Personal data is today widely recognized as a valuable asset.

Due to the value that it holds in the business world, personal data is a primary target for most cybercriminals and hackers.

The digital industry is a treasure trove of sensitive information.

Thankfully for consumers, numerous regulatory bodies around the globe have recognized the sensitivity of such data.

For protecting the integrity and confidentiality of such personal data, the regulators have enforced various data privacy laws like GDPR, HIPAA, NESA, CCPA to name a few.

So, companies that collect, store, or handle personal data are legally obliged to implement necessary measures to protect personal data.

Over the past few years, the industry has witnessed several incidents of high profile data breaches.

Incidents like these serve as a reminder for businesses to prioritize data security and strengthen their business environment.

Addressing the concern of data security, the Payment Card Industry Security Standard Council (PCI SSC) issued guidelines under Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) for securely processing, storing, transmitting payment card data.

As per the PCI DSS Standard requirement, organizations in question need to determine the scope of their PCI DSS assessment accurately and secure card data.Determining the scope essentially involves discovering of unencrypted card data and securing the source to prevent breach/data theft.

It is interesting to note that most of the incidents of data breach/theft in the industry today is due to the lack of securing data stored in undiscovered locations.

This potentially exposes most organizations to the high-level risk of a data breach.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread across the world, companies have embraced the new way of business operations.

This includes allowing employees and stakeholders to work remotely.

With new government-mandated regulations and restrictions on the movement of individuals, has widely encouraged businesses to adopt remote working models.

While this move has helped control the spread of pandemic situations largely, it has however led to a surge in cybercrimes like data breach/theft.With cybersecurity issues growing drastically, the PCI Security Standards Council was quick to recognize the crisis situation and the extraordinary circumstances that companies around the world are facing.

To address the severity of the situation, PCI SSC issued a guideline detailing guidance for remote work.

The issued guide stresses the need to maintain security practices to protect payment card data.

Growing incidents of unethical financial practices and increased risk of unauthorized corporate and financial disclosure in the industry was the driving factor behind the establishment of SOX Compliance.

Today, achieving SOX compliance is seen as an industry best financial practice for maintaining a good data security standard.The Act was introduced to bring in a major reform in the security and governance of financial disclosure and further gain public trust and confidence over an organization’s auditing and financial reporting.

The standard aims to govern the financial operations, disclosures, and contracted financial services against any unethical practice.

Elaborating on the requirements of SOX compliance, we have shared some tips that can help organizations like you achieve compliance.

But before heading straight to the compliance process, let us first learn a bit more about SOX Compliance.The Sarbanes-Oxley Act which is also popularly known as SOX Compliance is a standard that protects clients and stakeholders from fraudulent financial activities and disclosures.

The SOX Act outlines compliance requirements for organizations to adhere to and ensure secure business practices.The objective behind enforcing SOX compliance is to improve the accuracy and reliability of financial activities and the corporate disclosures.

Evolving technology and digitization calls for modern and highly advanced security standards for safeguarding digital payment technology.

Taking into account the urgent need for a robust security standard, the PCI Council introduced the Payment Card Industry Software Security Framework (PCI SSF) as a replacement to the old PA DSS Standard.

PCI SSF is a new security standard for modern payment software which is a blend of traditional and modern software security requirements.

The PCI SSF standard was developed to ensure the secure design and development of payment software in the industry.

Understanding how the standard works and why PCI SSF is replacing PA DSS, VISTA InfoSec is conducting an informative webinar on PCI SSF - New Security Approach to Modern Payment Software with the industry expert Mr. Nitin Bhatnagar, Associate Director at PCI Security Standards Council.

Explaining the standard in detail, the informative webinar will help organizations like you understand the requirements of PCI SSF and guide you with techniques to ensure a smooth transition from PA DSS to PCI SSF.

Integrating ISO27701 in PIMS to Improve Data Privacy.Organizations are constantly looking to improve their data privacy programs amid the increasing demand and growing concerns regarding the privacy of data.

