In an environment where attacks are increasingly sophisticated and regulations more demanding, cybersecurity is no longer just a technical issue. It’s also legal and strategic. Aligning with major standards and certifications has become a requirement to operate in regulated markets, close deals with large clients, or even raise investment. In this article, we explain what you need to know in 2025 if you work in software, especially in SaaS or cloud environments.
Why is Regulatory Compliance Critical in Cybersecurity?
Compliance is not just another box to check on a list. In practice, it means proving that your company and product apply technical, organizational, and legal controls to protect data. This is especially important in cloud environments, where responsibilities are shared between provider and integrator, and in SaaS products, where the software is directly exposed to the end user.
Compliance has also become a commercial requirement. More and more clients (especially enterprises and public entities) demand proof of compliance before integrating a solution. And more importantly, many regulations carry legal and financial consequences if not followed.
Most Important Cybersecurity Certifications
Below is an overview of some of the most relevant certifications in today’s landscape:
ISO/IEC 27001
One of the most widely recognized certifications worldwide. It provides a framework for information security management systems (ISMS), including risk management, technical controls, and internal procedures. It is especially useful for companies with international clients or those handling sensitive data.
SOC 2
Widely used in the SaaS space, especially in the U.S. It evaluates five principles: security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. Having a SOC 2 report (Type I or Type II) proves that a company applies effective controls over its infrastructure and operations.
ENS (National Security Framework – Spain)
Mandatory for providers working with the public sector in Spain. It defines protection levels based on the criticality of services and requires specific measures in areas like traceability, access control, and software protection.
CIS Controls, NIST, etc.
Beyond formal certifications, there are reference frameworks such as the CIS Controls or the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, which serve as guides for establishing strong cybersecurity policies, especially in growing companies that are not yet ready to become formally certified.
Key Cybersecurity Legislation
Beyond certifications, companies must comply with legal regulations that govern data protection, operational resilience, and incident response.
GDPR (EU)
Requires protection of personal data of EU citizens. Demands explicit consent, the right to be forgotten, breach notification within 72 hours, and security by design. Fines can reach up to €20 million or 4% of annual global turnover.
NIS2 (EU)
The new Network and Information Security Directive comes into effect in 2025. It expands the number of affected sectors (including critical SaaS) and requires the implementation of cybersecurity measures such as encryption, vulnerability management, and incident response.
DORA (EU – Financial Sector)
The DORA Regulation aims to ensure the digital resilience of the financial sector in Europe. It affects both banks and tech providers working with them, requiring stress tests, audit reports, and software protection throughout the lifecycle.
CCPA (U.S.)
California’s privacy law has practical effects beyond the state. It establishes rights similar to GDPR but with a focus on consent, data sales, and protection against breaches. Many global startups must adapt if they have U.S. users.
How Does This Affect Developers and Products?
Compliance is no longer just the responsibility of legal or compliance teams. Developers play a key role by implementing security-by-design practices:
- Secrets management: avoiding credentials in code or public repos.
- Traceability and auditability: structured logs, secure and immutable storage, and proper retention.
- Code protection: especially on the client side (frontend, mobile apps, embedded software).
- Secure APIs: strong authentication, rate limits, validation, and encryption.
- Updates and deployments: continuous patching, dependency review, secure CI/CD.
Compliance is increasingly tied to the source code and development processes themselves.
How ByteHide Helps with Cybersecurity Compliance
ByteHide offers a suite of tools specifically designed to help meet the technical requirements of standards like ISO/IEC 27001, SOC 2, ENS, NIS2, DORA, and GDPR. Each product addresses a specific aspect of modern cybersecurity:
- Protects binary code against reverse engineering, decompilation, modification, and tampering. This enables compliance with controls that require protection of production software, especially in distributed products (mobile apps, IoT, desktop). Shield directly supports security-by-design, anti-tampering, and intellectual property protection controls.
- Detects credentials, tokens, and secrets embedded in the code and allows for secure, centralized, and encrypted management. Prevents the exposure of sensitive data in public repositories or pipelines, helping comply with controls related to credential management, least privilege, and breach prevention.
- Provides real-time protection for deployed applications, detecting malicious behavior, abnormal execution, or exploitation techniques. This type of RASP (Runtime Application Self-Protection) is critical for regulations like NIS2 and DORA, which require automated detection and response during software execution.
- Secure and encrypted logging system, designed to maintain complete traceability of what happens within your applications and systems. Enables structured event storage, querying, and auditing, complying with requirements from SOC 2, ENS, or GDPR regarding auditing, forensics, and log retention.
- Encrypted and distributed storage at the application level, designed for developers who need to securely store sensitive data within their own software. This is not a generic external storage service but an embedded system that allows end-to-end encryption to be integrated directly into the application’s logic, ensuring information is protected both at rest and in transit. Ideal for meeting GDPR, DORA, and other regulatory frameworks that require operational resilience and advanced protection of sensitive data, without delegating security to external, uncontrolled services.
Compliance as a Competitive Advantage
Far from being an obstacle, complying with cybersecurity standards and regulations can become a competitive edge. It opens the door to regulated markets, enables deals with large enterprises, and builds trust with users and investors.
In 2025, as regulations continue to evolve, having tools that simplify compliance not only saves time and resources. It also prepares your company to scale securely and professionally.
