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Compliance for SMBs: HIPAA, GLBA, and SEC Rules Mapped to Microsoft 365 + Athencia Comply

SMBs face growing regulatory pressure. Whether you’re a healthcare clinic, a financial firm, or a business under SEC oversight, regulators now expect enterprise-level cybersecurity. The good news: much of what you need is already built into Microsoft 365 Business Premium. Add Athencia Comply and you have a complete compliance foundation.

Author

Jeremy Phillips
August 29, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes

Why Compliance Matters in 2025

  • 📝 Regulations are tightening—HIPAA, GLBA, and SEC rules now apply directly to SMBs.

  • 🔐 Cybersecurity alone isn’t enough—auditors need evidence, documentation, and reporting.

  • 📊 Compliance-as-a-Service is growing fast because most SMBs don’t have time or staff to manage checklists, assessments, and audits themselves.

How Regulations Map to Microsoft 365 Baseline

HIPAA (Healthcare) 🏥

  • Protect PHI with encryption and audit logs.

  • M365 covers: Encrypted OneDrive/SharePoint, MFA/Conditional Access, Defender for Endpoint, audit logging.

  • Athencia Comply adds: Risk assessments, breach response documentation, and audit-ready compliance reports.

GLBA (Financial Institutions) 💰

  • Secure customer financial data and manage vendor risk.

  • M365 covers: Intune hardening, DLP, secure email, compliance reporting.

  • Athencia Comply adds: Vendor risk management and board-level compliance dashboards.

SEC Cyber Rules 📈

  • Disclose material incidents in 4 days, prove governance, show continuous monitoring.

  • M365 covers: Secure Score, Compliance Manager templates, audit-ready logging.

  • Athencia Comply adds: Executive reporting and regulator-ready evidence packs.

Why Microsoft 365 as the Foundation

  • ⚖️ Native alignment with NIST CSF (supports HIPAA, GLBA, SEC requirements).

  • 🔗 Unified control plane with Intune + Conditional Access.

  • 📂 Audit-ready evidence through Compliance Manager.

Where Athencia Comply Extends Microsoft 365

Think of Microsoft 365 baseline as the seatbelt. Athencia Comply is the airbag.

  • 🔄 Continuous risk assessments tied to HIPAA, GLBA, and SEC frameworks.

  • 🚨 Documented incident response playbooks.

  • 📊 Executive dashboards and regulator-facing reports.

  • 🎓 Training and simulations to reduce user-driven risk.

  • 🗂️ Automated evidence collection and mapping through ControlMap.

What SMBs Gain

  • 🏥 Healthcare: Faster HIPAA audit prep, reduced PHI exposure.

  • 💰 Financial: Lower GLBA compliance costs, better cyber-insurance terms.

  • 📈 Advisors/Public Companies: Meet SEC 4-day disclosure requirements without panic.

Take Action

Compliance isn’t just an enterprise problem. SMBs are on the radar.

👉 Book a 15-minute Security & Compliance Health Check. We’ll perform a 15-minute security & compliance health check to show how your Microsoft 365 setup stacks up and where risks need attention.

🔍 Ready to go further? Check out Athencia Comply, our Compliance-as-a-Service offering powered by ControlMap. It continuously maps HIPAA, GLBA, and SEC requirements to your environment, automates evidence collection, and keeps you audit-ready year-round.