks, there are also risks specific to various industries, such as healthcare and financial services, related to legal requirements in those industries.

In the next section, we’ll provide examples of key compliance standards across various industries to highlight some of the most critical and prevalent regulations organizations in these sectors. Understanding industry-specific compliance standards is crucial for organizations to navigate the complex regulatory environment effectively.

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Compliance types by industry

Each industry faces unique challenges and requirements, from data protection in e-commerce and retail to patient privacy in healthcare.

Here are some of the major compliance and regulations that apply to specific industries. While not an exhaustive list, it likely includes some industry standards you know, some you don’t know, and some regulations you may not have realized were considered compliance requirements.

[Read also: Cybersecurity frameworks: A simplified guide to compliance]

E-commerce and retail

E-commerce and retail businesses must protect customer data and comply with trade regulations, customer credit card data standards, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations, and more.

Data privacy regulations also continue to increase. In addition to GDPR for E.U. residents and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) for Canadian residents, there are now data privacy regulations for residents of the U.S. in states like California and New York.

Regulations related to e-commerce and retail include:

• The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is a California state law granting consumers the right to know what personal information businesses collect, delete, and opt out of sale.
• The California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) updates and expands the California Consumer Privacy Act, further protecting California residents’ digital privacy.
• GDPR is a comprehensive data privacy law that governs how organizations collect, store, and process personal data of E.U. residents, giving individuals greater control over their personal information. GDPR imposes strict requirements on consent, transparency, data security, and breach notification, with significant penalties for noncompliance.

GDPR applies not only to retail but any industry that collects data from residents in the E.U., including many of the industries listed in this compliance overview.

• The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of security standards designed to protect cardholder data during transactions. It ensures that retail and e-commerce businesses create a secure environment for handling payment information. Financial organizations are also subject to these regulations to prevent data breaches and fraud by ensuring the security of credit card transactions.
• The New York SHIELD Act strengthens New York’s data security laws by expanding the types of private information for which companies must provide consumer notice in the event of a breach and requires that companies develop, implement, and maintain reasonable safeguards to protect the security, confidentiality, and integrity of consumers’ private information.
• PIPEDA is a Canadian law that governs how private sector organizations collect, use, and disclose personal information during commercial activities to ensure that businesses handle personal data responsibly.

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Education

Educational institutions must meet regulations related to financial transactions, healthcare, and data privacy regulations like GDPR. They must also meet regulations that pertain specifically to children’s data privacy and accessibility, including:

• The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) provides broad nondiscrimination protection for individuals with disabilities in employment, public services, and public accommodations.
• The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA), enforced by the FTC, applies to online services, commercial websites, and mobile applications that knowingly or unknowingly collect information from individuals under 13 and prohibits unfair and deceptive practices regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of their personal information online.

[Read also: What is sensitive data monitoring?]

• The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is federal legislation that allows parents the right to access their child’s education record, the right to have the education record amended, and the right to have some control over the disclosure of their child’s personally identifiable information (PII) from the education record. FERPA law applies to all educational institutions that receive federal funds.

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Energy, oil, and gas

In addition to data privacy, cybersecurity, and workplace safety regulations that also apply to other industries, the energy, oil, and gas industry is subject to statutes, regulations, and standards issued by:

• American Petroleum Institute (API) Standards are rules and protocols that enable different software applications to communicate and exchange data efficiently and securely across various systems and platforms.
• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations about emissions and the protection of the environment, including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Safe Drinking Water Act.
• The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regulates the interstate transmission and wholesale sale of electricity, natural gas, and oil. It ensures that these transactions are fair and reasonable and oversees the reliability of the bulk power system.
• ISO standards are a common framework for many types of organizations to ensure quality, safety, and efficiency. Energy, oil, and gas organizations use ISO standards like ISO 31000 for risk management and ISO 14001 for environmental management.

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Federal/Government

Federal agencies (including state and local governments) must comply with all federal regulations. Companies that work with federal agencies must also comply with specific regulations. These include regulations requiring strict cybersecurity controls to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of sensitive data. Other regulations address business conduct and reporting.

