Introduction
Once you have all of your organisation’s datasets safe and secure, it is now the role of a Virtual Chief Compliance Officer (vCCO) to make sure that all of the PII that is collected, used, and stored now come into compliance with the extremely rigorous standards that have been set forth by the GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
These pieces of legislations have been set forth to audit businesses, and if those businesses aren’t up to snuff, heavy financial penalties can be imposed. Thus, it is one of the primary roles of the vCCO to make sure you are indeed compliant and can avoid the chances of actually being audited.
The Benefits Of The vCCO
Some of the key benefits of having a vCCO on your team are as follows:
- Provide overall guidance and support:
If you do not currently have a data compliance program, the vCCO can put this into motion for you. Once you know where everything is stored, and the interlinkages between them, the next step is to make sure that whatever you have in place will be compliant with the GDPR and the CCPA. For example, the vCCO should possess a deep and intricate knowledge of these laws and can thereby help you to create a plan to help make sure that whatever clause, statute, or provision affects you, that your business is in full compliance with them. Also, as these laws keep changing, the vCCO will keep your plans updated correspondingly.
- Dealing with the governmental agencies:
Let’s face it, nobody likes dealing with government regulators because of the amount of paperwork and bureaucracy that is usually involved. Well, it is the job of the vCCO to do these kinds of things for you. They can deal with regulations at the federal, state, and local levels. More than likely, the vCCO (and the team that they bring with them, if applicable) will probably have existing contacts with these government agencies as well, which will make coordination with all of them a seamless process for your business.
- The reporting of issues:
If your business is ever impacted by a Cyberattack, one of your main priorities will be to notify all of the governmental agencies that could be involved. This is especially critical before you inform key stakeholders as to what happened, and what is being done to rectify the situation. One of the first questions you will be asked by a government auditor is whether or not you have notified the appropriate agencies. Your vCCO, will make sure that you follow all of the right channels in this regard, which can be a daunting task to accomplish.
- Conveying the importance of compliance: The Need for Employee Training
Yes, we all keep hearing about the importance of security training, especially with the advent of the Remote Workforce. But one element that is often forgotten is training your employees as to what compliance means, and its importance when it comes to maintaining an acceptable level of Cyber Hygiene. This kind of training can be rather complex to deliver, but your vCCO should be able to create a training program that will ultimately convey the importance of this.
Conclusions
This article series has examined the importance of having a Virtual Privacy Officer (vPO) and Virtual Chief Compliance Officer (vCCO) on your staff. Combined those roles with that of the vCISO, and you will have a force to be reckoned with when it comes to beefing up your organisation’s lines of defense. In today’s rough economic times, hiring these kinds of individuals will make sense for your business, as they are affordable, scalable, and can augment the resources you need with other contacts that they have.
Ravi Das is a Cybersecurity Consultant and Business Development Specialist. He also does Cybersecurity Consulting through his private practice, RaviDas Tech, Inc. He also possesses the Certified in Cybersecurity (CC) cert from the ISC2.
Visit his website at mltechnologies.io
