The Price of Data Regulation Compliance: Is it Worth it?

We live in a time where data is seen as a precious commodity. It provides organizations with invaluable insight about their operations, their competition, and how to serve their customers better. As the demand for data continues to grow, so does the frequency of data movement. This means data is increasingly vulnerable to loss, leaks and theft.

New and enhanced data protection regulations have been introduced to help prevent data from falling into the wrong hands. However, with more regulations comes more complexity. Businesses are challenged to determine if they have the budget to put the appropriate compliance measures in place. Their motivation to comply is driven by the need to protect their valuable data as well as the desire to minimize potential fees or long-term perils caused by non-compliance.

Sizing Up Compliance Costs

At Globalscape, we know that both the challenge of compliance and the risk of non-compliance are important issues for our customers and prospects. We want to help answer some of the lingering questions affecting companies today, such as 'How much does it really cost to maintain or meet compliance standards and what happens if I don't?' That is why we asked the Ponemon Institute to look further into the cost of compliance.

Ponemon polled 50+ multinational organizations and the stakeholders responsible for making compliance decisions. The study found that the average cost of compliance for those companies in 2017 is $5.47 million. That's a 43 percent increase from a previous version of the study conducted in 2011.*

The study also found that the average cost of non-compliance is $14.82 million. That's 2.71 times the cost of compliance and an increase of 45 percent since 2011.*

Clearly, complying with data protection regulations is expensive, but non-compliance will cost organizations much more. In a time when mega breaches like that of Equifax are becoming regular headlines, protecting data is a critical necessity, not a nice-to-have option. As we move into 2018, we'll see more instances where businesses are working hard to achieve compliance, especially after General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) goes into effect in May.

At Globalscape, we continuously enhance our products, such as our managed file transfer solution, to enable our customers to better track and audit the movement of data. This makes it easier to meet complex regulations compliance like Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), among others. We know that the question is when, not if, you'll be asked to prove you're complying with regulations and protecting sensitive data.

Get the latest data with the recent Ponemon report, 'The True Cost of Compliance with Data Protection Regulations.'

* Percentages calculated using net change. The percentage net change calculation is defined as follows: (FY2017−FY2011) ÷ [(FY2017+FY2011)×½].