Regulations related to federal agencies include:

• The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification 2.0 (CMMC) is a framework established by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to ensure that defense contractors adhere to rigorous cybersecurity practices. It assesses organizations across multiple maturity levels, from basic to advanced, to safeguard Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), which is not classified but still requires safeguarding.

Any business contracting with the DoD or subcontracting with a business that sells to the DoD must be CMMC certified, including manufacturers, technology companies, and other industries.

[Read also: What does CMMC mean for my business?]

• The Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) requires those directly contracted with the DoD to follow specific cybersecurity standards. This encompasses a wide array of stakeholders, such as subcontractors, manufacturers of military equipment, IT service providers, and other entities involved in defense-related projects.
• The False Claims Act (FCA) forbids all organizations, including defense contractors and healthcare providers, from submitting false or fraudulent claims for payment or facing penalties, which may include financial fines and potential exclusion from federal programs.
• The Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) requires each federal agency to develop, document, and implement an agency-wide program to ensure the security of the information and systems that support the agency’s operations and assets.
• FedRAMP is a government-wide program that promotes the adoption of secure cloud services across the federal government by providing a standardized approach to security and risk assessment for cloud technologies and federal agencies. If a cloud service is FedRAMP-authorized, it has been certified to have met cybersecurity requirements for agency use.
• The International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) govern the export and import of defense-related articles and services, including those of defense contractors, aerospace companies, research labs, and universities.
• The NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) standards, including NIST 800-171, NIST 800-53, and NIST Special Publication 800-12 Revision 1, must be followed by government agencies to maintain the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of their information systems and data. Depending on their operations, some federal agencies, such as those with unclassified information, may also be required to follow the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) developed by NIST for use in federal computer systems.

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Financial services

Financial services regulations aim to prevent illegal activity, such as money laundering, illicit disclosure of financial information, and other crimes. Additionally, financial services must stay informed about various consumer laws, including the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA), the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), the Fair Credit Billing Act (FCDA), the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), and the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA).

Other regulations that apply to financial organizations include:

• Anti-Money Laundering (AML) rules are designed to prevent criminals from using financial institutions to launder money or to promote terrorism. Specific regulations include:
  • The Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) requires financial institutions to keep records of financial transactions, file reports on large cash transactions, and report suspicious activity
  • Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) requires financial institutions to establish AML programs, maintain records, and report suspicious activities
  • Know Your Customer (KYC) rules require institutions to verify the identities of individuals opening accounts
• The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) is a global standard for automatically exchanging financial account information between tax authorities. Developed by the OECD in 2014, it aims to combat tax evasion by requiring financial institutions to report account holder information to tax authorities.
• The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) prohibits the payment of anything of value to foreign government officials or others to gain a business advantage. The FCPA includes rules and penalties related to bribery and accounting practices that might be used to hide bribery.
• The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) requires financial institutions to implement security measures to protect customer data, including an obligation to notify customers about privacy policies and practices. The GLBA also imposes restrictions on sharing nonpublic personal information (NPI) with third parties and mandates safeguards against unauthorized access to NPI.
• The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) was enacted in response to several major corporate accounting scandals to strengthen corporate governance, improve financial transparency, and prevent accounting fraud. SOX mandates stricter financial reporting, internal controls, and accountability for public companies, with severe penalties for noncompliance.

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Healthcare

Many healthcare regulations concern the privacy and security of patient data, while others relate to data interoperability and illegitimate business practices. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are among the industry’s main regulatory bodies.

Additional governing bodies and regulations for healthcare organizations include:

