Modern organizations are challenged daily with a balancing act between compliance and security. While compliance frameworks provide guidelines for protecting sensitive data and mitigating risks, security measures must adapt to evolving threats. However, the terms are often conflated, or one — usually compliance — is seen as a box to check as a means to support the other — security.

While both have their respective function and importance within each organization, there is one thing that binds the two: Identity. Identity has emerged as a bridge between compliance and security, ensuring a strong defense against cyber threats while meeting legal and regulatory requirements.

So, what’s the difference between the two, why does it matter, and how can a strong identity program help achieve both? Read on…

Compliance vs. Security: Understanding the Difference

Compliance and security are often perceived as complementary yet distinct entities. Compliance refers to adherence to laws, regulations and industry standards set forth by governing bodies such as GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS and others. These standards outline specific requirements for safeguarding data, maintaining privacy and enforcing controls to prevent unauthorized access.

Security, on the other hand, encompasses the broader spectrum of protective measures implemented to defend against malicious activities, data breaches, and cyberattacks. It involves deploying technologies, protocols and best practices to detect, respond to and mitigate security threats.

While compliance frameworks establish baseline requirements for data protection, they may not always align with the rapidly evolving threat landscape. Let us not forget that compliance must also evolve with human factors, such as remote work, changing company policies, and other factors. Security measures, therefore, must extend beyond mere compliance to proactively address emerging risks and vulnerabilities.

Identity: Unifying Compliance and Security

Identity serves as the great unifier between compliance and security. At its core, identity encompasses the unique attributes and credentials that define an individual’s digital persona within an organization. These attributes include usernames, passwords, biometric data, security tokens and other identifiers. In other words, information that is vital for business and the protection of said business. Here are several ways identity functions help both security and compliance efforts.

1) Verification and Access Control
Effective identity management begins with a verification process to establish the authenticity of users and entities accessing critical systems and data. Multi-factor authentication (MFA), biometric authentication and digital certificates are among the mechanisms used to verify and then enforce access controls. By validating user identities, organizations can prevent unauthorized access and reduce the risk of data breaches. By knowing who has access to what, we can ensure proper data handling requirements are also being met.

2) Protection and Privacy
Identity plays a pivotal role in ensuring compliance with data protection regulations and privacy mandates. By accurately identifying individuals and their associated data, organizations can implement granular access controls, encryption mechanisms, and data masking techniques to safeguard sensitive information. Identity-centric approaches enable organizations to track and audit data usage, enforce data retention policies, and demonstrate compliance with regulatory requirements. This in itself leads to fewer vulnerabilities and thus stronger security.

3) Threat Detection and Incident Response
Identity-based monitoring and analytics are instrumental in detecting anomalous activities and potential security incidents. By correlating user behavior patterns with identity attributes, organizations can quickly identify deviations from normal activity and preemptively respond appropriately. Not only does automated, real-time monitoring enhance threat detection capabilities, but helps mitigate risks and contain breaches before they happen or at least before real damage is done.

4) Identity Governance and Risk Management
Identity governance frameworks provide centralized control and oversight of user access privileges across all IT environments. By implementing role-based access controls, segregation of duties and least privilege principles, organizations can mitigate insider threats and prevent unauthorized access to sensitive resources. After all, nearly 70% of breaches involved a non-malicious human element, like a person falling victim to a social engineering attack or making an error (Verizon). In other words, insiders. Identity governance and management account for continuous monitoring, risk assessment, and remediation strategies to address security vulnerabilities and compliance gaps proactively.

The Future of Identity-Centric Compliance and Security

As organizations navigate quickly changing threat and regulatory landscapes, the role of identity will remain central to both. While emerging technologies and frameworks such as blockchain, zero-trust architectures and decentralized identity models may change over time, this only means new and improved tools for enhancing security and privacy are on the horizon. By adopting an identity-centric approach, organizations can strengthen their defenses and safeguard sensitive data, while avoiding the legal and financial risks of noncompliance.