In order to comply with increasing data protection regulations and contractual requirements on service availability and quality levels, advisory support in the design and implementation of IT controls opens up concrete job opportunities. Compliance officers have a privileged role in supporting the data security function, defining protocols to meet policy requirements and contractual clauses. In addition, compliance officers help to quantify the risks of breaching both privacy and essential services laws and contracts for data services, cloud infrastructure, software licensing, application development and technology in general. The increasing visibility of the compliance officer’s role in offering advice on information security and data governance requires new skills in risks, system processes and cybersecurity controls. The risks of falling behind the constant vulnerabilities of IT assets and the changing attack strategies of hackers and other criminals require compliance officers to suggest, implement, communicate and audit IT controls based on security policies, contracts and regulations. The new dependency on outsourcing for cloud storage and software services exponentially increases the exposure to data breach risks. The skills of compliance officers evolved to go beyond paper compliance and high-level policy writing in legalese, enabling business decisions by suggesting cost-effective alternatives, minimizing non-compliance risks and protecting intellectual property.
Compliance officers have also helped in quantifying risk exposures for regulatory and contractual requirements on IT assets under different scenarios. By advising the business on maximum and minimum liabilities, fines, claims and penalties regarding contracts and regulations, the compliance function spearheaded the development of data-driven methodologies and tools to quantify risks. These developments made it possible to overcome the shortcomings associated with biased assessments which ignore risk data, such as red, yellow, and green criteria, 5*5 arrays, and arbitrary scoring systems. These misleading qualitative risk methodologies have been refuted by science for more than a decade, and are now forms of malpractice and negligence preventing a strong corporate defense.
Understanding the context of cyber compliance allows consultants to offer differentiated services in the market, and internal compliance officers to take a step forward in becoming influential business advisors. Justifying a lack of technical knowledge about systems, IT controls or data protection practices means that the compliance function turns its back on protecting organizations. In addition, it leaves compliance officers at the mercy of Darwinism in the labor market; unable to offer in-demand and well-paid consulting services.