• The 21st Century Cures Act of 2016 requires healthcare providers to make it easy for patients to access electronic health records. This act promotes interoperability among healthcare organizations using application programming interfaces (APIs) and other technologies.
• The Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) prohibits the knowing and willful payment of “remuneration” to induce or reward patient referrals or the generation of business involving any item or service payable by federal healthcare programs (e.g., drugs, supplies, or healthcare services for Medicare or Medicaid patients).
• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) regulate healthcare organizations to ensure compliance with federal laws. HHS oversees programs like Medicare and Medicaid, while the OIG fights fraud and abuse and provides compliance guidance.
• The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act strengthens HIPAA’s privacy and security protections, especially regarding electronic health information. It also encourages using electronic healthcare records (EHRs) through meaningful use criteria and financial incentives.
• HIPAA includes the Privacy Rule (which sets standards for using and disclosing Protected Health Information or PHI) and the Security Rule (which sets standards for safeguarding electronic PHI, or ePHI). The Breach Notification Rule requires covered entities, such as healthcare providers and insurers, to notify individuals of unauthorized disclosures of PHI.
• The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) regulates health insurance exchanges, Medicaid expansion, and the creation of new payment and delivery models. It also includes provisions regarding healthcare privacy and fraud prevention.
• The Social Security Act governs funding and requirements for Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and more.

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Manufacturing

Regulations in the manufacturing industry include those from the EPA, OSHA, FTC, and other general regulations that apply to commerce, along with specific regulations for protecting manufacturing equipment and meeting data security requirements.

For example:

• The Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (FPLA) requires all consumer commodities other than food, drugs, therapeutic devices, and cosmetics to be labeled to disclose net contents, commodity identity, and name and place of business of the product’s manufacturer, packer, or distributor.
• Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) standards ensure products are consistently produced and controlled according to quality standards.
• ISA/IEC 62443 is a series of international standards focusing on industrial automation and control systems (IACS) cybersecurity by providing a structured approach to risk management, security policies, and lifecycle management for protecting critical infrastructure from cyber threats.
• ISO standards like ISO 9001 for quality management, ISO 14001 for environmental management, and ISO 45001 for occupational health and safety can be leveraged by manufacturing organizations.

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Technology

In the technology industry, applicable regulations include data privacy and security, payment information, and security regulations, including HIPAA, NIST, PCI DSS, and GDPR. Technology organizations that do business with the government may also be subject to government regulations like DFARS and ITAR.

Technology companies may also need to comply with IT-related regulations, such as:

• The European Union’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act was enacted in August 2024. This framework aims to regulate the use and development of AI within the European Union by ensuring that AI systems are trustworthy, respect fundamental rights, and adhere to ethical principles. The act will start enforcing penalties next year.
• ISO 27001 is an essential standard that provides a framework for managing an organization’s information security and protecting information assets, complying with legal and regulatory requirements, and reducing the risk of data breaches.
• System and Operation Controls Type 2 (SOC 2) is a reporting framework established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) for evaluating controls relevant to the security, availability, integrity, confidentiality, and privacy of users’ data.

Having outlined many of the common industry-specific compliance standards, it’s clear that each sector faces unique regulatory challenges. However, despite these differences, the foundational elements of an effective compliance management program remain consistent across all sectors.

The next section will explain the essential components to develop a robust compliance management program. Organizations can build a strong foundation for effective compliance management by understanding and implementing these elements.

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What’s required to develop an effective compliance management program?

Any organization that aims to adhere to legal and regulatory standards while minimizing risks must create an effective compliance management program.

Considering today’s security and compliance challenges, there are a number of key components required to develop a robust compliance management program. When developing a robust compliance management program, organizations must consider the crucial role of automation in streamlining processes, the necessity of thoroughly documenting compliance activities, and the role of employee training in fostering a culture of corporate compliance.

We’ll also discuss the significance of governance and oversight, the need for continuous monitoring and auditing, and comprehensive policies and procedures development. We’ll also cover the critical aspects of remediation and the integration of risk management and assessment, highlighting how compliance and risk inform each other.

Automation

Automation is the future of compliance and risk management. Today’s IT environments are varied and complex, with a typical large enterprise running an average of 135,000 endpoints.

Monitoring and managing compliance in this complex environment can be daunting, but automation can greatly simplify the process. For example, automating scans of endpoints for security vulnerabilities or suspicious activity makes it easier for IT and compliance teams to catch potential problems early on.

Organizations should focus on automation to smooth workflows and reduce human error. This can greatly enhance compliance and risk management. Automation also cuts costs by boosting efficiency and requiring fewer manual tasks. This change allows teams to concentrate on important analysis instead of repetitive, time-consuming work.

