Based on what is working among organizations with the fewest data losses, the IT Policy Compliance Group report identifies several practices that can assist businesses with improving IT compliance results, reduce business downtime, and reduce data loss and theft. These steps include:

• Implementing more and appropriate IT controls
• Reducing control objectives, making it easier to communicate, measure and report against
• Establishing higher standards for performance objectives
• Encouraging a culture of operational excellence in IT
• Conducting monitoring, measurement and reporting of controls against objectives at least once every two weeks
• Allocating more spend to controls automation