UK Data Protection Bill builds on GDPR

Under the UK Data Protection Bill, a serious data breach could carry a criminal conviction for directors.

The General Data Protection Regulation affects all businesses operating in the EU. However, the GDPR does provide each member state with some limited provision for how it applies in their country. UK Data Protection Bill is the part of the UK's implementation of GDPR and therefore the two should be used together.

Criminal conviction for directors

The GDPR already carries some heavy fines for data breaches but the UK are proposing further penalties. "Even though GDPR does not carry a criminal conviction for directors in the event of a serious data breach, it seems that the UK Data Protection Bill does go that step further. The case can be tried in criminal court and be added to the director's criminal record," explains Rebecca Moran, director of ReMo Information Security.

Encrypted data loss does not need to be reported

The loss of a laptop, hard drive or any medium that contains person information would normally have to be reported under the new General Data Protection Regulation. However, if the device has been properly encrypted, the data cannot be accessed and therefore it is not a breach and does not need to be reported.

"We recommend all mobile devices, such as laptops or portable hard drives, are encrypted. Not only should this be part of your GDPR-compliant data security policies, but it also provides peace of mind and prevents malicious use of your company data," says Chris Joberns, managing director at Strident. More information on the 9 Critical Data Security Issues can be found on our GDPR web site.

Microsoft offers help on GDPR compliance

Microsoft is committed to being GDPR compliant across all its cloud services and is building features and capabilities into its products to assist customers with their own GDPR compliance requirements. However, it should be noted that its advanced discovery, search and file auditing only works across data held online at Office 365 not on local servers.

You can discover how on Office 365 features, such as Advanced data governance, Data loss prevention, Advanced threat protection and Customer lockbox can help you become compliant by visiting resources.office.com/ww-landing-GDPR-comply-infographic.html