[Read also: What is security automation? Benefits, importance, and features]

Documentation

Documenting compliance activities is essential for ensuring adherence to legal and regulatory requirements. Documenting the policies and procedures implemented, maintaining detailed records of known issues, and conducting regular audits allow organizations to demonstrate compliance during audits and inspections. Ideally, IT and compliance management solutions should generate documentation automatically.

Employee training

Conducting regular compliance training is another crucial component to ensuring employees and leadership alike adhere to compliance and related security policies, as their actions can jeopardize the organization’s compliance status.

From failing to follow HIPAA regulations by improperly handling patient information or simply using unauthorized software that inhibits your ability to ensure acceptable data handling practices required by regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), individuals and teams across the organization must comply with rules and regulations in their daily work to maintain regulatory compliance.

Employees will need training on what’s expected of them, what pitfalls to watch out for, and how to do their jobs in a way that supports the compliance requirements of their job functions. In addition, they’ll need training in how to use the IT tools they regularly work with in ways that support compliance.
 

Governance and oversight

Compliance management is more than just the job of compliance officers and IT teams. Business leaders and board directors should be involved in setting goals, forming strategies, analyzing results, and setting direction. IT teams and compliance officers should be able to make these changes quickly, knowing they have the support of the organization’s leadership.

Monitoring and auditing

Organizations must continually monitor business activity and IT operations for regulatory compliance. Compliance teams should conduct audits regularly. Whenever possible, they should use tools that provide real-time reporting to detect potential risks or regulatory violations at that moment rather than waiting for problems to be detected in monthly, quarterly, or annual reports.

Cybersecurity and regulatory compliance become more straightforward when compliance audits are automated and continuous.

Policies and procedures

Creating compliance policies is also essential for adhering to legal and regulatory standards. Policies set guidelines and frameworks that provide clear expectations to guide actions and align with compliance requirements. An organization’s compliance officers and risk management experts must collaborate with business and IT leaders to draft internal policies and procedures that promote regulatory compliance.

Policies and procedures should be documented and widely shared. They should also form the basis for evaluating compliance management solutions and implementing compliance training programs.

Additionally, leveraging real-time dashboards to ensure compliance with internal policies and industry regulations can allow organizations to take corrective action to improve compliance management as soon as possible.

Remediation

When reported activity suggests that violations could occur, business leaders and IT teams need to act quickly.

Essential IT management tools must include endpoint management solutions that can automate corrective actions like quarantining at-risk endpoint and install patches to protect against new attacks using a central platform to make remediation quick and effective.

Risk management

Prioritizing regular vulnerability and risk assessments allows organizations to stay ahead of threats and maintain compliance by identifying and fixing security weaknesses before they can be exploited.

While risk management alone provides valuable insights into potential threats and vulnerabilities, it only tells part of the story. The benefits are significantly amplified when combined with compliance management into a unified solution that leverages real-time data to streamline processes across the environment.

When organizations consider compliance goals through a risk management lens, they better understand both.

Using a risk-based approach to compliance, organizations can more easily see the compliance requirements and risk management strategies they need. As a result, they can make better decisions about IT resources and processes to support these goals. Anything that jeopardizes those resources and processes constitutes a significant risk and needs to be managed, assessed, and controlled.

Now that we’ve defined the key components of an effective compliance management program, it’s important to consider how to enhance and refine an existing program. This section will examine ways to improve compliance management. We’ll also share tips on using new technologies, optimizing processes, and ensuring ongoing improvement to maintain compliance.

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How to improve your compliance management program

Today, most organizations already have some sort of compliance program in place. However, regulations are frequently updated, and new standards are enacted. Cyber threats evolve and become more sophisticated. Mergers and acquisitions introduce new technology stacks and workflows that can create new risks.

With all these changes, how do you know if a compliance program created a few years ago still meets your needs?

Let’s discuss the best strategies for improving your compliance management program, helping your organization meet regulatory requirements, and reducing risks.

• Staying ahead of the evolving regulatory landscape: Organizations must comply with ever-changing regulations across multiple jurisdictions and regions. Compliance officers need to understand those regulations and be able to translate them into policies that can be monitored and enforced across all their teams and IT environments.
  
