Data Protection

The EU GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) requires certain organisations to appoint a DPO (data protection officer) to help them comply with the Regulation. However, a shortage of DPOs means many organisations are appointing staff to act as DPOs without the proper level of expertise, experience or qualifications. The GDPR…

Earlier this year, NHS Digital confirmed that it was extending the 2020/2021 compliance deadline for DSP (Data Security and Protection) Toolkit until 30 September in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. If you’re not already compliant, it’s not too late. In this blog, we explain what you need to do and…

Organisations have had to get a lot more serious about data processing and information security since the EU GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) came into effect earlier this year. For many, that has included the mandatory appointment of a DPO (data protection officer) to ensure key requirements of the Regulation…

Data loss refers to the destruction of sensitive information. It’s a specific type of data breach, falling into the ‘availability’ category of data security (the other two categories being ‘confidentiality’ and ‘integrity’). Data can be lost in several ways – occurring either accidentally or maliciously – and will cause numerous…

An organisation’s ability to respond promptly to security incidents has a huge impact on the costs it incurs. According to Ponemon Institute’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2020, organisations that are able to detect and respond to an incident within 200 days save about $1 million (about £770,000) on…

The concept of data controllers and data processors has been around for years, but the roles come with clearly defined responsibilities under the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). In this blog, we take a close look at what a data controller and processor does and how they fit into your…

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts have warned that the switch to remote working would negatively affect organisations’ ability to detect and contain security incidents. Of course, many employers didn’t have a choice. Government guidelines in the UK and many other parts of the world urged people to…

England’s coronavirus lockdown will all but end on 4 July, with the government allowing pubs, restaurants, cinemas, museums and hotels to reopen. The decision comes after steady progress in mitigating the spread of COVID-19 and the partial reopening of other sectors over the previous six weeks. But it doesn’t exactly…

Contrary to what you might have heard, cyber criminals pose a much bigger threat to organisations than employees. This is the stand-out finding in Verizon’s 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report, debunking speculation that internal actors should now be organisations’ top priority. The confusion perhaps stems from the fact that incidents…

The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) gives individuals more control over how their personal data is used. If your organisation processes personal data, the Regulation requires you to provide data subjects with certain information. This typically takes the form of a data privacy statement or privacy notice. But what is a data privacy…