When financial institutions fall out of compliance, the consequences often extend far beyond regulatory fines. At the heart of every compliance failure is the reputation and customers’ trust, a loss that could have been prevented. Be it a data breach due to missed security protocols, fraudulent transactions enabled by outdated controls, or a delayed detection of suspicious activity because of poor documentation, each poses a direct threat to the overall operations and stability of an organization. And this challenge isn’t limited to one institution. It’s a risk faced across organizations, including those in healthcare, aviation, and manufacturing.
While adhering to sector- or nation-specific security standards is one facet, the overall outcome hinges on multiple other factors. One of the driving factors is a compliance consultant, a professional who not only understands the nuances of evolving regulations but can also translate them effectively for organizations. Without a skilled and dedicated compliance consultant, organizations may risk having their certifications revoked or losing visibility into their audit roadmap. However, finding such experts remains a significant challenge. Let’s explore why.
Before we dive into the challenges, let us first understand who a skilled compliance consultant is.
In a broader sense, a skilled cybersecurity compliance consultant is one who has practical experience as well as certification in specific cybersecurity regulations.
Their expertise includes:
Their responsibilities are not just limited to the above-mentioned, but change based on the needs of an organization.
Finding a talented cybersecurity compliance consultant is challenging due to a global shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals, including those with specialized compliance expertise. According to a 2024 ISC2 report, there is a global shortage of 4.8 million cybersecurity professionals, reflecting a 3% increase from 2023. As a result, many cybersecurity compliance-related jobs go unfulfilled, sometimes forcing organizations to compromise on critical job responsibilities.
In addition to this, there are other reasons such as:
Unable to keep pace with changing standards: Compliance with frameworks such as PCI DSS, ISO, GDPR, HIPAA, and others require specialized expertise. Additionally, the profession also demands to stay current with evolving regulations and country-specific requirements to ensure the right controls are implemented (or outdated systems are discontinued). However, the rapid pace of regulatory changes often outstrips the ability of existing professionals to continuously upskill, hence increasing the gap between available professionals and skilled experts.
Hiring and retaining challenges: Organizations seek compliance professionals with multi-disciplinary capabilities, including technical knowledge, legal acumen, risk management, and business operations. This hybrid expectation narrows the talent pool and prolongs the hiring process. Besides this, if they have in-house experts, they struggle to retain them and provide continuous upskilling opportunities.
Lack of clarity on responsibilities: Some organizations lack a clear understanding of the role and responsibilities of skilled compliance personnel, hence devaluing their positions. Often, this lack of clarity leads to hiring professionals with mismatched skill sets.
Budget constraint: Budget constraints limit organizations’ ability to attract, train, and retain skilled compliance experts. Unable to offer competitive pay or resources, many assign compliance tasks to teams with unrelated expertise, weakening compliance efforts and worsening the talent shortage.
This shortage of compliance talent leads to adverse outcomes, as organizations miss critical intermediate activities due to a lack of clear visibility and well-defined compliance procedures.
Other consequences include:
Incomplete or inaccurate compliance implementation: Non-experts or experts with less information may misinterpret compliance requirements, leading to poor control implementation (e.g. outdated controls or misaligned policies). This increases the chances of risks against threats.
Inaccurate scoping and gap assessment: If scoping is incorrect, critical systems, assets, or processes may be left out of compliance efforts. Ultimately, this leads to missed or inaccurate assessments, leaving uncounted systems and critical assets exposed to cyberattacks.
Missed necessary remediations: Inaccurate gap assessment can lead to missed remediations, while organizations may be under an illusion of compliance readiness. This puts the organizations at a significant disadvantage after investing substantial resources, time, and effort – only to face audit failures, penalties, or security incidents.
Increased stress and burnout: Organizations often underestimate the importance of compliance and fail to invest in qualified professionals with the necessary expertise. As a result, existing staff are frequently burdened with additional tasks, such as documentation, policy updates, and audits, that fall outside their primary roles. Overall, this impacts their efficiency and focus on other necessary priorities.
Higher error rates: In the absence of dedicated and qualified compliance personnel, roles and requirements often become blurred, leading to confusion and misinterpretation. This leads to higher error rates.
Audit failures & missed regulatory deadlines: Without compliance leadership, organizations suffer from poorly defined remediation steps and lack clear prioritization, which ultimately leads to audit failures, missed regulatory deadlines, penalties, and reputational damage.
To overcome the compliance talent shortage and its associated risks, organizations should adopt a hybrid approach that blends selective in-house talent acquisition with strategic partnerships. Given budget constraints and hiring challenges, engaging with experienced and well-known third-party compliance providers is the best way to access specialized consultants.
By bringing in experts on an as-needed basis, organizations can access specialized skills without inflating payroll or committing to long-term staffing.
In today’s rapidly changing regulatory environment, finding and retaining skilled compliance talent can be a costly and time-consuming affair. Ampcus Cyber bridges this gap by offering organizations immediate access to seasoned compliance consultants, without the overhead of long-term hiring or inflated payroll costs.
Our consultants bring deep expertise across frameworks like PCI DSS, ISO, GDPR, NIST, and more, ensuring your organization stays audit-ready and aligned with evolving standards.
We offer:
Specialized expertise on demand: Gain access to a pool of 1000+ certified and skilled consultants with multidisciplinary skills in compliance, risk management, and cybersecurity.
Cross-industry experience: With over a decade of cross-industry experience, our consultants offer deep insights to support clients across finance, healthcare, manufacturing, and government sectors.
Proactive compliance management with reduced internal workload: We help organizations stay ahead of regulatory changes, avoid costly penalties, and maintain customer trust, all while reducing internal workload by handling compliance execution end-to-end so in-house teams can focus on strategic priorities.
Our SMEs follow the unique TSAMA approach, which can be tailored to an organization’s specific compliance needs or operational needs.
With Ampcus Cyber, you don’t just get consultants. You get a budget-friendly strategic partner dedicated to protecting your organization’s reputation, operational continuity, and regulatory standing.
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