I spent seven years in regulated IT before starting this company: healthcare first, then oil and gas, then a managed service provider serving banks and financial institutions. The decision to start Arain Systems came out of that last chapter, the MSP.
At the MSP the clients were banks and financial firms. The regulatory environment was different from healthcare but the pattern was the same. Organizations with real compliance obligations and real data, operating with IT infrastructure that was not built to meet those obligations. SOX controls, SOC audits, customer financial data under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. The firms that handled it well had someone who understood both the technical layer and the regulatory layer at the same time. Most did not.
The problem I kept running into was this: compliance and IT were treated as separate problems. The compliance person understood the rules but did not know what the servers were actually doing. The IT vendor kept things running but had no framework for what "secure enough" meant in a regulated environment. The work fell between them.
I started Arain Systems so small offices do not fall in that gap. The target is financial offices in Houston: CPA firms, insurance agencies, investment advisers, title companies. These businesses have the same compliance obligations as larger financial institutions but without the internal resources to address them the same way. Most have no dedicated IT staff. Most have not heard of the FTC Safeguards Rule even though it applies to them.
The free 14-Point Safeguards Gap Report shows you what customer data you hold, where it lives, how it is protected today, and what your written information security program needs to cover.
I am a solo shop.
If you run a CPA firm, insurance agency, advisory, or title office in Houston and want to see where that gap sits in your own office, start with the free 14-Point Safeguards Gap Report.
Hammad Arain Founder, Arain Systems Houston, TX