Shark Attacks and the FINRA: Compliance In The Cloud

ISLIP, N.Y. - July 29, 2015 - PRLog -- It’s pretty often that I’m asked about compliance and cloud hosting. As you may know, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) enforce security guidelines for the financial services industry, protecting personal information and dictating how this information is stored and accessed. Since it’s Shark Week, let’s focus on the shark-like fine-and-fee-levying FINRA.

Rules & Regulations

The Securities and Exchange Act (http://www.sec.gov/about/laws/sea34.pdf) contains rules that relate to the backup and archiving of electronic records. In essence, they ask the following:

Do you have policies and procedures in place that govern client information protection?
Do your security practices and cloud provider options meet FINRA requirements for data protection?
Do you protect against anticipated threats to the security of customer information?
Can you protect against unauthorized access of customer information that could result in substantial harm or inconvenience?
Do you use encryption before storing data in the cloud?

Some of these objectives are easy to accomplish with a cloud provider—others, not so much. Regardless, your answer better be yes across the board. It also ask who owns the data’s intellectual property rights? (Hint: Your SLA (http://www.diverse-technology.com/blog/virtual-desktop-ho...) with the cloud provider needs to address this.)

Compliance
The most vital suggestion for compliance is twofold. First, if you’re using a broker, make certain you meet the IT security and compliance requirements. (If so, you likely meet FINRA requirements, as well.) Second, verify that all of your IT security policies outline backup procedures, security features and your exact methods of customer data protection.

Protecting data in the cloud is easy if you’re aligned with a cloud hosting provider (http://www.diverse-technology.com/cloud-hosting/private-c...) who truly understands the rules and regulations governing your business. So, remember:

You (not your cloud provider) have to ensure compliance and proper protection methods are in place to secure client information.
There’s no such thing as a “certified” FINRA cloud provider.
There’s no FINRA, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA (http://www.diverse-technology.com/blog/security/how-many-cloud-providers-are-actually-hipaa-certified/)) or Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) certification method in place to ensure a cloud provider is adequately protecting your data.

Don’t be the bait in a regulatory shark attack. Don’t just watch as the shark’s fin(RA) glides closer and closer until it takes a bite out of you and your livelihood. Instead, why not align with a provider who understands every regulation and is expert in ensuring 100 percent compliance? Contact Diverse Technology Solutions to learn more (http://www.diverse-technology.com/contact-us/).