  Centralization and automation can play key roles in helping organizations ensure all their operations comply with applicable regulations.
• Anticipating and mitigating cyber threats: Data security is essential for compliance management. Organizations can use centralization and automation to monitor all endpoint devices and resources in their IT environments, allowing them to see everything in real time. They can also set up continuous updates to fix known security vulnerabilities quickly.
  
  Giving security teams real-time control over even the most remote endpoints helps ensure that threats can be detected and remediated quickly.
• Seamlessly integrating with key solutions: Compliance efforts should complement, rather than interrupt, existing operations and initiatives. By deploying compliance management software that integrates easily with existing business systems and IT management tools, you can ensure that compliance processes never disrupt business operations while providing the critical insights and controls to protect them from cyber threats or other risks.
• Enhancing collaboration: A central solution to management compliance and related risks fosters more effective communication and coordination between departments and key stakeholders by establishing clear data security protocols that can be used to prioritize other efforts. Teams can work more cohesively and effectively using the same data dashboards, reporting frameworks, and tools.

When treated as an isolated discipline — for example, a special quarterly project to appease auditors and upper management or in hasty response to a new regulation that seemingly appeared from out of nowhere — a standalone compliance management system tends to fall short. It becomes reactive, incomplete, and too focused on a few high-profile regulations rather than being a comprehensive, continuous, and effective process for protecting and supporting the organization and its business.

This reactionary approach to compliance management makes it difficult to provide a comprehensive view of the organization’s overall risk posture or help address the dynamic nature of risks that can arise from evolving threat landscapes, dynamic business relationships, and other ongoing changes organizations are grappling with daily.

Integrating compliance management with risk management is essential to safeguarding the organization and ensuring that a thorough understanding of the risks to the organization and vice versa informs compliance efforts.

Let’s explore why compliance management alone is insufficient and how incorporating risk management can create a more resilient and proactive approach to protecting an organization.

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Why compliance management alone is not enough

IT environments — spanning cloud services, mobile devices, data lakes, and IoT devices — have become increasingly complex. Cyberattacks are stealthier and more numerous than ever and new technologies like AI promise to complicate defending against these increasingly sophisticated attacks.

To meet today’s compliance challenges while defending against cyber threats, organizations need a single, cohesive solution for compliance management and risk reduction, not a disjointed collection of tools. By eliminating the confusion and overhead of disparate tools, dashboards, and terminologies, a single platform streamlines workflows and helps ensure that no critical data or operation slips between the cracks.

A unified compliance and risk management platform is what organizations need for clear visibility and governance. Imagine having a system that scans your entire enterprise for vulnerabilities and new supply chain attacks, automating essential tasks like installing the latest patches on Microsoft endpoints to Linux servers and all types of endpoints in between to ensure your defenses are always up-to-date.

The benefits of centralizing risk and compliance efforts don’t stop there; this single-pane-of-glass solution can also support generating easy-to-understand compliance reports everyone can use, from IT engineers to third-party auditors and boards of directors, so your organization stays ahead of potential threats and maintains a robust compliance posture effortlessly.
 

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Tanium Risk & Compliance gives organizations real-time visibility through continuous endpoint monitoring and a full suite of tools to address vulnerabilities and restore assets to good standing — all from a single automated platform: the Tanium platform.

With Tanium, organizations get a single, unified platform to manage risk and compliance at scale. It provides complete visibility into all endpoint risks and incidents of noncompliance, providing the context teams need to remediate those exposures. It also lets security and operations teams consolidate multiple point solutions into a single agent and platform.

Additionally, Tanium Autonomous Endpoint Management (AEM) extends the Tanium platform with powerful AI and machine learning capabilities, including:

• Real-time cloud intelligence: Measure and analyze even the smallest effect of change on endpoints to predict the impact of endpoint change in real time with confidence.
• Automation and orchestration: Scale and extend the value of precious expertise by capturing and designing dynamic, reusable automation that spans IT and security operations use cases.
• Deployment templates and rings: Minimize disruptions by rolling out endpoint changes to match the rhythm of the business.

Schedule a personalized demo to see how Tanium can benefit your compliance management and related security efforts.