Why every business needs a WISP

Non-compliance is a risk, and the Attorney General’s office carries a big stick for those who don’t follow the rules.

If you don’t have a written information security program (WISP) in place for your business, then you could be risking data theft, legal action, and punitive fines. The law in many states now dictates that you must take steps to safeguard personal information. They vary in strictness, but there are nearly 50 different regulations you need to cater for if you’re doing business across the United States.

You can’t afford to bury your head in the sand and assume it will never happen to you. Research from the Identity Theft Resource Center (PDF) shows an alarming rise in incidences of personal data theft every year since they started recording. They report 783 breaches last year, compared to just 157 in 2005.

A WISP is not optional

The need to have a WISP is made clear in one of the most stringent of the regulatory bunch, the Massachusetts Data Security Regulations, 201 CMR 17.00 (PDF). Abide by this, and you will probably abide by your own state’s data privacy laws.
The Commonwealth of Mass states:

“Every person that owns or licenses personal information about a resident of the Commonwealth shall develop, implement, and maintain a comprehensive information security program that is written in one or more readily accessible parts and contains administrative, technical, and physical safeguards.”

That doesn’t just apply to businesses operating in Massachusetts; it applies if you have a single customer living there. If you have a data breach and personal information is stolen, you won’t just have the clean-up and reputational damage to worry about, the Attorney General is liable to levy serious fines.
Despite the serious risk of financial penalty, there are still companies without a proper WISP in place. According to a Protiviti survey on data security (PDF) from last year, a third of companies don’t have a WISP at all and over 40% lack a data encryption policy.
If you need an idea of the size of the potential risk here, consider that IBM’s Cost of Data Breach Study for 2015 put the average consolidated total cost of a data breach at $3.8 million. That’s an increase of 23% just since 2013.

Creating a solid WISP

There are lots of things to consider when you create a WISP. Think about how you protect data in transit and at rest. Encryption at all times is vital. Consider the level of access your employees have and what your authentication procedure is. Remember to take into account what happens with personal devices, especially in light of the mobility and BYOD trend. You also need to have a good firewall, anti-virus, and anti-malware protection in place, and it should be updated regularly.

Something that’s often overlooked is the importance of applying the same rules to your third-party vendors. Make sure that they comply with your WISP, particularly if you are using a lot of cloud-based services and storing data offsite.
This concern isn’t limited just to large organizations. Small businesses are liable too. That’s why Massachusetts has a handy guide (available in a PDF here) to help small businesses or individuals handling personal information to get started on a WISP.

Creating a WISP isn’t going to kill the risk of data breach stone dead – you need to educate your employees about it and make sure that they review it regularly and sign off on it. User awareness is a key component here, and ignorance will never be accepted as an excuse by your customers or by the law. As we mentioned before, that awareness and sign-off should extend to your contractual relations with third-parties.
You also need to review the program internally and ensure risks are reevaluated as your business evolves. Consider the impact of new systems, devices, software, partners, and employees. The absolute minimum frequency for review and sign-off on your WISP is annual, but in certain circumstances it will make sense to review more frequently than that, especially when there are changes in the business that might impact on it.
Make sure that all the roles and responsibilities are clearly delineated in your WISP, and that employees are empowered to take action when they encounter a problem. There must be a designated person in charge that the buck stops with.
One final consideration that’s worth keeping in mind is that your WISP is not a magic bullet for cybersecurity threats. Compliance will not guarantee that your data is safe, but it’s a good opportunity to start building a really solid information security program.

This article was recently published in Network World.
Imagery credit: cutcaster