Network Frontiers Updates Compliance Framework

LAFAYETTE, Calif. -- Network Frontiers, the leader in IT regulatory compliance management, today announced the release of their Q1 2009 Unified Compliance Framework (UCF) update. The Q1 2009 release highlights new government and industry wireless security guidelines and benchmarks for both legacy and the latest systems as well as popular devices like the BlackBerry along with media disposal best practices, both areas that are increasingly subject to regulatory compliance due to their use by malicious hackers in search of data to sell for profit.

With recent high-profile breaches like Heartland Payment Systems, RBS WorldPay, Hannaford Supermarkets, TJX and dozens of universities, no one would argue the need for better data security. Regulations are expected to increase in number over the next year as industries and governments struggle to devise ways to thwart increasing incidents of data theft. The Identity Theft Resource Centers 2008 breach report recorded 656 reported breaches at the end of 2008, an increase of 47% over last year’s total of 446 -- and we’ve already experienced the largest data breach ever reported not even a month into 2009. But for many businesses, the blizzard of ever-changing rules intended to protect sensitive information also results in spiraling expenses, confusion and a constant drain on productivity.

Network Frontiers measurably simplifies compliance by extracting IT controls from over 400 international regulatory requirements, standards, and best practices and harmonizing them into a single hierarchal framework. This enables organizations to easily define commonalities among multiple regulatory bodies, leverage the policies, processes and tools already in place, and establish a single, streamlined cost-effective plan to achieve continuous compliance across the enterprise.

Top level information is linked to in-depth data which includes the full text of regulations and standards, best practices and commentary from IT experts, all filterable on a highly granular level. Individualized control lists combing all overlapping controls in the regulations that an enterprise must comply with can be easily created.

“Businesses now have a real need to reduce costs without cutting back on their compliance efforts,” says Dorian Cougias, founder and lead analyst of Network Frontiers. “It seems like it would be impossible to achieve both goals, but the UCF’s unique method of extracting compliance data across hundreds of sources and harmonizing them into a simple, cross-referenced format dramatically reduces the time and cost associated with regulatory compliance efforts.”Network Frontiers