Cybersecurity Compliance Playbook: Standards, Requirements, and Best Practices

Cyber events have become the top business risk worldwide – and it’s no mystery why. As ransomware doubles, data breach costs soar, and compliance mandates multiply, security teams are facing more pressure – and more complexity – than ever before.

On the upside, 60% of executives say cyber regulations effectively reduce risk, and 96% acknowledge that regulatory requirements have spurred them to enhance security measures. But, while regulation has helped reduce risk, the penalties for non-compliance have cost companies billions – making the stakes higher than ever.

Meanwhile, the cyber insurance market is booming, with policies in force jumping by about 12% in the last three years. Alongside new and evolving regulations, insurers bring their own set of requirements. The result? Security teams are left to contend with a patchwork of cybersecurity compliance demands to satisfy regulations, audits, and insurance carriers alike.

We’ll explore methods for simplifying cybersecurity compliance, outlining key frameworks, common controls, and standard best practices to build comprehensive yet flexible compliance strategies.

What Is Cybersecurity Compliance?

Cybersecurity compliance refers to an organization’s adherence to established policies, regulations, and standards designed to safeguard sensitive data and systems. These requirements are typically set by regulatory frameworks (like HIPAA, PCI DSS, and DORA) or cybersecurity insurance providers, which increasingly mandate security controls as part of policy issuance and renewal.

Unlike internal policies or risk-based best practices, cybersecurity compliance is defined externally – and noncompliance can carry hefty consequences. In addition to data breaches and operational downtime, failure to comply with these requirements can include fines, failed audits, and higher insurance premiums.

At a high level, cybersecurity compliance standards are often related to network and data protection, access control, risk management, or incident response – and often, all of the above.

Cybersecurity Compliance Standards for Sensitive Data

An organization’s specific compliance obligations depend heavily on the types of sensitive data it collects, transmits, or stores. Regulatory frameworks often specify requirements for protecting data in three categories: personally identifiable information, financial information, and protected health information.

Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

PII encompasses data that can be used to identify an individual. This might include names, Social Security numbers, addresses, birthdates, passport numbers, driver’s license details, and more. Organizations in nearly every sector handle PII thanks to its broad (and ever-expanding) definition.

Financial Information

Financial data includes credit card numbers, account credentials, transaction histories, tax records, and other banking details. Organizations that process payments or manage funds – from financial institutions to retailers and beyond – are subject to strict protections around this data.

Protected Health Information (PHI)

PHI refers to medical records, health insurance data, treatment histories, lab results, and other health-related information tied to an individual. Healthcare providers, insurers, and any business associates with access to this data fall under compliance mandates like HIPAA.

Regulatory and Audit Compliance in Cybersecurity: Key Frameworks and Standards

Dozens of regulatory frameworks and industry-accepted cybersecurity standards exist to help organizations manage cyber risk and protect sensitive data. Regulations may be industry-specific, region-specific, or risk-specific; while the cyber compliance landscape is constantly shifting, we’ll explore some of the most well-known standards’ cybersecurity requirements.

PCI DSS

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) applies to any organization that stores, processes, or transmits cardholder data. Key PCI DSS cybersecurity mandates span categories like network security and access control, data protection and encryption, monitoring and testing, and maintaining an information security policy. Specific requirements include:

• Multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all access to the Cardholder Data Environment (CDE)
• Restrict access to cardholder data by business need-to-know
• Protect stored cardholder data and implement robust security protocols to protect cardholder data during transmission over public networks
• Implement logging mechanisms to track all access to network resources and cardholder data

HIPAA

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) governs the handling of protected health information (PHI). It outlines physical, technical, and administrative safeguards to ensure healthcare data is kept confidential and secure. Important cybersecurity requirements for HIPAA compliance include:

• Implement technical and administrative policies and procedures to ensure only authorized users have access to PHI
• Ensure third-party service providers implement standards consistent with HIPAA mandates
• Enforce robust MFA for access to internal networks
• Record and examine activity in information systems that contain or use PHI
• Implement policies and procedures to address security incidents

Notably, HIPAA updates for more stringent cybersecurity measures to protect electronic protected health information (ePHI) loom as a result of the “rampant escalation of cyberattacks using hacking and ransomware” in recent years.

This means that, beyond the cybersecurity requirements currently mandated by HIPAA, healthcare organizations may soon need to comply with even stricter rules.

