Two new software efforts have hit the market to help companies track their compliance obligations.

First is the Dow Jones Sanction Alert, a structured data feed that helps financial institutions manage their international payment formats by reducing false positives and duplicate alerts without increasing exposure to risk. Reducing false alerts is more important these days because of new National Automated Clearing House Association regulations taking effect on Sept. 18 and changes to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) message formats taking effect Nov. 21.

These changes will significantly increase the number of payments classed as international and therefore subject to sanctions regimes and result in a corresponding increase in the number of high-priority alerts requiring immediate investigation.

The Dow Jones Risk & Compliance Sanctions Team monitors international sanction lists 24 hours a day on a “follow-the-sun” basis from five research centers around the world. Dow Jones Sanction Alert clients benefit from strict quality controls and a comprehensive set of secondary identifiers which maximizes efficient clearing of alerts whilst providing the greatest possible protection from risk.

Second, the Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) has established the Common Security Framework Ready Program to help companies in the health care sector evaluate IT security products. The CSF Ready Program will develop criteria and provide consistency for how information security products and services are evaluated, thus reducing IT system complexity and aiding in the procurement process for both large and small organizations faced with identifying and implementing security solutions.

Industry leaders from the security assurance and information security communities are leading the effort. Participants include co-chairs ICSA Labs and McAfee, as well as CA, Cisco Systems, RSA Security, VeriSign, and others.

The output from the CSF Ready Program is not intended to replace other high-security certifications, but is meant to establish an alternative for organizations trying to streamline compliance costs while at the same time working to comply with the numerous evolving state and federal regulations and industry standards.