Is your company in compliance with current data security regulations? For today’s businesses, it is crucial to stay up to date with data security mandates. Otherwise, a company that fails to comply with these mandates risks regulatory penalties, brand reputation damage, revenue loss and customer turnover, among other issues.
Data Security Mandates: Here’s What You Need to Know
In 2018, the European Union (EU) enacted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to safeguard EU residents against privacy and data breaches.
GDPR requires businesses to notify the public about a data breach within 72 hours of first becoming aware of the incident. It applies to both data controllers and processors, as well as public, private and hybrid clouds. Failure to comply with GDPR may result in fines up to 4% of a company’s annual global revenue or €20 million (approximately $26.8 million) – whichever total is greater.
In the United States, the Data Security and Breach Notification Act was introduced in 2017. It would require businesses to implement “reasonable security policies and procedures to protect data containing personal information, and to provide for nationwide notice in the event of a breach of security.”
Also, the Data Security and Breach Notification Act would require businesses to notify various agencies in the event of a breach, including:
- S. Secret Service
- Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
- Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
- S. Postal Inspection Service (mail fraud)
- Attorney General of affected states
Failure to comply with the Data Security and Breach Notification Act would result in a fine or imprisonment up to five years.
How to Stop a Data Security Breach
No organization is immune to a data breach, and the best way to stop a data security breach is to plan ahead for the worst-case scenarios. To do that, ask yourself this question: how can you keep your business partners, consumers/patients and service desk teams up to date when resolving a major data breach incident?
A business likely cannot prevent data breaches from happening. But a business can ensure its key stakeholders are notified as soon as a breach happens. A company can also keep its stakeholders up to date until a breach is fully addressed.
Ultimately, an alert monitoring system often drives unparalleled data breach notification. It offers workflows to manage escalations, and if a data breach occurs, the system can trigger notifications to people and systems at the same time. Plus, an alert tracking system enables a business to manage service-level agreements (SLAs) based on priority and service level. It even offers message rules and workflow engines that give a business the flexibility to configure and enhance its incident management based on its day-to-day activities and operations.
