Imagine seeing your client’s name splashed across the news for failing to comply with a seemingly small regulation detail — like not encrypting customer data as they should. It’s a nightmare scenario, but one that can be avoided with a solid cybersecurity compliance strategy.

According to Apptega’s 2024 State of Continuous Compliance Report, a striking 85% of the 100+ surveyed security leaders report facing "significant challenges" in maintaining compliance for their customers. Here’s the thing: compliance work is often manual, specialized, and resource-heavy. To make it worse, most providers lack the tools to meet client compliance needs more efficiently. 

The good news is that establishing a strong compliance strategy not only enables you to tackle these challenges head-on but can also help you:

1) Improve your client’s security posture.

2) Boost your annual recurring revenue.

3) Increase customer retention. 

This article goes over:

• What a compliance strategy is and how it can help your clients stay away from the news and avoid penalties for non-compliance.
• The four basic levels of compliance maturity and the steps you need to follow to adhere to legal and regulatory requirements (employee training, policy development, audits, and more)
• The benefits of following a compliance strategy if you’re a security provider. 

What is a Compliance Strategy?

A compliance strategy is a step-by-step process designed to ensure that an organization adheres to all relevant legal and regulatory requirements. This means developing policies and procedures, employee training plans, continuous monitoring, and regular updates to align with pertinent regulations. A well-defined compliance strategy not only mitigates risks and avoids costly fines but also enhances an organization’s reputation and operational efficiency.

The alternative to a sound compliance strategy is financial and reputational hell.

Some companies have already suffered massive consequences for not complying with regulations or doing so improperly:

• Yahoo had a data breach that resulted in $85 million in fines in 2013. 
• Uber concealed a data breach that affected 57 million users and led to a $148 million fine in 2018 for violating data breach notification laws.
• Equifax suffered a massive data breach in 2017 that exposed the personal information of 150 million individuals, resulting in $1.4 billion in costs due to settlements and fines.

To avoid similar scenarios, the first step is to understand your client's compliance maturity level and create a robust compliance strategy. 

Why Should You Follow a Maturity-Based Compliance Strategy? 

Because an organization’s current compliance maturity level can be crucial for developing an effective strategy. Generally speaking, there are four basic levels of compliance maturity:

• Level 1: Unreliable - Not following an established compliance framework leads to unpredictable and improvised compliance efforts. If your client is at this level, we highly recommend increasing  compliance efforts. 
• Level 2: Informal - This level is for companies that don’t have a formally designed or documented compliance strategy. Companies fall under this category if they rely mostly on individual efforts and lack formal training or communication to ensure proper compliance. 
• Level 3: Standardized - A designed and documented compliance framework exists, but deviations may not always be detected. This level represents a more systematic approach but still needs comprehensive integration.
• Level 4: Mature - This should be your goal. A company is fully mature when they follow at least an integrated regulatory compliance framework with continuous monitoring and automation to support compliance processes. 

Five Steps to Develop a Continuous Compliance Strategy

To help structure a comprehensive compliance strategy for your clients, you can follow these detailed steps:

1. Define Goals: 

Clearly articulate the compliance program's objectives. This includes aligning with specific regulatory standards, enhancing risk management, and supporting business objectives. For reference, McKinsey has a great publication on the most common pitfalls you should avoid when setting goals. 

2. Recognize Laws and Regulations: 

Identify all applicable laws and regulations, including international, national, and industry-specific requirements. Regularly update this list to reflect changes in the regulatory landscape. 

3. Draft Policies: 

Develop comprehensive policies and procedures that outline how the organization will comply with identified regulations. Ensure these documents are accessible to all employees and regularly reviewed for relevance and accuracy. Effective policy management is crucial for maintaining compliance and avoiding misunderstandings.

4. Train Employees: 

Conduct regular and mandatory training sessions to ensure all employees understand their roles and responsibilities in maintaining compliance. Utilize real-world scenarios and continuous learning methods to reinforce training. In fact, IBM’s 2023 Data Breach Report shows that training  employees is one of the most effective ways of reducing the damage and blast radius of data breaches. On average, companies that provide training for their employees save an additional $232,687 in breach-related costs compared to companies that don’t offer such training. 

5. Plan Internal Audits: 

Encourage customers to schedule regular internal audits to assess the effectiveness of the compliance program. These audits can help you identify gaps and areas for improvement and ensure that all processes align with regulatory requirements. Internal audits are a proactive measure to maintain compliance and prepare for external reviews.

You can also follow these guidelines based on Gartner’s 2023 strategic planning insights:

✔️Focus on a minimally viable strategy, rather than creating a full strategy all at once. 

✔️Customize planning activities based on maturity level, and not just to save costs/time. 

✔️Sketch out initiatives early, and avoid delegating the design of strategic initiatives without testing for feasibility.

✔️Be clear about ownership before executing on a strategy.

✔️Cascade plans side-to-side across the organization instead of top-down.

✔️Focus performance measures on key assumptions. Ask yourself, "What must be true for this to work?”

✔️Pressure-test plans against future scenarios. 

Many companies are already preparing to create successful compliance strategies, with a projected 50% increase in compliance investments expected between now and 2026. Let’s take a look at the benefits you can expect from investing in the right tools for managing your customers’ compliance journey. 

Managing Continuous Compliance with the Right Software

Compliance automation tools are a great way to ensure continuous adherence to regulatory standards for your clients and an excellent way to increase ARR and client retention for your MSSP. 

At the same time, the right compliance software can help you manage multiple frameworks for multiple customers at once. In a recent compliance survey of 300 security and IT professionals from North American organizations in more than 10 industries conducted by Coalfire, 70% of respondents said they have at least six different compliance frameworks to manage.

The 2024 State of Continuous Compliance Report by Apptega goes over the reasons why it’s a good idea for security providers to adopt a continuous compliance strategy: 

• Providers can increase revenue by offering compliance as a service. Only half of all providers offer managed compliance as a service, leaving a significant amount of money on the table. 
• Providers can turn their one-off revenue streams into a recurring money-making machine. For the majority of providers, less than a quarter of their revenue is recurring. Only 36% receive more than half of their revenue from continuous compliance.
• Providers and their clients want continuous compliance. In fact, 86% of providers offering compliance services are interested in continuous compliance-as-a-service offerings, and 70% say their clients would also be interested.

How Apptega Supports Continuous Compliance Strategies

Apptega is an end-to-end cybersecurity compliance platform used by security providers and in-house teams to build and manage world-class cybersecurity compliance programs. Here's how:

• Automated Compliance: Apptega automates manual tasks, reducing business disruption and ensuring continuous compliancen with continuous scoring. This way, you cut down on the time and resources needed for compliance management.
• Unmatched Reporting: Our platform provides real-time snapshots and intuitive dashboards that give you clear insights into your compliance status. 
• Framework Crosswalking: Apptega supports over 30 compliance frameworks, allowing for easy cross-assessment and updated compliance scores. 
• Collaborative Tools: Apptega facilitates collaboration between in-house teams and third-party security providers (MSPs and MSSPs), ensuring a cohesive approach to compliance. This collaboration enhances the overall effectiveness of the compliance program and supports continuous, always-on improvement.
• Integrations and Service Mapping: Apptega maps your security stack and services to common controls so you can offer your services in the context of compliance. Plus, it includes dozens of connectors to your clients’ evidence systems for a more streamlined process. 

The Apptega platform is trusted by hundreds of MSSPs, MSPs, and security-focused MSPs that are growing lucrative compliance practices, creating stickier customer relationships, and winning more business from competitors.To experience how Apptega can help you successfully create a strong compliance strategy, request a 14-day free trial today.