Living in an era where IT regulations are ever-increasing, an organization must be vigilant on learning the specific requirements that are handed down by government legislations. The most prevalent concern is keeping up with today’s standards that industry and government place upon corporate management, also leading and educating their organizational body of compliance regulations in their industry.
Varying by industry and country, these laws aren’t just made for upper tier supervisors, every department and personnel plays a crucial role in compliance requirements. Understanding how pivotal these are when running your business encompasses an effort that is paramount in the world of technology, and IT consultants are sometimes right in the thick of things. When it comes to technology and infrastructure management these laws and acts are most important when acting with due diligence for your business and customer.
• Can Spam Act of 2003: Is a regulation to set standards for sending company information through e-mails. The act limits businesses to labeling their emails as advertising by providing, legitimate return addresses and providing email opt-out options to every recipient.
• Dodd-Frank Act: Passed shortly after the recession, this regulation was introduced to protect the American consumer by improving the accountability standards by financial institutions, regulating more asset security programs and credit rating agencies.
• Sarbanes-Oxley Act: Perhaps one of the more known high-profile cases in recent memory, do you really want to be mentioned in the same breath as Enron and Worldcom financial scandals. IT systems will not safeguard against retaining fraudulent accounting errors. SOX act retains good practice and faith in the general public while protecting shareholders and their assets.
• Federal Information Security Management Act: Bestows the responsibility of data management in technology institutes. Monitoring security processes of data and attaching agency-level appropriate tiers to each specific set of data that is specialized in certain systems and who controls them.
As regulatory affairs become more complex and increasingly stubborn with its mandates, more organizations are doubling their efforts with IT compliance consultants, even adding job titles such as chief compliance officer. Through thick and thin compliance within your organization as a whole, is upheld by technology and end-users on staff, so understanding these basic regulations is your best practice.
