Security policies and procedures are based on security best practices in your industry and regulatory compliance requirements that apply to your organization. A compliant security program relies on a complete set of policies and procedures that meet these standards.
Creating your security policies and procedures is fundamental to a sound security program. Amending them as the organization grows and changes is vital, as is maintaining them so they can be accessed and applied with confidence by those responsible for implementing them.
Mandates for Security Policies and Procedures
The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in the financial services industry, the PCI Data Security Standard in the payment card industry, the HIPAA Security Rule in the healthcare industry, and other regulations require written policies and procedures to support an organization’s security program.
Following are just three examples from the Administrative Safeguards of the HIPAA Security Rule, which require organizations in the healthcare industry to:
- Implement policies and procedures for authorizing access to electronically protected health information (ePHI) when such access is appropriate.
- Train all workforce members regarding security policies and procedures and apply appropriate sanctions against workforce members who violate them.
- Perform a periodic assessment of how well the security policies and procedures meet the requirements of the Security Rule.
Security Policy Review Services
A Virtual Chief Information Security Officer, or VCISO, will conduct a thorough review of your security policies and procedures, as follows:
Inventory and Evaluation. This first step entails an expert review of your current inventory of security policies and procedures for required language and effectiveness, based on regulatory requirements for your industry. Our analysis will reveal where required security policies are absent from the written documentation, as well as which policies are present and whether they fully meet regulatory requirements.
Remediation. Our VCISO will provide templates of many common security policies to enable you to begin addressing the gaps quickly and efficiently.
Complete Set. The VCISO will guide you through the preparation of any missing policies and procedures and the amendment of any that are not fully compliant. The end result will be a complete set of security policies and procedures that comply with the standards and requirements of your industry.
An expert security policy review by one of our qualified VCISOs can be completed on a project basis at a pre-agreed cost.