Navigating the Regulatory Landscape: FWaaS and Compliance

Compliance ensures that all of your organization’s data, whether it belongs to you or your customers, is protected against attack. 

The question for many companies is how best to follow compliance regulations. Although there are many potential approaches, implementing a Firewall as a Service (FWaaS) solution can go a long way toward preventing attacks and keeping your company well-protected. 

Overview of Relevant Compliance Regulations

Here are four common compliance laws that may impact you:

• GDPR: Native to Europe (but applicable to U.S. companies with European customers), the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) allows customers to decide if companies are allowed to collect their personal data.
• CCPA: The California Consumer Privacy Laws (CCPA) apply to companies operating in California. This regulation (plus its amendment, CPRA) applies to organizations with a gross annual revenue crossing $25 million or handling data for above 100,000 customers. It requires organizations to notify customers that their data is being collected and to permit them to decline collection.
• HIPAA: Throughout the United States, healthcare data is covered by the Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Any personal information must be well protected by the business that handles it.
• PCI DSS: Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) regulations require that a company holding customer credit card transaction data keeps that data private.

Compliance Challenges 

While it’s clear that organizations should comply with regulations, this is sometimes more easily said than done. Not all organizations have comprehensive data visibility, and many struggle to effectively prioritize and patch vulnerabilities.

To avoid non-compliance, robust security policy, like a next-generation firewall, are necessary.

How FWaaS Supports Compliance Efforts

FWaaS is an improvement on a traditional firewall – it is both cloud-based and built with advanced security capabilities. 

Having a premises firewall in place identifies and alerts you to unusual activity, and FWaaS comes with advanced capabilities that can pick out sophisticated, subtle patterns. Because FWaaS is a cloud-based service, it extends across all of your connected devices and covers your corporate network and infrastructure, which helps prevent attackers from finding gaps in your security.

One of the best things your company can do to comply with regulations is to lock down both proprietary and customer data. Decreasing your risk of a security incident as much as possible is paramount, and a cloud firewall that acts as a primary line of defense against suspicious or unusual activity can help.

3 Tips for Achieving Compliance with FWaaS

Here are three tips for using FWaaS to achieve compliance:

1. Customize: Your FWaaS solution should allow you to customize it, so consider your organization’s needs and adjust accordingly. Create an access control list so that your FWaaS solution can prevent unauthorized users from accessing sensitive data.
2. Respond to alerts: FWaaS will alert you when unusual activity is detected, and it’s important that you address it quickly. A fast response makes it more likely that you will successfully thwart an attack (and a compliance violation). 
3. Create a zero-trust network access environment: Employees should only be permitted to access the data they need to do their jobs. Beyond that, access should be carefully controlled and a zero-trust mindset employed to ensure that even if an attacker is able to access some data, he’s not be able to reach everything.

Create a Bulletproof Security Strategy with Perimeter 81

Using FWaaS as a shield around vulnerabilities helps prevent them from being exploited, which buys you valuable time when you’re trying to ensure every high-risk vulnerability is patched. 

Having firewall rules and access control protocols in place will keep the wolves away from the door, so if you’re interested in improving your security posture with an effective, cloud-based FWaaS solution, you’re welcome to get in touch and request a demo. 

FAQs