If you’re in banking, you know the drill. Adhering to stringent EU regulations is a standard practice. This involves undergoing extensive audits, closely managing IT assets, maintaining your CIA (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability) rating, conducting and responding to fire drills, and establishing continuity plans. So far, nothing new, and if you’re in other highly regulated environments, you know that these measures are commonplace.

Enacted by the European Union, the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) establishes new standards for digital operational resilience in the financial sector. DORA changes the financial sector's approach to digital security and resilience by imposing stringent Information and Communication Technology (ICT) risk management, incident reporting, third-party risk management, and regular testing.

If your IT department works for a financial institution operating in Europe, you’ve come to the right place, since the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) simplifies compliance and promotes a unified approach to managing IT risks, which is vital in an era of increasing cyber attacks. This legislation introduced by the European Union (EU) aims to standardize and enhance cybersecurity practices across financial entities, ensuring they can withstand, respond to, and recover from IT disruptions.

If you're here, it's likely because you're an IT professional who wants to stay up-to-date on cybersecurity regulations and directives, especially if your organization operates within the European Union (EU). One important regulation to be aware of is the NIS2 Directive aka the second take of the Network and Information Security (NIS).

The rise of the digital era has led to increasing concerns among individuals around the protection of their personal data. In 2022, for example, 24% of individuals exercised their right to Data Subject Access Requests, and this rose to 28% in 2023 according to Statista research results.

The CSRD marks a paradigm shift from preceding directives, introducing stringent reporting standards aimed at enhancing the quality, comprehensiveness, and consistency of sustainability reporting. Unlike its predecessors, the CSRD mandates specific disclosure formats and standards, emphasizing the concept of “double materiality” – requiring companies to address both their environmental impacts and climate-related risks comprehensively.

RapidSpike recently launched the first of six new features designed to further boost the security of ecommerce websites, in readiness for PCI DSS 4.0. We recently featured in Prolific North. If you missed the write up, you can catch up in full, here… In response to rising ecommerce threats, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards will impose 63 new requirements on brands processing, storing or transmitting credit card information, with version 4.0 coming into effect on March 31, 2025.