There are many reasons that businesses and their IT teams may weigh up the option to backup and protect data with an inhouse solutions versus outsourcing data backup.
Continue readingThe General Data Protection Regulation, is a piece of legislation that was approved and put in place by the European Parliament in April 2016. As European Law, it will fully take effect after a 2-year transition ending May 25th, 2018; it will impact not only the UK and the member states of the EU but countries that are trading with the EU.
As a result, there are questions that require answering; namely how do you comply and when can you transfer data?
Personal data may only be transferred outside of the EU in compliance with the conditions for transfer. A transfer of personal data to a third country or an international organisation may take place where the Commission has decided that the third country, a territory or one or more specified sectors within that third country, or the international organisation in question, ensures an adequate level of protection.
You may transfer personal data where the organisation receiving the personal data has provided adequate safeguards. Individuals’ rights must be enforceable and effective legal remedies for individuals must be available following the transfer. Adequate safeguards may be provided for by:
In compliance with GDPR, organisations must ensure measures have been taken to minimise risk and the chance of data breach. These processes and policies will also ensure organisations are accountable and can be governed; part of the ICO guidelines on GDPR reads, organisations must “implement appropriate technical and organisational measures that ensure and demonstrate compliance”.
If firms do not comply with the regulations that are put forward by GDPR, they can be subject to hefty fines. Both the data controller and the data processor will be subject to fines, with the regulatory bodies of each country working in tandem to establish the appropriate measures to take. For the UK, the ICO will be funded by the fines that they administer – meaning they will have a vested interest in ensuring that fines are as large as possible. Furthermore, companies of all sizes will be subject to punishment for non-compliance. Recently, the Spanish authorities fined Facebook for having inadequate data sharing policies, the fine totalled to 1.2 million euros. Facebook was found guilty of ‘not adequately collecting the consent of either their users or non-users’
GDPR operates in a similar vein to the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI) altering the scope of data protection, management and governance in South Africa.
POPI, simply put, is legislation that protects a person’s right to privacy and the measures that must safeguard their personal information when it is processed by a responsible party. The eight principles governing the protection of personal information – during its processing and use – against loss, damage and its unlawful or unauthorised access, processing and destruction. The principles are summarised as the following:
There are many reasons that businesses and their IT teams may weigh up the option to backup and protect data with an inhouse solutions versus outsourcing data backup.
Continue readingCyber-criminals are increasingly viewing education institutions as easy prey. No surprise then that the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) recently warned of a spike in the targeting of schools, universities and colleges.
Continue readingThe majority of Google services went down yesterday, leading to widespread disruption all around the world. Users were left waiting for almost an hour before hearing they could regain access.
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