Compliance Risk Management in Cloud Computing

In this technological era, more and more companies are making use of cloud computing services for cost reduction and increasing the flexibility of their IT infrastructures. Today, the focus is shifting towards problems of compliance risk reduction in the realm of cloud computing security. The increased cloud computing adoption in almost every industry has led to the dilemma of juggling multiple regulatory requirements concerning data handling, privacy, and safety is out in the mainstream. Cloud computing encroaches the compliance requirements under federal laws including Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards.

In light of all these compliance mandates, it’s essential to select an application that works as an aid in cloud compliance and improve the security posture while choosing a cloud application. If not adequately vetted, adding more cloud applications into a network can create security and compliance vulnerabilities, creating more risk. Building up the collection of data security and IT-compliance criteria can be achieved through four steps-availability, integrity, confidentiality and verifiability.

Information security controls are a vital part of the overall compliance frameworks; without them, internal controls cannot be sufficient. The basics of effective cloud compliance lie in understanding which requirements affect the organization, followed by running ongoing compliance risk assessments, streamlining compliance and security parameters, overlapping compliance requirements, and then finally monitoring and auditing the needed compliance program. Cloud computing certainly offers exciting and cost-effective ways for businesses to enhance their computing capacity; however, the risks presented by outsourcing computing capacity come with significant legal and compliance implications. The key to managing the compliance risks is operative due diligence by management and its audit.