Navigating DORA and NIS2: What they mean for device security in 2025

DORA and NIS2: the two key European Union regulations

The European Union's regulatory landscape is evolving fast, therefore, organizations across critical sectors need to be ready.

What is DORA?

The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is an EU regulation focused on strengthening ICT risk management and operational resilience in the financial sector. It applies to banks, insurers, investment firms, and even ICT third-party providers (like cloud or software vendors supporting these institutions). DORA mandates strict controls around digital systems, including the ability to detect, respond to, and recover from disruptions — with an emphasis on technology supply chain risk and third-party service oversight.

What is NIS2?

The Directive on Security of Network and Information Systems (NIS2) builds upon the original NIS directive but expands its scope significantly. It applies to a broader set of essential and important entities — including healthcare, energy, transport, water, telecom, public administration, and digital infrastructure providers. NIS2 places stronger requirements on risk management, incident reporting, and accountability — especially around cybersecurity at the endpoint level.

Why devices are at the center of compliance

• DORA focuses on ICT risk and operational resilience for financial institutions
• NIS2 expands cybersecurity obligations across critical and essential entities

Both DORA and NIS2 require organizations to take a proactive approach to monitoring and mitigating risks tied to how devices interact with sensitive business data. This includes understanding exposure from endpoints like BYOD, personal, and contractor devices, maintaining secure configurations such as disk encryption and OS updates, and enforcing compliance with both internal policies and external regulatory requirements.

Additionally, companies must be able to manage the risks introduced by third-party vendors and ensure business continuity by having clear, auditable controls over device access across the entire IT environment.

And yet, device-level enforcement is often the most overlooked layer in security and compliance programs.

The blind spots of traditional device management

Most organizations still rely on traditional device management systems, which fall short under modern conditions. These systems often:

• Miss BYOD and contractor devices entirely;
• Cannot assess device security posture in real time;
• Rely on static controls rather than continuous enforcement;
• Generate incomplete or outdated logs for audits.

This creates coverage gaps that auditors and regulators will be looking for, especially across distributed teams and third-party access points.

How XFA helps with DORA and NIS2 compliance

XFA gives your team everything needed to meet modern compliance expectations—without requiring invasive control or full MDM rollout.

• Full-fleet device discovery: Know exactly which devices are accessing company resources, including unmanaged and third-party devices.
• Real-time posture checks: Continuously verify OS version, encryption status, browser configuration, screen lock, and more.
• Policy-based access control: Block access from non-compliant devices at the login layer — before risk reaches your business applications.
• Audit-ready evidence: Automate real-time export of device compliance data, ready for DORA, NIS2, SOC 2, or ISO 27001 reporting.

Whether you're preparing for financial sector resilience audits (DORA) or demonstrating cybersecurity maturity for infrastructure or digital services (NIS2), XFA gives you the real-world control and visibility to back it up.

Ready to prove compliance without MDM? Book a demo now to see how XFA fits into your security and compliance strategy.