Compliance And Your Business: What You Should Know

When you go into business, you tend to spend a great deal of your time focused upon your customers and your sales so that you can make a profit. However, there are other important factors that you need to keep in the forefront of your mind when you are going about running your business. This includes ensuring that you are in compliance with all state and federal laws that are applicable to your business. Get to know some of the compliance factors to consider in your business as well as the compliance management tools that you can employ so that your business is always in legal compliance and you do not have issues going forward.

There Are Physical and Digital Security Measures To Consider

Business security used to be all about the physical security of the office and records. However, today it is absolutely vital to consider both digital and physical security when it comes to government compliance. No matter what type of business you run, financial and payment information will be in your records and systems, both on paper and on computerized or digital platforms. And some businesses will have more extensive personal records including medical information, psychological assessments, and the like.

You need to ensure that that information is protected and cannot be stolen or hacked. Many businesses have had horrible problems with this type of compliance and this type of security breach. Their sales tanked following the public release regarding the breach and many customers filed a lawsuit against the company.

Physical Compliance Measures

To avoid problems like those experienced by Target and other companies, you need to make sure that the physical computers and devices that you use are secure as are your cloud and digital systems and records. Physical security can include your overall alarms and security systems that are in place when your business is closed and nobody is on-site. You want to be sure that you system is continually checked for functionality. If you do not have a state-of-the-art security system that you can access and monitor from off-site or that utilizes high quality cameras and sensitive alarms, you may want to consider upgrading the systems.

You may also wish to issue personalized keycards to your employees that allow them to get into secure areas that customers are not allowed to access. This allows you to keep digital records of who accesses which area of your business and when as well as when they are accessing it. You can also personalize access making it so your office of the offices of other executives are limited to access by top employees only.

Digital Compliance Measures

Sometimes, it can be easy to assume that all of your digital systems are secure because they are not immediately visible. The idea of hacking and digital espionage are difficult for people who are not techies to understand or wrap their minds around. However, this type of breach is far more likely to be attempted than the physical security breaches.

As such, you need to stay on top of your digital compliance measures. Financial systems need to be secure so that the payment information sent to credit card companies and banks when you process a payment cannot easily be intercepted. This means that you need virus protection on your systems as well as an encrypted payment system. If you do not have an IT department within your company, it would be a good idea to hire a compliance consulting firm to help you to evaluate your current compliance management tools and to update and upgrade them as needed.

And should your company handle medical or mental health information for customers, you will need to be even more vigilant about maintaining top-of-the-line security and compliance management tools and software. HIPAA regulations for sensitive medical material and confidentiality are extremely stringent and the steps that you need to take to remain compliant may change from year to year.

With these tips in mind, you can be sure that you are doing what you can to keep your business in compliance and keep your records and information as safe and secure as possible.

For more information, talk to a professional like Ethix360.