Online Security and Data Protection

For those of you interested in Data Protection and online security following the breakdown and invalidation of the safe harbour regulation governing online security and data protection between the EU and US since 2000. Within the European Union the 3 legislative bodies — EU parliament, EU commission and the EU council — have this Tuesday 15th December agreed on the final terms of the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Finalisation is scheduled early in 2016, such regulation will go into effect in 2018.

We suggest that those who are storing their data online should start implementing more flexible safe harbour compliant solutions as soon as feasibly possible to safeguard against any further regulations that is introduced and the possibility of fines against GRPD violations of up to 4% of annual revenue.

The new regulation will make some things easier and others a little more onerous on you. The new rules will ensure that the same regulations are enforced throughout the EU whether it is London, Dublin or Berlin. Secondly in order to use data you will now have to receive explicit consent from the counterparty before progressing: “The regulation returns control over citizens’ personal data to citizens. Companies will not be allowed to divulge information that they have received for a particular purpose without the permission of the person concerned. Consumers will have to give their explicit consent to the use of their data.” said Jan Phillip Albrecht, the lead of the Members of the European Parliament formulating this regulation.

What that means for Online Security and Data Protection?

This means that companies will now be required to inform their national regulator within three days of any reported data breach forcing you to react quickly, but also highlighting the need to receive all relevant data security information as soon as possible.

All things considered we would suggest that now is the time to work out where all your documents and data are being stored, where they are physically located, who has access to them, which jurisdiction are they under, and finally what if any mechanisms are there for encrypting, protecting or reporting on your data’s storage.

If you are interested in maintaining full control of your fully encrypted data why not host your own private cloud drive at bytehouse using our shared, cloud or dedicated server  owncloud hosting products.