Your company is going international. What about your cybersecurity?

If your company is approaching new markets overseas, cybersecurity should be a primary concern. Regulatory environments, compliance, and privacy laws differ significantly from country to country and protecting your data, as well as that of your customers, are of great importance.

Being prepared in advance will help you enter your new market quickly so you can hit the ground running.

Risk management: it’s a game-changer

Risk management is crucial, whether you are in a compliance-heavy industry or not. Having a good understanding of the regulatory environment in the countries you are doing business in is a good place to start.

Penetration testing (PT)

Assessing your risk is an important first step towards compliance. Penetration testing, sometimes known as a pen test, is a way to determine your risk through authorized hacking. Pen tests are conducted to find exploitable weaknesses in your system so that you can be better prepared for any potential threats.

The results of your PT will help you to address any security issues before you pursue the appropriate certifications.

Here are some of the essential credentials and standards you should be aware of when taking your company international:

ISO 27001 certification

ISO is an organization that deals with international standards. ISO 27001 is specifically geared to information security management and is recognized as a worldwide protocol to help companies manage risk to their data assets. ISO 27001 certification is a best-practices approach that shows your company is managing their data security in line with the highest international protocols.

PCI DSS compliance

PCI is a standard for securing the data surrounding online payments. It applies to all companies that process and store payment data for their customers and vendors and also covers third-party vendors who might also have access to this data. If you accept payments online with any type of payment card, PCI DSS standards apply to you.

GDPR compliance

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) becomes law in May of 2018. This regulation protects the personal data of all EU citizens and businesses and any company that does business with EU people or entities must comply.

HIPAA compliance

The Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) applies specifically to personal healthcare and medical data. If you store protected health information for your employees, you must be HIPAA compliant. This includes healthcare providers, healthcare insurance providers, and companies that handle third-party billing or data processing for any of the above.

Don’t let non-compliance be a show-stopper

Compliance with international standards is essential to your business continuity. In most cases, until you comply and show a certification, all contracts, deals or any other relations with partners or customers will be on hold.

Here are some of the methods you can use to ensure compliance and data safety:

Penetration testing (PT)

GRSee uses proven methods to discover vulnerabilities in your system through our own Application Penetration Test model.

IT Security Questionnaires

OWASP CISO Survey

The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) questionnaire asks a range of questions to help you determine your level of risk. Most of those questionnaires are based on the ISO 27001 standard, so if you are already in compliance with ISO, it will save you a lot of work. keep in mind, however, that your answers are simply a snapshot in time, so revisiting the questions periodically is always a good idea.

To help you manage the survey, GRSee offers CISO (chief information security officer) as a service. The CISO we assign will be in charge of answering the questionnaires and will provide solutions to any issues that are identified, functioning in a capacity that best suits your needs.

Bottom line, if your company is going international, you need to be prepared to answer to international compliance standards. GRSee Consulting is dedicated to supporting your compliance from every possible angle with specialized expertise and SaaS solutions you can depend on. Call today to schedule your cybersecurity audit.