Ensure business compliance

Featured resources

Getting to compliance: how better compliance can reduce risk
Learn about effective ways to meet compliance requirements in this white paper

The business of privacy in health care
Learn about maintaining top-notch privacy practices to improve your bottom line

How to integrate your security program into your overall risk management strategy
Q&A with Tyson Macaulay, Security Liaison Officer for Bell Business Markets

Upstream security ? stopping threats before they reach your network
Learn about upstream security in this white paper

Upstream intelligence: a new layer of cyber security
Expert article by Tyson Macaulay, Security Liaison Officer for Bell Business Markets (reprinted from U.S. Department of Defense IA Newsletter)

Prioritizing your investment in security, compliance and risk protection
Podcast

The compliance landscape in Canada is growing increasingly complex, as are the consequences of failing to comply.

While most organizations regard regulations as a burden of doing business, compliance can help your organization find a firmer footing in terms of customer perception and brand loyalty, as well as operations and finance. It does this by mitigating four major types of business risk: strategic, market, financial and operational.

Organizations that understand the risks they face, and the best ways of addressing these risks, find that their day-to-day business becomes more efficient.

Here are some steps to take to achieve your compliance objectives:

Find the weak spots

The first step to compliance involves benchmarking your business environment, including your staff, systems and processes as they relate to regulatory compliance. If you're familiar with the regulations that apply to your organization, you are already on a good path to identifying weak spots and ensuring compliance.

For this step, it can be very useful to get an outside assessment based on established methodologies and best practices, such as those outlined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and others.

Prioritize remediation

Once you have identified your compliance gaps, it is time to develop a draft plan for remediation. Essential steps in this process include:

Consulting internal stakeholders
Gathering technical requirements
Confirming any assumptions about who needs what solutions and when
Drafting the remediation plan
Providing stakeholders with an opportunity to comment on the plan

Putting the remediation plan into practice can be more efficient through collaboration and engagement, as internal stakeholders often don't have the background required to intuitively appreciate the objective of the risk management program?nor are they always aware of what gaps exist in their knowledge of risk.

Take action

Based on the extent of your compliance gaps, you will need to change some or many of your processes and/or parts of your IT architecture. Consider bringing in a compliance expert for this critical step.

Stay compliant

Once you have put your remediation plan into practice, you'll want to ensure that your organization remains compliant. To ensure continuous compliance:

Document your compliance gaps and remediation efforts as you go, and create policies and procedures to follow. Continually evaluate and update this document.
Conduct IT compliance assessments on a regular basis with the help of an audit team composed of stakeholders throughout the organization.

Why Bell?

An integral part of compliance success is the implementation of the right tools and processes to ensure efficient, effective and consistent performance. Bell gives you access to the largest team of experienced and accredited security professionals in Canada, complemented by a strong and comprehensive partner network that includes many of the country's best experts.

Bell is a trusted security advisor with the experience and expertise you need to protect your business. Our security experts can help you through all stages of the compliance process ? from assessment through to planning and implementation.