By: Duane Gran
Cybersecurity and data protection/privacy are rightly viewed as the top priorities for 51% of global compliance leaders, according to PwC.
However, one of the biggest misconceptions by enterprise executives at the C-suite and board level is that compliance equals security.
IT compliance and IT security are often treated as synonymous by many — a perspective that can lead to a dangerous false sense of protection. An organization might pass an audit and proudly display its compliance certifications, yet remain largely vulnerable to the very real risks that modern attackers exploit.
This article explores the critical distinction between IT security and IT compliance. We’ll clarify the unique goals of each discipline, demonstrate how they can work together, and explain why a “check-the-box” approach to compliance leaves large gaps that only a strong security strategy can fill. We’ll also explore how compliance frameworks are evolving to play a more active role in strengthening overall security.
What Is IT Compliance?
IT compliance is the adherence to a set of rules, regulations, or standards that govern an organization’s technology infrastructure and data management practices. These mandates are often externally enforced, such as by government policies or industry-specific regulations, but can also be internally defined by corporate policies or customer contract terms.
A compliant IT environment helps an organization’s information systems and processes to meet a predetermined set of criteria to minimize legal, financial, and reputational risks.
Examples of possible compliance areas include:
- Data privacy: Complying with regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) when handling personal data.
- Information security: Implementing standards such as the ISO/IEC 27001 for an Information Security Management System (ISMS) to manage and protect information assets.
- Financial compliance: Adhering to standards like the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) to protect financial transactions.
- Healthcare compliance: Following regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to safeguard patient information.
However, it’s important to note that passing these audits doesn’t automatically equate to a secure environment. A company can be compliant but overlook key security considerations and vice versa.
What Is IT Security?
IT security is the proactive practice of protecting an organization’s digital assets, such as data, networks, and systems, from malicious activity, including unauthorized access, use, disruption, modification, or destruction.
Its focus is on the confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA) triad of information, safeguarding against both external threats and internal vulnerabilities.
This includes:
- Confidentiality: Sensitive information runs through organizations, such as customer data, proprietary information, intellectual property, etc. It’s the IT security team’s job to protect this data.
- Integrity: Information and the system in which it’s contained needs to be correct and have measures to ensure this.
- Accessibility: Systems and information need to be readily available as needed, or they can’t be relied on.
The intersection of security and IT is where systems are not only configured to meet a set standard but are also fortified to withstand the real-world pressures of an evolving threat landscape.
While not every threat can be prevented, following IT security best practices can significantly reduce a company’s risk profile or help make sure that any damage can be mitigated.
Common security practices include:
- User practices: Using strong passwords, enabling multi-factor authentication (MFA), and providing regular employee security training.
- Organizational practices: Implementing strong access controls, using data encryption, backing up data, employing firewalls and network security, and conducting continuous security testing.
Additionally, it’s important not to overlook cloud security. With the acceleration of digital transformation, organizations are moving everything to the cloud through SaaS providers. Oftentimes, organizations feel that this outsources their risk, and they trust the provider to secure everything. This is the wrong approach. While you can outsource some technical functions, you can never outsource responsibility.
Cloud is a shared responsibility model, and it’s important to understand that matrix of responsibility. Organizations should actively monitor for and mitigate threats within their cloud environments to avoid lapses in security.
>> Related Read: Why CTEM Is the Future of Security and Easier Than You Think
IT Security vs. Compliance: What’s the Difference?
IT security protects against breaches and cyberattacks, while IT compliance ensures your business meets regulatory and industry requirements.
Let’s dive into other key differences.
Nature of the practice
Security is an ongoing, dynamic process to protect the company. It’s technical in nature, requiring continuous monitoring, the ability to quickly adapt to new threats, and a forward-thinking approach to risk management.
Compliance, on the other hand, is typically viewed as a periodic, static activity to meet third-party demands. It involves following best practices and using a point-in-time assessment, such as a regular or annual audit, to confirm that controls are in place.
Net-net: security requires constant action. Josh Berry, who leads Pellera’s Red Team, sees the cost of not tackling issues firsthand. “You run the same test six months apart and you get the same results, or worse,” he said. “You’re basically just documenting your negligence at that point.”
