Top 5 Compliance Standards That Impact Your Business or Organization

In today’s technology-driven society, almost all businesses and agencies handle data. It could be patient data if you’re in the healthcare industry or credit card data if you’re an e-commerce business. Much of our daily lives revolve around transmitting personal data from one place to another and to protect that data, there are several industry-related compliance standards in place.

If you’re a little bit lost as to which compliance acronyms relate to your business or your personal data, this blog post will run through the top 5 compliance standards designed to protect personal information data.

1. SOX – Fully known as Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance and shortened to SOX. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act tackles corporate fraud by requiring all publicly held companies to enact internal checks-and-balances and procedures for financial reporting.  
2. PCI DSS – If you run credit card payments for your business or organization, this compliance standard applies to you. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, or PCI DSS, requires that all companies process, store and/or transmit credit card information in a secure manner.
3. FedRAMP – According to the government FedRAMP website, “[FedRAMP Compliant] designation signifies that the CSP's cloud system has been granted an ATO by an agency and has submitted all required documentation for review to the FedRAMP PMO.” That’s a lot of acronyms, but essentially it means that if you’re a government agency or a government contractor, you need a risk management program that monitors the security of your cloud.
4. FISMA – The Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) protect government data against natural or man-made threats. The act requires agencies to conduct annual reviews to ensure information security programs are running effectively.
5. HIPAA – The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act regulates how Protected Health Information (PHI) is used and shared both online and in paper records. This covers any business or organization that uses patient data—from hospitals to medical equipment suppliers.

While these are some of the most common compliance regulations you’ll hear about, there are many other compliance standards that may apply to your data. Before you set up your data center and cloud solutions, be sure to consult with an expert, such as QTS’ Customer Care team, to ensure that your data protection needs are being met. Not only does it make good business sense, it’s also pricey if you don’t comply as many of these regulations come with hefty fines for failure to comply.

For more information about QTS’ data solutions and how they can help your business, call us toll-free at 877.QTS.DATA, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @DataCenters_QTS.