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Brigantia’s Product Marketing Manager Rob Hall discusses why GDPR is important amid the current COVID-19 crisis.
The ICO has recently released some guidance about how organisations should continue to abide by the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018) commonly referred to simply as GDPR (as it is the UK’s enactment of the General Data Protection Regulation). However, the ICO states that it does recognise that these are extraordinary times and as such, certain duties may take longer than would normally have been permitted.
The full text of the ICO’s statement can be found here: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-and-coronavirus/.
With reference to home working, the need for security is slightly underplayed as the ICO urges organisations to “…consider the same kinds of security measures for homeworking that you’d use in normal circumstances.” Whereas this does remind organisations that the onus is still upon them to ensure that data security remains functional, it does not suggest that additional measures may be required.
I am sure that for many businesses the sudden realisation that they had to shift most (if not all) of their office staff to working from home, came as quite a shock: one that they were not prepared for. This will have led to all kinds of vulnerabilities being opened as full risk assessments will not have been done given the enormity of the task and the timescale that it had to be achieved in. Now the dust has settled, closing these vulnerabilities must be moved to the top of the list, as organisations face new crises if the holes in security are found by cybercriminals before they are closed.
The core message is very clear from the ICO: GDPR is important in times like these as it is there to keep everyone safe (not to inconvenience them). If you follow the rules, you, your organisation and every other law-abiding entity will be better off.
Brigantia has tools and ready-built frameworks to assist Brigantia partners and their clients who are in any way worried about maintaining compliance during this incredibly difficult period. Please visit www.brigantia.com or call 020 3358 0090 for further information.
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