NYDFS (23 NYCRR Part 500)

The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) cybersecurity requirements apply to financial services companies operating in New York. It requires that financial institutions implement robust cybersecurity measures to safeguard sensitive customer information and the integrity of IT systems. NYDFS provisions aim to help the financial sector protect against ransomware and other sophisticated threats, stop privileged account abuse, and boost overall security posture.

All requirements outlined in this set of rules relate to cybersecurity, but some key mandates for NYDFS compliance revolve around:

• Limiting and regularly reviewing access privileges
• Implementing MFA for any user accessing internal networks from an external network
• Maintaining a cybersecurity program capable of identifying, protecting against, detecting, responding to, and recovering from cybersecurity incidents

DORA

The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is an EU regulation designed to strengthen cybersecurity and resilience across the financial services industry. To boost operational resilience and support rapid breach containment, DORA outlines a broad set of risk management requirements, including rules related to asset management, operational standards, network security, data security, identity management, and more. Some of the requirements for DORA compliance articulated in the regulatory technical standards (RTS) for risk management are:

• Separation of production environments from development, testing, and other non-production environments
• Security measures to ensure teleworking and the use of private endpoint devices does not adversely impact network security
• Network security management strategies including the segregation and segmentation of systems and networks, as well as measures to isolate subnetworks, network components, and devices
• Identity management policies and procedures that ensure the unique identification and authentication of persons and systems accessing information, leveraging automation where possible

GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies to any organization handling personal data of EU citizens. It mandates data minimization, access restrictions, breach notification, and transparency in data processing practices, with significant penalties for noncompliance.

While the GDPR does not mandate specific cybersecurity measures, it requires covered entities to take “appropriate” technical and organizational measures depending on the type of data being processed and other risk factors.

Privacy by Design

Organizations must proactively build appropriate security measures into systems to achieve the GDPR standard of “Privacy by Design” or “Privacy by Default.” At a high level, the Privacy by Design approach encompasses four core goals:

• Manage security risk
• Protect personal data against cyberattacks
• Detect security events
• Minimize the impact of cyber incidents

SOC 2

SOC 2 is a framework developed by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) that evaluates an organization’s management of customer data and related systems, with specific controls over security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. Designed for service organizations, SOC 2 is relevant to any web-based service provider.

Though SOC 2 compliance isn’t a legal requirement, it’s an industry-accepted framework organizations can use to demonstrate they’ve implemented the controls necessary to comply with myriad regulations. Security is the foundational principle for any SOC 2 report; requirements include controls like:

• Strong authentication and role-based access controls, limiting access to systems and data
• Secure network architecture including segmentation to reduce the attack surface, supporting rapid breach containment
• Systems to monitor network traffic and prevent unauthorized access
• Comprehensive incident response plans

NIST

The NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) provides a risk-based approach to strengthening security and managing cyber risks. It includes five core functions – Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover – and supports mapping to many major regulatory standards. Among other things, NIST CSF compliance requires that organizations:

• Limit asset access to authorized users, services, and hardware with identity-based access controls and robust authentication mechanisms
• Control communication at both external and internal network boundaries, implementing network segmentation and Zero Trust architectures to enable the minimum necessary communications
• Prevent the expansion of a cyber incident and mitigate its effects, automating threat containment when possible

Although NIST outlines five core functions in its cybersecurity framework, Robert Bigman, the CIA’s first CISO, only considers one of them key:

“The NIST cybersecurity framework identifies five main concurrent and continuous functions for cybersecurity: Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, Recover. To me, there’s only one that matters: Protect. And to hackers, there’s only one that matters: how well you are protecting your network and systems. Organizations need to be primarily focused on data and system protections. Yes, you do want a response program, a training program, and other things in cybersecurity, but you better focus on Protect.”

ISO/IEC 27001

ISO/IEC 27001 is an international standard for managing information security. It emphasizes risk assessment, policy enforcement, asset protection, and continuous improvement through defined controls and audits.

These standards may differ in scope and terminology, but they all reinforce the same goal: to help organizations protect data, maintain operational integrity, and minimize the impact of cyber threats.

Cyber Insurance and Security Control Requirements

As sophisticated cyber threats proliferate, cyber insurance is growing more common – across the finance, healthcare, and manufacturing sectors, more than 80% of organizations currently carry cyber insurance.

