Last Updated on January 31, 2025
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We see plenty of organizations that are compliant—but not secure. Yet rarely, if ever, do we find an organization to be secure but not in compliance.
Cybersecurity regulators care about compliance, but hackers are opportunistic and the slightest risk can lead to a major data breach. If you want proof of that fact, recall the massive credit card data exfiltration’s at Target, Michaels and Neiman-Marcus, all of which were certified PCI-compliant at the time their breaches occurred.
The Difference Between Compliance and Security
Compliance does not equal security, nor are they the same thing.
- Compliance is a one-size-fits-all, point-in-time snapshot that demonstrates you meet the minimum, security-related requirements of specific regulatory standards like PCI, SOX or HIPAA.
- Security is the whole unique system of policies, processes and technical controls that define how your organization stores, processes, consumes and distributes data so that it’s effectively and verifiably protected from cyber threats.
A key difference between compliance and security is that compliance requirements change slowly and predictably, while the security/threat landscape is in a perpetual state of change; this often means compliance is a few steps behind current threats.
How to Gain True Security
In short, just checking those compliance boxes won’t cover all your security needs and can leave your precious data and systems without adequate protection. To be secure as well as compliant, you need a holistic, information security management system (ISMS) approach that links your controls into a comprehensive framework. Regulatory standards can’t provide that framework alone, no matter how prescriptive they are.
If you’re facing compliance challenges, making those problems go away as quickly and cheaply as possible and “worrying about security later” can seem like the right move. But putting compliance before security puts the proverbial cart before the horse. Robust, cost-effective and streamlined compliance is a direct consequence of an effective security strategy—not its foundation.
When information security is your goal, every control you implement, every standard you’re certified against and every audit you pass demonstrably increases your ability to protect the interests of your clients, partners, employees and owners/stockholders.
Shoot for security and you’ll land in compliance every time. Shoot for compliance and you could land far, far away from secure.
To chart a direct and cost-conscious course to knowing you’re secure and proving you’re compliant, contact Pivot Point Security.
FAQ
What is the difference between security vs. compliance?
Generally, the term compliance is used as a measure of an organization achieving the requirements outlined by a law/regulation (e.g., HIPAA, PCI-DSS) or security best practice (e.g., ISO 27001, NIST). As such, the need to be compliant may only apply to a logical subset of the organization (e.g., certain locations, systems, applications) and certain types of data. The idea behind compliance is that if an organization properly implements and operates the controls then the data and systems in scope would be secure. Generally, the term information security is used as a measure of the effectiveness of the cybersecurity practices to reduce information related risk to a nominal/acceptable level. So, security and compliance are closely related and in an ideal environment achieved together.
Are compliance and security equally important?
One way to look at it is that compliance and security are equally important, but for different reasons. Compliance drivers are legal/regulatory, while security drivers relate to business risk (and, increasingly, business competitiveness). Security and compliance have similar goals around securing sensitive data by managing risk. Compliance is, ‘We did what we said.’ Security is, ‘Our compliance resulted in us achieving our target security posture.
What is IT security compliance?
Compliance from the standpoint of IT security means making sure your business meets the security and data privacy standards that are applicable to your industry or vertical. For example, there are differing IT security compliance standards for payment card processors (PCI), healthcare organizations (HIPAA) and firms doing business in the EU (GDPR). By achieving IT security compliance, you can avoid fines and sanctions, as well as avoid the financial and reputational damage associated with data breaches.
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