Lack of compliance and the right security can put your organization in a world of hurt.

If you work in – or manage – a facility that requires security clearance, you're well aware of how important industrial security is.

Whether your role is as a security and compliance professional or you're the big cheese of your organization, job #1 is making sure security threats are quashed before anything sensitive is breached.

Let's take a look at how to save time, money, and risk while keeping your organization safe, secure, and compliant.

What Does it Mean to Be Compliant?

Compliance is an important aspect of industrial security. It means staying within the parameters set by laws, regulations, and standards in order to keep your company and any classified information in your facility safe.

Understand the Scope of Your Security and Compliance Needs

The first step in your industrial security mission is to have a solid grasp of what your needs actually are.

What are you trying to protect? How does your company need to be compliant, and what do they require from a security standpoint?

There's no one-size-fits-all solution for compliance; it varies based on industry type, size, location, and use cases. Getting proactive about learning more will give you the knowledge necessary to come up with an optimal plan that works well within your organization. 

The key takeaway here is knowing where you stand currently as far as compliance goes so that moving forward can be optimized accordingly.

Build a Comprehensive Plan to Address These Needs

This blog post is about how to build a comprehensive plan, so what should the next step be? 

The first thing you need to do when creating a security and compliance plan is to look at your current state of affairs in terms of:

Risk Management 

This involves identifying, analyzing, and monitoring threats.

Technology Capabilities

Assess your current technology and figure out where there are gaps in security, as well as where you need extra help with compliance management.

Remember that people are ultimately responsible for complying so make sure they have enough time and the right resources.

Data Integrity

It's important to make sure that all your data is protected by evaluating your network security. Locate areas that need attention, like old cables or a lack of firewalls and access control points (ports).

Personnel Skill Sets

Do you have the right people in the right positions to both get their jobs done efficiently and keep up the level of industrial security that's necessary?

One important piece of the puzzle is making sure all the necessary resources are allocated appropriately. 

Then you can focus on completing critical tasks in an efficient manner while, at the same time, reducing risks associated with doing those same tasks manually or without sufficient technological support.

Implement Controls That Are Tailored to Your Organization’s Specific Risks

Those specific risks, of course, depend on the industry you're in.

Once you've identified what needs to be done and who does it, think about how your organization can best deal with these issues.

It's often a case of figuring out where your company is vulnerable and then implementing controls that are tailored to those weaknesses.

This may seem like common sense but many organizations don't do this simple step and they needlessly put their organization at risk.

Continuously Monitor, Test, and Update Your Programs As Needed

A company's industrial security and compliance programs are only as strong as the last update.

The most critical mistake that companies make is to assume that they're secure because nothing has happened yet. It doesn't work like this; when it comes to building a robust system, you need to keep going back to step one so your program can be updated with new threats and technologies as needed. 

The best way for an organization of any size or in any industry sector is to have their risk management professionals constantly monitoring, testing, and updating all aspects of their cybersecurity infrastructure.

Take Industrial Security Seriously

Security professionals should continuously monitor new threats and technologies emerging from both inside and outside of the organization on an ongoing basis with appropriate testing. 

An effective program will also include companies actively reviewing all aspects of their infrastructure's industrial security at regular intervals (e.g., quarterly) in order to identify vulnerabilities before they're exploited by cybercriminals or other adversaries. 

Staying compliant and protecting your employees, facility, and any classified information you may house is as easy as having the right software. Get in touch today and let’s talk about how ThreatSwitch can help.