So make sure they aren't treated as such! Compliance helps your organization align with specific, defined requirements (usually from some regulatory body); Security ensures you can handle threats that don’t come with a super-convenient user manual.
When you understand how both fit into your strategy (hint - with Security setting the stage for Compliance), you’ll strengthen your organization’s posture more effectively.
If you’ve been around InfoSec for a minute or three, you’ve noticed that “Security” and “Compliance” often get tossed around interchangeably. To be clear - they’re not synonyms. They’re more like two different routes to a vaguely similar destination (i.e. reducing your organization's risk) but each represents a distinct mindset/philosophy for your organization's approach to cybersecurity.
Think of compliance as the “official rulebook of minimum requirements.” Stress on the word minimum. Regulatory frameworks like PCI-DSS, HIPAA, GDPR, and other industry standards spell out the baseline practices you must follow. Meet these standards, and you can show your customers, partners, and regulators a piece of paper (or a fancy certificate) that says, “We did what we were supposed to do.” It’s a bit like passing a driving test—when you’re compliant, you’re allowed to drive straight to the mall, or wherever the kids go these days.
Security is the wild and ever-changing world of actually protecting your stuff; think "doing what you should do to stay as far ahead of bad actors as you can." This includes tools and solutions (i.e. Technology) but more importantly People and Process. Security means analyzing your threat landscape, continually upgrading your defenses as new attacks emerge, and going above and beyond static requirements. Security is the ongoing, never-quite-done process of trying to stay one step ahead of attackers. There is no final "secure" end-state, no certificate at the end of some audit. Anyone representing otherwise is trying to sell you something…something that won't work.
The reality? Attackers don’t care about your compliance certificates. They’re not reading the PCI-DSS manual thinking, “Oh, guess we shouldn’t hack this company—they followed the rules!” They’re looking for gaps. Compliance might tell you to encrypt certain data at rest or in transit, but what if an attacker finds some weakness in your web application that no regulation specifically mentions?
Compliance represents the minimum acceptable level of effort—or in some cases, a solid but basic standard. Think of it like locking your front door. Great! But what if a burglar comes through the window because the guidelines never said anything about windows? Compliance says, “Lock the door,” while Security says, “Check all entries, install an alarm, acquire German Shephard.”
On the flip side, you might be a technical superstar—deploying advanced monitoring solutions, patching and hardening the instant a new vulnerability is reported, training your staff to be social engineering experts. You feel pretty secure, right?
However, by ignoring any applicable compliance requirements, you could find yourself in a regulatory nightmare when an auditor drops by (and they will, eventually). Non-compliance can lead to fines, lawsuits, damaged reputation, and unhappy customers who suddenly question your professionalism. Focusing on your Security Program should allow you to align to ANY Compliance requirements with relative ease, the key is knowing what applies to your organization.
Fortunately, in 2025, Compliance and Security complement each other well. Mature organizations regularly point to "Compliance Requirements" as the business justification to make impactful investments in their Security Programs. Consider how compliance frameworks often have their roots in real-world breaches and lessons learned. They tell you to implement controls that, at a minimum, guard against known threats. Viewed through the right lens, Compliance can guide you toward making sensible Security decisions.
Security, in turn, can make Compliance feel less like a chore. When you already have strong, tested controls in place—like patching, hardening, monitoring, multi-factor authentication, network segmentation, and a well-trained incident response team—compliance checkboxes often get ticked as a natural byproduct of your efforts. Instead of dreading compliance audits, you might even start seeing them as opportunities to confirm and validate the robustness of your security posture. Crazy, I know.
The HIPAA Security Rule includes requirements for encrypting patient data and controlling access to sensitive systems. No credible InfoSec professional would disagree. However, there's so much more to data protection than encryption—sophisticated ransomware groups don’t disappear just because you followed HIPAA. Security adds continuous monitoring, intrusion detection, and threat intelligence, amongst other control domains. Together, Compliance and Security help reduce the risk to patient data—even from modern attacks the regulators couldn’t have imagined when they wrote the rules.
Fun fact, HIPAA was codified into US Law in 1996—technology and security are quite different today.
PCI-DSS wants you to protect cardholder data with defined standards. Excellent! But what about the next strain of malware that exploits a new technique to scrape memory for credit card info? Security efforts—like advanced endpoint detection and response, proactive vulnerability management driving patching/hardening—go beyond the PCI "To-Do list." Compliance sets the baseline; Security raises the ceiling.
Compliance isn’t “done” just because you passed your audit this year. Regulations evolve (albeit slowly), and so should your Security and Compliance practices. Annual check-the-box exercises might keep you legal, but they won’t be effective alone.
Don’t breathe a sigh of relief just because you’re fully compliant. Attackers don’t stop innovating. Keep pushing security improvements, test assumptions, and evolve with the threat landscape.
Compliance guidelines often mention policies and training. Security depends on actual human behavior. Invest in education, foster a security-aware culture, and encourage employees to think critically about suspicious emails or system anomalies. Invest effort into developing strong Process that supports your People and Technology. People can be your weakest link or your greatest strength.
Understand the unique threats your organization faces. Compliance frameworks give you a checklist, but a Security assessment tailors that checklist to your real-world environment. This helps you prioritize controls that matter most, often considering relative costs to help guide your decisioning.
Use tools that continuously monitor your environment for both Compliance and Security. For example, configuration management tools can ensure systems remain aligned with compliance standards (patching and hardening) while also alerting you to risky deviations.
Yes, the threat landscape changes faster than I can write these words; however, the basics (i.e. the blocking and tackling of Information Security) have been fairly consistent for a decade or more. Make periodic reviews a habit—quarterly, semi-annually, whatever cadence makes sense. Update controls, patch systems, and never let a passing audit result lull you into complacency.
Compliance and Security should complement each other in your environment. Compliance ensures you meet known standards, giving you a solid starting point and a way to demonstrate competence to third parties (especially the bill paying kind - clients/customers). Security ensures that even when attackers target your organization, you’re not left scrambling without a plan.
Embrace the synergy—use Compliance as a guiding framework and Security as an evolutionary force that keeps you ahead of threats. Together, they’re like two sides of the same coin, ensuring that you can not only say you followed the rules, but you can also confidently face whatever new challenge tomorrow brings.