One of the most effective ways of approaching professional development is by using collaborative approaches. Or, as Eleanor Roosevelt once said, do one thing every day that scares you. I imagine that might be just as effective when it comes to professionally developing oneself and, as a result, personal skills with it. Here are three areas to consider dedicating attention to on the job if you desire to take personal development to new heights.

Many cloud service providers (CSPs) are not fully addressing the database scanning requirements for FedRAMP and have questions related to database security and FedRAMP. This article details the issues associated with not meeting the database scanning requirement, the most common reasons why this occurs, what can be done to improve this and what to consider with database security beyond scanning.

Security is vital to the healthcare industry. Thirteen percent of CIOs, CTOs and CSOs reported being targeted by external threat attempts almost once a day, and 12 percent reported about two or more attacks per week. Furthermore, 16 percent of healthcare organizations admitted they are unable to detect in real time if their systems are compromised.

As larger players in the healthcare industry like Anthem, Humana, and UnitedHealth Group begin to embrace the HITRUST Common Security Framework (CSF) in an attempt to manage the ever-evolving compliance landscape, the desire for HITRUST certification has increased exponentially. However, for many organizations the road to certification is a long one.

Healthcare service providers are being told that they must begin their HITRUST Validated Assessment process soon, especially to meet the 2017 deadline for HITRUST Certification. The looming deadline and the lack of familiarity with the validation process are causing some fear. But have no fear! This article will provide guidance on the process and the necessary information needed to navigate the Validated Assessment process and obtain certification.

As organizations grow and expand their client base, especially in regulated or security-conscious industries, the demand for third-party assurance has never been higher. It’s common to be faced with requests for both an ISO 27001 certification and a SOC 2 report, but you may be wondering if they are really different. Companies often ask, “can my ISO 27001 certification cover what’s needed for SOC 2?” or “do I really need both?”

According to a study by Ponemon Institute, companies that had data breaches involving less than 10,000 records had an average cost of data breach of $4.7 million and those companies with the loss or theft of more than 50,000 records had a cost of data breach of $11.9 million.

Effective compliance and risk management goes far beyond a set of policies. To be effective, a company’s compliance and risk management program must be embedded in its culture. All too often, companies see compliance as a separate activity that does not need to be integrated into the day-to-day business operations. All employees should share responsibility, and an intelligent risk framework should be created that brings compliance out in the open — letting employees know the importance of compliance while allowing them to communicate. But that’s often easier said than done.