Security Vs. Compliance: Which is more important?

Security and compliance are not the same thing. Adhering to compliance doesn't always interpret into securing business data. To be precise, security and compliance are two distinct concepts with different roles to perform. Security is keeping data secure and protected in the environment, while compliance is following a certain set of agreement or guidelines. Achieving compliance certification requires you to have all your security protocols in place. In order words, security is a way to gaining the compliance certification, so you need to have strong security measures implement in the business.

IT domain can minimize uncertainty by bringing together the resilience of ISO 27000 and the requirements of PCI. So they can be both secure and compliant to regulations.

Security on priority

Why security on priority? Security strategies are designed after considering individual requirements and organization focus more on specific requirements which are then attended and fulfilled. Whereas in case of compliance, it simply aims at meeting a set of general requirements. Organizations have different requirements and here, they need to adhere to proper security standards in order to protect their business. However, what compliance do is examine security measures implemented by the organization and verify if everything is in place and then provide a compliance certificate. So compliance is an assurance that the organization is trustworthy and data is fully protected.

The issues with compliance is that it doesn't cover the organization completely or all the data flowing from and through the organization. But security does cover all of this and when organization is entirely secured as per business objectives, they will surely achieve compliance. A potentially robust security plan involves confidentiality, availability and integrity of data residing in the company. Most of the strategy relies on requirements and budget of the company and this is what helps in building an effective security plan.

Compliance is completely different and it is known as a source to meet the external requirements of the company. Having a compliance certificate means having a security solutions in place and often organizations spend huge in attaining it just to assure their business is safe.