PIMSA is an effective approach towards ensuring privacy and security of personal data.

It helps organization manage personal data in line with consumer expectations and in compliance with various regulations, standards, and data privacy requirements.So, one way organization can look to implement PIMS is by adopting the ISO27701 Standard which is the first International Standard for Privacy Information Management.

Explaining the benefits of integrating ISO27701 and PIMS in detail, VISTA InfoSec is conducting an informative webinar on “Integrating ISO27701 in PIMS to Improve Data PrivacyThe webinar conducted will be a live and interactive session, wherein you can participate and learn about the standard and techniques of achieving compliance with various data privacy regulations.

The forum will be open for queries where you can clear your doubts about the standard.

Learn about the international standard and techniques to improve Data Privacy with our in-house expert - Mr. Narendra Sahoo (PCI QSA, PCI QPA, PCI SSFA, CISSP, CISA, CRISC) the Founder and Director of VISTA InfoSec.

PCI DSS Compliance is a mandate for every organization dealing with cardholder data.

So, when it comes to your E-commerce business, you are expected to be compliant with the PCI Standards.When running an e-commerce store, the last thing you would want to deal with is a security breach and its legal implications.

So, for those of you running an e-commerce business, you must take into account various security parameters for protecting your business against cybersecurity threats.You need to ensure that your business is PCI Compliant, with the website and payment gateway developed and designed securely.E-commerce website design is more than just looks.

From the Compliance standpoint, you need to consider its functionality and also ensure that all the customer information passed from one party to another is secured.Having said that it is important to note that, those of you who outsource the payment process to the third-party vendor still fall under the ambit of PCI Compliance.

Although your scope of compliance may reduce due to the outsourcing of the payment process, you will still be responsible for the security of the payment process.In today’s, article we have provided a few tips and guidance that will help you in your efforts of achieving PCI DSS Compliance.

Given below are certain elements or security parameters that you must consider for your e-commerce business.

Saudi Arabia ranks among the top few countries in the world that are known to take its Cybersecurity programs very seriously.

Committed to building a safe haven for businesses in the country, the National Cybersecurity Authority (NCA) of Saudi Arabia introduced the Essential Cybersecurity Controls Compliance Programs.

Taking into account the best Cybersecurity practices globally, analyzing the major Cybersecurity incidents prevailing in the country, and also considering the opinions of various prominent businesses, the NCA developed a well-articulated and comprehensive  ECC Compliance program.

With the enforcement and mandate of complying with the standard, all the government organizations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are required to strategically adhere to the outlined framework.

Dissecting the framework and explaining the ECC framework in detail, VISTA InfoSec is conducting an informative webinar on “NCA ECC Compliance - What you Need to Know?” for the benefit of our viewers and businesses in Saudi Arabia.

We will be conducting a live and interactive session, wherein any individuals can participate and learn about the standard and ways to achieve compliance.

Business Continuity in the COVID 19 era.

| Top 5 approaches to a secure and effective Work from Home.The COVID-19 pandemic presents a serious threat to people, businesses, and economies across the world.

Gartner’s recent Business Continuity Survey shows just 12 percent of organizations are highly prepared for the impact of Coronavirus.

Smart leaders must focus on how they can best protect their people, serve their customers, and stabilize business continuity.

During times of crisis, business operations—the intelligence engine of an organization—are more important than ever.Business continuity and disaster recovery plans are being tested by rapidly evolving challenges, such as travel restrictions, and as large-scale remote working becomes a reality.

32% - of senior executives rarely update their operating model, according to initial data from an ongoing Intelligent Operations survey by Accenture and Oxford Economics.In this interesting webinar, our in-house expert - Mr. Narendra Sahoo in a very practical way covered: 1.

Data Breach is one of the worst nightmares that organizations are facing these days.

