Digital compliance is how you run your technology so it meets the legal, regulatory and contractual rules for protecting data. If your business stores customer, patient or financial information, some of those rules already apply to you.
It is less a product you buy than a way of operating: how your systems are set up, who can reach what, how you watch for problems and how you prove all of it on paper. What used to concern only hospitals and large enterprises now reaches a 12-person accounting firm, a dental practice with two locations or a boutique advisory office. Below are the frameworks most likely to apply, what they ask of your IT, and where a Managed Service Provider (MSP) fits in.
Most businesses fall under more than one set of rules at the same time. The requirements overlap, but they are not identical.
HIPAA applies to healthcare providers, health plans and clearinghouses, and to their business associates: billing companies, IT providers and anyone else who handles protected health information (PHI) on their behalf. Practices in Collier County can see how we approach HIPAA compliance support in Naples.
PCI DSS applies to any business that accepts, processes, stores or transmits payment card data. That includes the restaurant, the retail shop and the law firm that takes retainers by card. Scrutiny scales with transaction volume, but no business that takes cards is exempt. The current version is PCI DSS v4.0.1.
The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) covers "financial institutions," a broader group than most people expect. The FTC Safeguards Rule, amended in 2021 with most requirements effective June 2023, applies to non-bank financial businesses such as tax preparers, mortgage brokers and some accountants and financial planners. It requires a written information security program, a qualified individual in charge of it, MFA, encryption and regular risk assessments. Since May 2024, covered businesses must also notify the FTC within 30 days when unencrypted information of 500 or more consumers is involved in a security event. See the GLBA dictionary entry for more.
SEC-registered investment advisers and broker-dealers follow the SEC's Regulation S-P rather than the FTC rule. The 2024 amendments require a written incident response program, customer notification within 30 days of discovering unauthorized access to sensitive customer information, oversight of service providers and supporting records. Larger firms had to comply by December 3, 2025, and smaller firms by June 3, 2026, so the rules now apply across the board. The SEC/FINRA dictionary entry explains who regulates whom, and our page on IT for financial advisers and wealth managers shows how we support those firms.
SOC 2 is not a law. It is an independent audit report that larger clients increasingly ask for before they share data with a vendor. If you are a technology company or a B2B service firm handling client data, expect the question. Our SOC 2 dictionary entry covers how the audit works.
The Florida Information Protection Act (FIPA, Florida Statutes s. 501.171) is the state law most Florida businesses need to know. It requires reasonable measures to protect personal information and sets breach notification rules: notice to affected individuals within 30 days, and notice to the Florida Department of Legal Affairs when 500 or more Floridians are affected. The Florida Digital Bill of Rights is a separate consumer privacy law that applies only to very large companies, so most small businesses fall outside it. If you have customers in other states, their breach and privacy laws may also apply.
Across these frameworks, the technical requirements land on the same handful of disciplines.
Penalties vary by framework. HIPAA penalties are tiered and adjusted for inflation each year. Card brands can pass fines to merchants through their processors after a breach, and a serious breach can cost a business its ability to accept cards. The FTC and the SEC both bring enforcement actions against firms that ignore their rules.
Insurance is the other half of the cost. Many cyber insurance policies now ask about controls such as MFA, backups and endpoint protection, and a gap between what you told the insurer and what you actually run can complicate a claim. Our article on cyber insurance requirements covers what carriers typically ask.
We build and maintain the technology side of your compliance program. That means putting the controls in place, monitoring them, producing the documentation that shows they work and supporting you when an auditor or examiner asks questions. We are not your compliance officer, your attorney or your auditor, and we won't tell you that you "are compliant." That judgment belongs to your compliance counsel and auditors. What we can do is make sure your IT gives them solid evidence to work with.
For an overview of the frameworks we support, see Can you help us meet compliance requirements like HIPAA, PCI and SOC 2?
NerdSquad is not a law firm; confirm your obligations with your compliance counsel.
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