Table of Contents
In Short
- What is a data breach? A personal data breach is a security incident causing accidental or unlawful access, loss, or disclosure of personal data.
- Risks for businesses: Breaches can lead to legal fines, reputational damage, and customer trust loss.
- Prevention tips: Use strong security measures, train staff, and have a robust breach response plan in place.
Tips for Businesses
Preventing data breaches requires proactive measures such as encrypting data, using multi-factor authentication, and conducting regular staff training. If a breach occurs, act swiftly to contain the issue and notify the ICO within 72 hours if required. Clear processes and legal advice can help you navigate compliance and minimise risks.
Data breaches are more common than many businesses realise and can happen anytime. However, their consequences can be severe. A tiny slip-up (whether human error or an unexpected cyberattack) can expose sensitive personal data and land your business in big legal trouble, disrupt your operations, damage your reputation, and cost you a lot of money. For businesses processing personal data, you must understand your legal obligations and take proactive action to prevent and manage breaches effectively. This article explores the legal framework and the risks of a personal data breach, as well as how your business can adopt mitigation strategies to help prevent risk.
What Can Go Wrong For Your Business Following a Data Breach?
The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GD) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018) are key data protection laws in the UK. These laws govern the use of personal data and set out obligations for businesses regarding handling personal information.
A personal data breach is a security incident that results in the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, or unauthorised disclosure of or access to personal data. Such incidents can result from both accidental and deliberate causes. Breaches can occur due to various incidents, such as hacking, sending personal data to the wrong recipient, or losing or having devices stolen.
Personal data breaches can have consequences. The impact of the relevant breach can vary depending on the nature and sensitivity of the personal data affected. Some breaches cause minor inconvenience, while others significantly harm individuals. For example, people could expose sensitive information about individuals, causing great distress. They could also reveal financial details, leading to significant economic problems such as identity theft and fraud.
Example
Let us explore a practical example. Imagine your business processes personal data about hundreds of customers as a data controller. One day, a significant data breach occurs (exposing sensitive customer data, including financial and contact details) due to a phishing attack. Your business fails to report the breach to the ICO within strict legal timeframes of 72 hours of becoming aware and delays telling affected individuals, despite the high risk to their rights and freedoms.
As such, it is vital to take immediate steps to recover from personal data breaches and avoid them in the first place.
Which Mitigation Strategies Can Business Owners Implement to Prevent Breaches?
Taking active steps to prevent data breaches is vital to helping your business avoid the range of legal and financial consequences that could result. Your business can take a range of proactive measures to reduce risks, and (should you require it) legal advice can help you implement these preventative strategies.
This factsheet sets out how your business can become GDPR compliant.
Here are some key mitigation steps you can take to help reduce the risk of data breaches occurring and help you handle them effectively:
Put In Place Security Measures to Prevent Data Breaches
Have you considered the hidden costs of a data breach? Breaches can result in unexpected financial burdens, including increased insurance premiums, remediation efforts, and reputational damage.
For example, how would your business handle the fallout of prolonged system downtime after a ransomware attack? Can you afford to pay cyber crime teams to investigate a breach and its potential damage? Practical strategies such as cyber insurance, third-party security assessments, and incident response testing can help your business mitigate potential data breach risks.
Putting effective security measures in place is key to helping prevent the risk of data breaches and complying with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. Examples could include:
- encrypting personal data to keep it secure during storage and transmission;
- using multi-factor authentication to protect access to systems;
- keeping software up to date with the latest security patches;
- testing systems regularly to identify and fix vulnerabilities; and
- limiting access to personal data so only authorised staff can use it.
Create a Robust Breach Response Plan
Your business can develop and implement a robust data breach response plan. This plan should detail clear steps for detecting, containing, and addressing breaches. It will also help ensure your business responds to the violation per UK GDPR rules.
Train Your Staff and Build Awareness
Human error often causes data breaches. Your business can deliver tailored training to educate your team about their data protection responsibilities, identify potential risks, and prevent avoidable mistakes which can result in data breaches.
Regular training sessions ensure employees understand what constitutes a data breach and know how to respond effectively. This is vital – as any staff member could accidentally cause or be exposed to a data breach, which requires appropriate escalation and urgent action.
Seek Legal Advice for Prevention and Compliance
Legal advice can help your business understand what a data breach means in practice and your reporting obligations. This can be vital to ensure you know the extent of your compliance obligations and respond appropriately.
For example, if you are unsure whether a data breach has occurred or whether you need to report it, you can call your data protection lawyer for guidance.
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What If You Are a Data Processor?
If you are a data processor and detect a personal data breach, you must inform the relevant data controller whose data has been compromised. This prompt notification ensures the controller assesses the violation, decides on necessary actions, and meets its obligations, including reporting to the ICO or notifying affected individuals.
The timeframe for notifying the controller should align with your contractual obligations. If no specific timeframe exists, the UK GDPR requires you to inform the controller immediately. However, many controllers will impose more stringent reporting timeframes within their contractual arrangements. Therefore, you should ensure you have robust internal procedures for detecting and reporting breaches to comply with the UK GDPR and meet your contractual obligations.
Key Takeaways
Data breaches can cause severe legal, financial, and reputational damage. To prevent risk, you can take proactive steps to protect your business by implementing strong data protection measures and seeking legal advice.
If you need advice on preventing or handling a data breach, LegalVision’s experienced data, privacy, and IT lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents. Call us today on 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Your business can invest in staff training, develop a clear breach response plan, and regularly review your systems to identify and address vulnerabilities.
Your business must notify the ICO within 72 hours of becoming aware of a breach likely to threaten individuals’ rights and freedoms.
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