Compliance testing, also known as conformance testing, is a periodic, independent, and objective assessment of compliance-related processes or controls. As the name implies, you’re testing those controls to see how well they actually work.

Compliance is often viewed as a “one and done” activity – an annual rite of passage, for example, performed during yearly audits. That is an archaic approach to compliance in the modern business world, and won’t suffice any longer. Instead, organizations must adopt a mindset of continuous compliance, where adherence to regulatory requirements becomes integral to day-to-day operations. How can a company achieve that evolved state?

The demands and pressure on GRC and cybersecurity professionals are increasing more than ever before, which means teams need to expand and grow to keep up. However, companies are finding it difficult to fill their open positions with skilled staff. In fact, 80% of GRC and IT security professionals agree that their cybersecurity and risk teams are understaffed, found the 2023 RiskOptics Cyber Risk Viewpoints Report. What does this mean for you?

A crucial part of building a robust and effective enterprise risk management (ERM) program is to perform a periodic review of your organization’s risk management activities. This assessment process is best accomplished using an established risk maturity model, an essential tool to plan and mitigate enterprise risk. A risk maturity model (RMM) is an assessment tool focused on your organization’s risk culture and risk management program.

Many security and compliance professionals hear the term “continuous monitoring” as part of their information security process, and have a good grasp of the term’s meaning – but “continuous auditing” may feel redundant or confusing. That’s unfortunate. Understanding how continuous auditing fits into a security-first approach to cybersecurity helps both to protect the integrity of your data and to prove the strength of your controls work.

Regular, comprehensive audits keep organizations on track. Audits come in all shapes and sizes, too: internal and external audits; audits of finance, audits of data, audits of operations. As a business owner, whether for a large enterprise or a small business, you want to assure that your stakeholders can trust your business operations and that your finances are in order. Internal audits are a great way to reinforce that trust and credibility.

To manage cybersecurity risks effectively and maintain a strong defense posture, organizations need a clear understanding of their security program and the ability to measure their progress toward key objectives. Enter key performance indicators (KPIs), a mechanism that allows organizations to gauge and track their cybersecurity effectiveness.

Effective communication is at the heart of any successful organization. It ensures that information is clearly conveyed, understood and acted on. But sometimes, despite our best intentions, there can be a gap between what we say and what the other person hears. The result? Confusion, misunderstandings and missed opportunities. When it comes to talking about cyber risk, you can bridge this communication gap by translating technical, information security data into the language of business impact.

“Market risks” are risks specifically related to investments. These risks are defined by the behavior of the market overall, and can be caused by factors unrelated to your line of business. Really, any market fluctuations in any area might potentially affect your company’s investments. Market risk also refers to risks that are inherent to investments, in the sense that some amount of uncertainty will always be at play.

Many of you have probably heard about the record $1.3 billion GDPR fine the European Union (EU) issued against Facebook’s parent company, Meta, for unlawful data transfers of EU citizens.1 In reading the coverage and ruling, I kept thinking about how high-stakes data privacy has become today and how data has surpassed oil as the world’s most valuable resource.