Breaches can be a very costly event, especially if the Data Breach incidents are of a larger scale, affecting millions of customers.

It said that on average breach can cost an organization $4 million, or approximately $200 per record breached especially when considering the lost business reputation, fines, and litigation costs, lost shareholder value, etc.With this, it is clear that breaches can affect an organization regardless of the size or perceived security measures established.

While businesses are taking all the necessary measures to prevent a security breach incident, it is now a known fact that even the most secure organization is not 100% immune to Data Breaches.

A business’s response to a data breach incident is crucial and makes all the difference.

Matter of fact, how organizations effectively detect, investigate and notify affected parties largely affect the quantum penalties and legal action.

With the outbreak of COVID-19 severely taking a toll on businesses across different sectors, companies are further facing new challenges of cyber security for remote workers.

As steps to counter the lockdown situation and prevent the community spread of coronavirus, millions of employees across the globe have been asked to work from home with their laptops.

While the business processes have been disrupted largely, working remotely has now become the need of the hour.

During such situations, while some businesses already have a remote working policy in place, the others are having a tough time managing this new challenge.Here is a checklist that can ensure cyber security for the entire team working remotely, and limit the possibility of cyber-attacks.

The checklist is categorically divided into sections and sub-section, specifying in detail what needs to be done and what are the precautions that need to be taken by employees working remotely.General Precautions:Remind the employees about the importance of confidentiality of data, at all times.Remind your employees not to share their work devices with their family or friends.Let the employees know that they are bound to abide to the policies of the company and are being monitored by the company as per the terms and conditions of employment.Remind them that the cybersecurity protocols that were applicable at the office are now applicable at their home office, too.Provide employees with a VPN set up, as a solution to remote working.Ensure all the systems, firewalls, and antivirus software are applied without delays for systems and applications installed and updated from time to time.Company policies:Remind employees of company policies and other relevant policies as stated by the company.Remind employees that visiting websites that contain illegal content is prohibited.Remind employees that they are prohibited to download any documents or content from unauthorized sites.Ask employees to only use authorized USB flash drives and cloud services.Electronic devices provided by the company should only be used for official work.Electronic devices:Implement enforceable technical security measures on all electronic devices provided to the employees,Ask employees to use all the electronic devices such as laptops, mobile phones, USB stick etc to be used only for official use and to only store company data.Create awareness among employees about phishing and malware attacks.Privacy:Remind employees to respect client privacy, and not share any information of the client to family members or friends.Remind employees not to print any personal information of clients while working from home.Strictly use official mobile devices for sending any message or calling clients.Remind your employees to get into the habit of blocking webcams, both physically and through the application, especially when on a meeting or conference call.Backups:Remind your employees to take a backup of all types of critical data and important documents at all times.Working remotely with probable issues of the network can lead to loss of information or data therefore, backup of all work is essential.Employees should be reminded of only using approved hard disks for taking a backup of their work/information/data.Passwords/pins:Remind employees not to share passwords with any family member or friends.Avoid sharing official passwords and pins to any person via SMS or email or even verbally.Ask your employees to keep strong passwords and avoid using automatic remember password optionsEmployees should remember all the passwords and shouldn’t expect a reset of the password by the company over phone calls.Ensure you make two-factor authentication for logins, mandatory.Create awareness about Phishing emails and scams:Ask your employees not to open any suspicious email attachments or download any suspicious files as it could be a malware.Remind employees to avoid opening any kind of pop-ups on their work devices.Ask employees to immediately report on any malware and ransom ware, in case they come across it on their work device.Streamline processes to report any kind of suspicious incident.Educate employees on the different types of social engineering attacks and ways to not fall prey to it.Remind employees to check and ensure they only receive emails from authorized sites and company domain or only trusted source from where they have earlier received emails.Ask employees not to share any confidential information with an unauthorized individual.Ensure that the company has an incident response policy in place.

Ensure to frame, test, and implement such a policy.