Understanding General Data Protection Regulation Compliance

In April of 2016, the European Union Parliament and Council voted to replace Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC and enact an overreaching data security regulation named the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The law went into effect on May 25, 2018, and is the primary law regulating how businesses protect EU citizens’ personal data. Companies that needed to comply with the old security directive were required to meet the new standards set by the GDPR by this date, or they would face stiff fines and other penalties.

The GDPR was introduced to strengthen and unify data protection for all individuals within the European Union, while also addressing the transfer of personal data outside the EU. It applies to any organization, regardless of location, that processes the personal data of EU residents. This includes businesses that offer goods or services to EU citizens or monitor their behavior.

Under GDPR, individuals have enhanced rights, such as the right to access their data, request corrections, and demand deletion (the “right to be forgotten”). Organizations must obtain explicit consent before collecting personal data, ensure data is securely stored, and report any data breaches within 72 hours.

Non-compliance can result in significant fines—up to €20 million or 4% of the company’s global annual revenue, whichever is higher. As a result, GDPR has transformed how organizations worldwide approach data privacy and security, making it a crucial consideration for businesses dealing with personal information.

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About GDPR

The GDPR was created in response to the myriad of data security issues many businesses have had in the EU economic sector over the past several years. By making all of the EU member nations adhere to the same data protection standard, the hope is that this new mandate will be a baseline standard for companies who handle EU citizens’ data. Some of the key provisions of the law include requirements to:

What Businesses Need to Be Compliant?

This is where the law gets a little tricky. Every business that markets or sells goods and services within the confines of the European Union member states has to meet the GDPR regulation. As a result, the global implications of this law are substantial. For businesses that will need to be in compliance to continue doing business with EU citizens, the GDPR will likely have a significant impact on the way that your business uses its core information systems. The GDPR will be enforced by what are called “Supervising Authorities” (SAs). SAs will interpret “substantially affects” on a per-case basis since the context of data processing, the type of data, the purpose of processing and whether the processed data causes damage, loss, or distress to individuals; has an effect of limiting rights of certain groups or individuals; affects individual’s economic status or circumstances around their economic health; inflicts potential reputational damage; and many more qualifications. To ensure these qualifications are met, SAs will be looking for organizations to do many of the following:

Encrypt personal data.
Prevent unauthorized access to personal data (or equipment used in the processing of this data).
Prevent unauthorized access to the use of personal data (or the equipment used in the processing of this data).
Take part in independent assessment of equipment to evaluate the nature and potential severity of privacy risks.
Have the ability to recall and report personal data in a timely manner in the event of an incident.
Ensure continuous confidentiality and integrity of all equipment used in the processing of personal data.
Perform regular tests to assess the effectiveness of measures to ensure data security.

The GDPR is filled to the brim with language referencing security of computing infrastructure as a precursor to the actual security of the data held within these constructs. Before you can build a GDPR-compliant infrastructure, you must understand how your IT needs to be altered to do so.

What Are the Consequences if You Fail to Comply?

Since the law that the GDPR replaced was over twenty years old, the vast changes in computing, marketing, and sales coupled with the prevalence of threats to data security produced some stark changes in the way the GDPR punishes companies that are found to be in violation of this mandate. SAs have far more authority under the GDPR than under the old directive. They hold investigative and corrective authority, and will have a system to issue organizations warnings for non-compliance. They will also perform audits, dictate changes, impose deadlines for those corrections, order data to be forfeited or erased, and even be given the power to block companies from transferring data to any other jurisdictions until all compliance mandates are met.

The biggest role SAs will have is assessing fines for noncompliance; and, the fines are substantially larger than under the previous law. Fines will be determined based on the circumstances of each case, and if substantial evidence is there to find that an organization’s breach wasn’t of their own negligence, the SA may not impose a fine at all. The fines that are imposed may be up to two-to-four percent of total global turnover or up to 20 million euros, whichever is greater.

How SRS Networks Can Help

With the deadline to integrate the changes your organization needs to meet the standards of the GDPR, any business that sells products and services in European Union member nations has to begin to shift their priorities to ensure they are compliant with the new mandates. The best course of action is to read through the law here, and then call SRS Networks at (831) 758-3636 to see how our technology professionals can help you structure your network and data security policies to adhere to even the most stringent security mandates.