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Governance, Risk, Audit & Privacy · Foundational

Compliance

Conforming to laws, regulations, contracts, standards, and internal policies.

Definition

Compliance programs identify obligations, map them to controls, monitor adherence, and report status. Compliance is necessary but not sufficient for security; a compliant organization may still be insecure. Regulatory compliance carries legal penalties while contractual compliance, such as PCI DSS, carries contractual consequences.

Example

A compliance team maps GDPR Article 32 to encryption and access control policies.

Exam tip

Compliance does not equal security; risk-based security exceeds minimum compliance.

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