>> Related Read: Why Compliance Is Starting to Require Continuous Penetration Testing
Scope and flexibility
Security measures are often holistic and risk-based. A strong security program will protect against a wide range of vulnerabilities, even those not explicitly mentioned in a compliance framework. This approach is flexible and can be tailored to an organization’s unique risk profile. Compliance, however, is prescriptive and rigid. It requires adherence to a specific checklist of controls, and it may not cover every potential threat an organization faces. For example, a regulation might require a company to use encryption for data at rest, but it may not specify the strength or type of encryption, leaving potential security gaps.
Outcomes
The success of a security program is measured by the absence of incidents, such as data breaches or system downtime. The ultimate outcome is a protected digital environment. The success of a compliance program is measured by the completion of an audit, which results in certification or the avoidance of fines. An organization can be 100% compliant but still suffer a major security breach if its compliance controls don’t align with its actual security risks.
IT Security and Compliance: How Do They Work Together?
Only 2% of businesses surveyed by PwC have implemented cyber resilience actions across people, technology, and process areas, indicating a major gap between risk awareness and action.
As Berry said, “Cybersecurity doesn’t have a strong enough seat at the table for many organizations. There’s a disconnect between executives and ones in the trenches.”
This is concerning given 72% of executives surveyed by the World Economic Forum reported a rise in cyber threats last year.
IT security and compliance must have a synergistic relationship. Compliance can serve as a baseline for security, and security practices can fulfill the requirements of compliance. Rather than being treated as separate disciplines, they should be integrated to create a more comprehensive risk management program.
To effectively align IT security and compliance, organizations should:
- Use compliance as a starting point: Start with the relevant compliance frameworks (like GDPR, CCPA, or SOC 2) to establish a baseline for security controls. These frameworks provide a proven, third-party-vetted checklist of requirements that can guide your initial security strategy.
- Conduct proactive risk assessments: Don’t stop at the checklist; regularly conduct detailed risk assessments to identify vulnerabilities that are unique to your organization’s environment.
- Implement a unified governance model: Build a single team or a closely integrated model where compliance and security professionals work together. The security team provides the technical expertise and real-time threat intelligence, while the compliance team confirms your security efforts meet regulatory standards and are properly documented for audits.
- Leverage automation and continuous monitoring: Modern security platforms can automate tasks like threat scanning and log analysis, providing continuous, real-time insights into your security posture. This improves your ability to defend against attacks and generates the evidence needed to demonstrate ongoing compliance. Additionally, automation and continuous monitoring via Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) engineering can turn reactive compliance efforts into proactive, engineering-driven processes. This provides greater risk visibility, enhances decision-making, and enables more accurate and timely compliance reporting. GRC Engineering is an emerging practice that replaces tedious point-in-time manual compliance checks with continuous compliance. It brings compliance and security closer together, but it requires a shift in how we approach the problem and a new set of skills in our compliance teams.
- Foster a security culture: Ultimately, security is a human issue. In fact, human error contributed to 95% of data breaches in 2024, according to Mimecast. Providing regular training and enabling a culture where every employee understands their role in protecting data helps address a key compliance requirement and build the strongest defense against human-centric attacks.
Enhancing IT Compliance and Security with a Tailored Approach
Compliance in IT should never be viewed as the finish line. Rather, it’s an important milestone on a much longer journey toward a resilient and secure organization. The most successful businesses understand that a “check-the-box” approach to compliance is a recipe for disaster in a landscape of increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.
A truly effective strategy recognizes that while compliance sets the rules, security plays the game. This proactive, tailored approach makes sure that your business can adapt to new challenges, protect valuable assets, and build the trust of customers and stakeholders.
My team and I often hear from clients that it’s hard to understand all the risks. But when you invest in areas that are going to emulate how an adversary will work — the tactics, techniques, and procedures — we’re often able to find the same attack pathways that bad actors would take advantage of, so we can batten down the hatches.
Reach out today to find out how the Pellera team can help you safeguard your IT and keep pace with evolving regulations.
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