GDPR WTF?

What in the name of GDPR….

As an introduction, my name is Andy G, I am GM of a secure ISO27001 data centre in the UK and wanted to put some words to the concerns my customers have raised around GDPR implementation.

If your read the papers or watch the news of late you would be forgiven for thinking UK businesses seem not to take securing their data seriously. Every week another household name pops up as having had their data and information breached.

In the coming weeks GDPR will be brought into force, this is designed to ensure businesses take appropriate measures to add accountability of the information they hold. Any personally identifiable information is included within this regulation. Many smaller businesses will not realise they too are expected to comply and enforce the regulation as a business practise with breach and failure to follow the protocols resulting in heavy fines.

To prepare and forearm, there are a number of baseline policies to deploy across your business, you need to have clear and defined information asset register. Ask you yourself what information do we hold? think Names, Addresses, Dates of Birth, payment details, internal records on a client and any information written or digitally stored that identifies a person, client or staff member employed by you. In what format is this data and where is it held?

It is expected within the GDPR guidelines that you will have to store some information to conduct your day to day business operations for invoicing, payroll and CRM usage. Under the GDPR rules an individual has the right to request a copy of the information you as a business hold on them. Responses to these requests need to be planed, a timescale and procedure document needs to be created to comply with such requests.

The best advice to make sure your business is not faced with a fine is to ensure security of information is taken seriously. East Midlands’s businesses benefit from a wealth of local IT companies on their door step. From IT consultants offering virtual IT director and project management to Secure Data Centres like Space Data, offering secure server infrastructure and protection of your information and business IT systems.

Security is the key as preparation should be a prerequisite. GDPR is a headache for some but a benefit for all, it means both mine, and your data should be being held securely and the businesses that hold it are now accountable for it.