Compliance & Cybersecurity Related
Zero Trust: The Security Model That Verifies Everything
Zero Trust is a security model built on one principle: never trust a user, device or connection automatically, whether it is inside or outside your network. Verify every access request, every time. "Zero Trust" has become one of the most overused ...
SEC and FINRA: The Regulators Behind Financial Services IT Compliance
The SEC regulates investment advisers and broker-dealers; FINRA regulates broker-dealers only. Between them, they set the privacy, cybersecurity and recordkeeping rules that shape IT at securities firms, and the SEC's amended Regulation S-P now ...
SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley Act): The Financial Reporting Law That Became an IT Problem
SOX is the federal law that requires publicly traded companies to maintain, test and certify internal controls over financial reporting. A surprising amount of that work lands on IT. SOX was born from scandal. After the Enron and WorldCom accounting ...
SOC 2 (System and Organization Controls 2): The Security Report Bigger Clients Ask For
SOC 2 is an independent audit report showing clients, partners and insurers how your organization protects their data, and whether those controls actually work. For companies that store or process data on someone else's behalf, it has become a ...
GLBA (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act): The Privacy Law Behind Financial Services IT
If your business provides financial products or services to consumers (loans, insurance, investment advice, tax preparation, mortgage brokering), GLBA is the federal law that governs how you protect and share their personal financial information. ...
PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard): The Rules Behind Every Card Swipe
If your business accepts, processes, stores or transmits credit or debit card data, PCI DSS is the security standard you agreed to follow when you started taking cards, whether or not anyone handed you a copy. PCI DSS has been around since 2004, and ...
HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act): The Law Behind Healthcare IT
If your business touches patient health information in any way, HIPAA is the federal law that governs how you handle, store and share it. It applies to medical and dental practices, and also to the vendors who work with them, including IT providers. ...
CMMC (Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification): The DoD's Cybersecurity Driver's License
CMMC is the Department of Defense's way of saying "prove your cybersecurity is real before we trust you with our data." The rollout began in contracts on November 10, 2025, so for defense contractors and their subcontractors it is no longer a future ...
CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency): What It Does for Small Businesses
CISA is the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the federal agency that helps protect U.S. critical infrastructure and government networks from cyberattacks. For a small business, it is a free source of warnings and guidance, not a ...
NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology): Where Most Security Frameworks Start
NIST is the U.S. government agency that writes many of the cybersecurity standards other rules point to. Even if you've never heard of it, your cyber insurance application, your auditor or your biggest client probably has. NIST isn't a technology or ...