Meanwhile, cyber insurance carriers are increasingly demanding that policyholders implement key security controls. While specific requirements vary, providers often require proactive security practices like:

• Multi-Factor Authentication: Insurers may require MFA for remote access to corporate networks or privileged access to admin systems, among other things.
• Identity-Based Access Controls: To ensure sensitive systems are only accessed by authorized users (and only when necessary), cyber insurance carriers may require strategies for enforcing least privilege based on role and identity.
• Incident Response Plans: Mature incident response plans that demonstrate an ability to detect, contain, and recover from cyber incidents signal to insurers that an organization is prepared to minimize the impact of a breach.
• Network Segmentation: Because network segmentation limits the blast radius of an attack, many cyber insurance providers require segmentation strategies. Among the 81% of healthcare, finance, and manufacturing organizations that currently carry cyber insurance, 70% say network segmentation is required by their insurer.

Cybersecurity Compliance Best Practices

While no two compliance programs look exactly alike, most cybersecurity compliance standards call for a common set of foundational security practices. These best practices improve risk posture, support audit readiness, and streamline compliance across a broad range of frameworks.

Implement Identity-Based Access Controls

Controls like MFA and identity segmentation ensure only authorized users can access sensitive systems or data. Enforcing least privilege access also limits what accounts can do once inside the network, an essential step for blocking lateral movement and stopping privileged account abuse. By applying network layer MFA to privileged ports and other operationally necessary systems, organizations can build a layered defense against identity threats without disrupting operations.

Segment the Network

Network segmentation helps isolate critical systems and contain threats in real time. Many regulations and cyber insurance carriers require some level of network segmentation for compliance or mandate strategies for building a resilient network architecture. To accelerate and simplify compliance with network segmentation requirements, microsegmentation is the most comprehensive solution – by isolating every asset into its own secure zone, microsegmentation proactively bolsters cyber defensesand demonstrates a high degree of resilience.

Though holistic microsegmentation is not explicitly required by all standards, Dr. Chase Cunningham, aka Dr. Zero Trust, advises organizations not to overlook this strategy:

“There is no way to maintain compliance and legally do business if you are not considering how compliance is actually supposed to be enabled and doing the segmentation side of it. The truth of the matter is if you're not segmented correctly, you're not microsegmented, and it's not dynamic in nature, you're not compliant because changes occur.”

Maintain Visibility and Audit Logs

Continuously monitoring and logging network activity is vital to meet incident detection, response, and governance requirements. Tools that can centralize log management and simplify anomaly detection are key.

Secure Remote Access

Many compliance frameworks include requirements for securing remote connections for employees and third-party vendors. Since remote users are often granted excessive network access, it can be difficult to apply security policies consistently, leading to more compliance headaches. As Aaron Steinke, Head of Infrastructure at La Trobe Financial, puts it: “Historically, we found that you often end up in a scenario where people have more network access when they’re on the VPN because you can’t categorize them and classify them well enough.”

To support compliance with requirements related to remote access and policy enforcement consistency, organizations can secure VPN ports with just-in-time MFA, ensuring only authorized users gain access to pre-approved network assets.

Continuously Adapt Security Policies

Documentation of security controls and procedures is a necessary piece of any compliance plan. But modern networks are dynamic – security policies should be, too. Leveraging a solution that automatically adapts security policies alongside network changes helps organizations build flexible compliance strategies while effectively protecting against evolving cyber threats.

Future-Proofing Cybersecurity Compliance with Zero Networks

Zero Networks delivers automated microsegmentation and identity-based access controls that align with key cybersecurity compliance requirements – without complex configurations or operational disruption. By simplifying the implementation of controls that auditors and insurers expect, Zero enables organizations to:

• Enforce least privilege access across the entire network
• Secure remote access with network-layer MFA for any port, protocol, or application
• Isolate every asset with adaptive microsegmentation to protect critical systems and data
• Automate tagging and grouping, policy creation and enforcement, and logging to streamline audits and reporting

“Every time the auditors come through (which is every five and a half minutes in a financial institution), we were getting asked why we’re not doing MFA on certain products and protocols. [Zero] has given us a way of implementing that.”

- Aaron Steinke, Head of Infrastructure, La Trobe Financial

With Zero Networks, compliance doesn’t mean complexity. Whether you’re preparing for a regulatory audit or securing cyber insurance, Zero makes it easy to demonstrate robust security controls.

Ready to simplify compliance without compromising security? Take a self-guided product tour to see how Zero Networks can help you stay ahead of audits, insurers, and attackers.