Ways to Ensure Your Business Apps Are Compliant with Government Standards
It’s vital to have applications that are compliant with government standards. Unfortunately, many business owners with apps don’t take it upon themselves to be compliant because they feel the cost of complying is too high or don’t think their information is valuable enough. Let’s take a look at what you need to do to ensure your applications are compliant so you can protect yourself and your company from potential fines and legal issues.
First of all, there are two main types of data compliance: Privacy Compliance and Data Security Compliance. Privacy compliance deals with how information is stored securely and safely. Data security compliance ensures that employees only access the specific amount of information needed for their job tasks, such as how long the information is kept, destruction methods, and encryption.
Here are a few ways you can ensure that your business apps are compliant with government standards.
What is Software Standards Compliance?
Software Standards Compliance is a term used to describe software adherence to industry-wide standards. Software compliant with government regulations will have been tested against specific criteria and will have met or exceeded the requirements.
Why Compliance Matters
When an organization fails to comply with government standards, it can face several consequences. These can include monetary fines, legal action, and public embarrassment. In some cases, the government may even shut down the business.
The best way to avoid these negative consequences is to ensure that your business applications are compliant with government standards. This will help protect your company from potential fines and other penalties.
How to Ensure Compliance
Perform a System Safety Assessment
This will give you an idea of potential vulnerabilities with your specific system. It is highly recommended to do this before becoming compliant, but developers can also do it afterward. Using a qualified third party like Pathlock can ensure that all issues are found and resolved.
Make Effective Use of Access Controls
The most effective way to protect information is through access controls. Restricting access to sensitive data will help keep employees from misusing the information they have access to. Ensure that everyone who has access to the information needs it for their job tasks. Be sure they have been vetted by security personnel before anyone else gets unrestricted file-sharing permissions.
Determine a Target System Failure Rate
If you don’t know how often your system will fail, it is hard to determine the necessary time needed for back-ups. If your system fails more than 30% of the time, you may need to use offsite backup services like cloud storage or an online data storage company specializing in backups.
Use a Formal Requirements Capture Process
This will help you ensure that you use the right security tools, protocols, and implementations. It is recommended to have a third-party review your policies before implementation to ensure there are no potential errors.
Ensure Security is Prioritized
The biggest mistake organizations make is not prioritizing security. It would be best to always give it the same importance as any other business requirement because it’s vital for protecting your company’s data. If administrators do not have at least two hours of training each year on security matters, they need more formalized training.
Trace Code Back to Source Requirements
This will help you ensure that the code being used is compliant because your developers will be writing their source code with requirements in mind. This means they won’t have to go back and add those considerations later. Also, be sure to have a secure coding policy that employees must follow.
Develop Software and System Test Cases Based on Requirements
Test-Driven Development has become the standard in software development. With this focus on writing test cases before writing code, it’s important to ensure that your test cases are written so that any code written to pass the tests is based on compliance requirements. That way, your code is being written to be compliant from the beginning.
Use Coverage Analysis to Ensure the Most Code is Covered
Sometimes it can be difficult to determine if your test cases cover all the right code. This is where you should use coverage analysis to know exactly how much of your system has been tested and any security gaps.
Code coverage analysis looks at your testing suite and determines how much of your code is being tested by your test cases. Companies can create their coverage standards. However, 85% or above seems to be an industry standard.
Third-Party Compliance Software
Several software solutions can help with your compliance efforts. These governance risk compliance tools will scan your systems for vulnerabilities and help to create a plan of action to resolve any issues. Governance risk compliance tools also provide reports that you can use to show compliance to auditors.
Final Thoughts
Compliance can be a daunting task, but it’s important to remember that you are putting your company in the best possible position to protect your data by following these best practices.
When it comes to ensuring government compliance for your business apps, there are several things you can do. This article will discuss some of the best practices that will help you protect your data and ensure compliance.
One of the most important things you can use is a formal requirements capture process. This will help you ensure that all your security tools, protocols, and implementations are based on requirements. It would be best to use a third-party review before implementation to catch any potential errors.
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