“75,000 Data Protection Officers will be required worldwide” under GDPR, says IAPP.

Data Proection Officer consulting reviewing compliance of data transfers

A hiring boom of up to 75,000 DPOs (Data Protection Officers) is expected in the run up to May 2018, when the EU’s new GDPR takes effect, according to a survey published by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP).

 

The DPO role currently enjoys a modest footprint amongst European employers, and is almost unknown beyond Europe’s borders, but under the new regulations all European organisations except for SME’s will be obliged to appoint a DPO.

 

The GDPR clearly prescribes a number of rights and obligations attached to the DPO role, together with certain independent protections in terms of job security, an obligation to “cooperate with the supervisory authorities”, and a mandate that the jobholder must report “to the highest” level of the organisation. As such it is seen to represent a significant upgrade for the typical Compliance Officer role in terms of scope of responsibility.

 

The IAPP survey found that 40% of respondents planned to make their current lead privacy professional their DPO, while another 50% stated they planned to either appoint a new jobholder or train someone from elsewhere in the organisation.

 

The new regulation applies not only to the EU member states, but also to any country involved in the handling of EU citizens’ data. The issue of cross-border data transfers receives special attention in the text of GDPR, and is expected to spark widespread reviews of data processing contracts with non-EU based IT service providers.

 

Guidance published by the EU regarding the adequacy of 3rd party data processors based outside Europe points to a clear non-compliance with GDPR, unless the 3rd party supplier can clearly demonstrate a data protection regime of a similar adequacy to GDPR. Under the terms of the regulation, EU-based business are liable for ensuring such suppliers are compliant, or face sanction themselves, with fines up to 20m or 4% of global turnover for breaches.

 

Source : https://thestack.com/security/2016/11/10/eu-law-will-require-75000-data-protection-officers-by-2018/

the challenge - wizuda case studies

The board of a multinational medical device organisation required a secure, cloud-based solution which facilitated virtual board member collaboration on key documents in preparation for monthly board meetings.

The documentation was regularly of a highly commercially sensitive nature, largely relating to ongoing clinical trials, and as such demanded a secure and encrypted platform which could be implemented without the engagement of internal IT resources.

Key challenges that need to be  considered:

  • Geographically dispersed stakeholders
  • Highly commercially sensitive documentation
  • No internal IT involvement
  • Multiple stakeholders required to collaborate on
    single documents
the solution- wizuda case studies

Wizuda MFT gave them a centralised view of all their file transfer activities and a network overview of the data flows. IT now had instantly available reporting and could provide geographic maps and network overviews to senior management of all file transfer activities in the organisation. These could also be categorised in ways that made sense for the business from a priorities perspective. Wizuda’s unique ‘Health Check’ dashboard with automated monitoring and alerts, allowed them to manage all transfer operations proactively and ensured they were always on top of any issues.

From a GDPR compliance perspective, transfers could be linked to Data Protection Impact Assessments were required and data could be anonymised as part of the transfer process. Wizuda MFT enabled them to apply the latest security protocols for file transfers and encrypt data at rest and in transit. Passing cyber-security and GDPR compliance audits became a lot easier.

About Wizuda

Developing IT Solutions to Make Businesses Better

At Wizuda we focus on developing IT solutions which help businesses grow and empower people to collaborate and stay connected securely and compliantly. Specialists in secure data transfer since 2001, all development and support operations are carried out from our two Irish 

offices located in Dublin (Wizuda Headquarters) and Limerick. We pride ourselves in developing software solutions that allow organisations to take back control of their file transfer and data sharing operations, enabling them to operate efficiently, securely and compliantly

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