Compliance requirements vary by industry and geography. HIPAA for healthcare, PCI-DSS for payment processing, GDPR for EU data, SOX for financial services. Non-compliance results in fines, lawsuits, and reputational damage.

HIPAA Requirements

Healthcare organizations must protect patient data. HIPAA requires administrative, physical, and technical safeguards. Administrative controls include policies, training, and access controls. Physical controls include facility security and device management.

Technical controls include encryption, access logging, and audit trails. Patient data must be encrypted at rest and in transit. Access must be logged and reviewed. Breach notification is required within 60 days.

PCI-DSS Compliance

Payment card processors must comply with PCI-DSS. Requirements include network segmentation, encryption, access controls, and regular security testing. Merchants processing credit cards must maintain PCI compliance or face fines and payment processing restrictions.

Annual penetration testing and vulnerability scanning are required. Quarterly network scans verify security controls. Compliance is verified through annual assessments.

GDPR Compliance

Organizations processing EU resident data must comply with GDPR. Requirements include data minimization, consent management, and breach notification. Data must be deleted when no longer needed. Individuals have rights to access, correct, and delete their data.

Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) are required for high-risk processing. Privacy by design must be implemented in systems. Fines for non-compliance reach €20M or 4% of revenue.

SOX Compliance

Public companies must comply with Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX). Requirements include IT controls over financial systems, access controls, and audit trails. Financial data must be protected from unauthorized modification. System changes must be documented and approved.