Compliance, Privacy, and Third-Party Management for Start-Ups

In the last article of our start-up series, we talked about how a start-up can implement network security, application security, cloud & container security.  

In this fourth article of the 'Secure Your Start-up' series, we bring you how you should go about with compliance as a start-up and how you handle your third-party vendors and, at the same time, consider data privacy as well. 

Start Small, Think Big 

It's easy for start-ups to view their IT as naturally safe - after all, why would hackers bother with smaller businesses when large-scale organization handles enormous volumes of customers data? IT security for start-ups may also take a back seat given the sheer number of mission-critical tasks requiring management's attention. If technology services are working "good enough," why make changes? 

Start-ups are often the hot target for data compromise because they don't have built-in cybersecurity controls or well-articulated infosec policies and procedures in place. 

Start-ups are often long on ideas and short on time. Our Security Consulting Services helps streamline your environment, protect your business purpose, and meet the necessary regulatory compliance requirements. 

How can Sumeru help secure the start-ups? 

Sumeru offers numerous consulting security solutions for start-ups -  

Consulting  

Our Information Security consulting for start-ups identifies critical risks within the business environment and suggests necessary remediation/recommendations to meet the business goals.  

Compliance

Many of the start-ups manage many customer data in some form or the other based on the industry or the domain you belong to; you may have to meet different compliance requirements. 

Sumeru supports start-ups with numerous standards such as ISO 27001, ISO 9001, ISO 22301, ISO 31000, GDPR, CCPA, PCI DSS, SOC 1&2, SOX compliance, and multiple regulations like NBFC, RBI, NHB, NIST, COBIT frameworks. Our experts ensure your data handling and storage processes meets industry best practices with customer expectations. 

Risk-Assessments

All these different Standards / Regulations require organizations, customers, and vendors/suppliers to assess the risk management cycle. With many frameworks available, how do you establish the acceptable risk?

Our Risk Management Framework (i.e., ISO 31000) helps you define a balanced security strategy in compliance and protects based on your specific business and objectives. A typical Risk management process flow would be as shown below. 

Third-Party/Vendor Management 

Dependence on the support of third parties for your business is inevitable, and they must be aligned with your organization's security controls. Vendors and suppliers serve as an extension of your business and should operate under your business requirements.  

The best practice is always to conduct a supplier risk assessment to keep your vendors on point with your security posture, and Sumeru can help build and manage a program for your new environment. 

Here's why it's critical -  

• For 41% of small businesses, the root cause of data breaches was third-party hacks 
• Companies such as Apple, Google, Amazon, Doordash experienced data breaches due to third-party vendor/s 

Privacy

Image source 

Data privacy is an integral part of data security in today's world and focuses on protecting data from becoming compromised.

Compromising customer data can damage your organization's reputation and result in loss of trust with your customers. Some of the data privacy regulations, such as PIMS/GDPR/CCPA, revolves around protecting personal information and refers to the governance of data. It enhances the definition of personal information and gives individuals greater control over what organizations can do with their data.  

Sumeru helps the organization with a robust roadmap on how and what personal data are being collected, provides a data flow on complete PII (Personally Identifiable Information) within the organization, and helps carry out Privacy Impact assessment. Sumeru measures the privacy risk associated with the individual and the business based on multiple parameters and helps in reducing the risk associated with them. 

 A high-level implementation approach from Sumeru can be seen below - 

To Sum Up 

As a start-up, the dependence on vendors for various services is inevitable, making it more important to satisfy all compliance and regulatory requirements and meet the minimum-security standards. 

• Understanding the business risk and carry out compliance reviews regularly and help in identifying the possible gaps on time and implementing the necessary policies and procedures 
• Performing regular Risk Assessment helps organizations to identify un-noticed threats/vulnerabilities and protect them from possible risks 
• Carrying out regular third-party assessments on vendors/suppliers to understand their risk and take necessary actions 
• Following privacy regulations and carrying out privacy impact assessments on an ongoing basis to protect your data and build trust with your customers 

Written by:

Chidhanandham Arunachalam, Chief Program Officer at Sumeru Solutions. A passionate entrepreneurial leader & unshakable optimist dedicated to helping companies achieve remarkable results with great technology solutions.

This article is the fourth of our series on 'Secure Your Start-ups'. To get updated about the remaining articles of the series, please follow #sumerusecureyourstartup