Many businesses are concerned about the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The main worry is whether or not they are in compliance with it. Another compliance rule to pay attention to is the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
Maintaining data compliance is not unfamiliar to cyber security personnel. Security and compliance are two sides of the same coin. The approach to the two is similar yet slightly different.
Here are 3 steps that can help you stay within the confines of GDPR compliance.
1. Find a Professional to Get the Job Done
It’s one thing to tackle data privacy compliance on your own. It is an entirely different venture when you factor in risk assessment and legal aspects. Your best bet is to collaborate with experts in the collation and implementation of Personally Identifiable Information (PII).
You will also require support from attorneys well-informed on privacy laws specifically GDPR and CCPA. These lawyers should be adept at interpreting these data compliance laws in the context of your enterprise operations.
2. Understand the Impact of Regulations on Your Business
You must begin by checking if GDPR or CCPA apply to your business in the first place. Whether or not EU regulations can reach into the U.S is still debatable, the California attorney general holds the authority to oversee transactions pertaining to California natives. CCPA dictates that collection PII from California residents falls within its purview.
This makes us consider if PII is valuable enough to offset the cost of compliance. If it isn’t so, then the quickest route to compliance may be cutting off some of your PII. Companies tend to stockpile such information under the pretext of value. Closely weighing out the benefits of PII retention is advisable.
3. Consider the Well-Established Route
You can find frameworks for security as well as privacy. You might have a security framework, possibly the ISO 27001 or maybe the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework. Documents like these can give you exceptional security programs that lay the foundation for fortified privacy programs. Data privacy is a part of security, this does not mean that everything is fully protected.
Worry not, there exists a framework for this as well. NIST launched its very own privacy framework that caters a guide map for evaluating privacy controls. It does not service a specific regulation but can run extensive diagnostics on the state of your extant controls. You can draw the connection between the results and GDPR or CCPA.
4. Explore Digital Solutions
One of the main challenges with ensuring compliance is the difficulty of managing highly fragmented sensitive information that is stored in SAP and other similar systems. This data can be siloed and spread out across different branches and geographies. This compounds the challenge of data compliance. Especially since data compliance efforts have traditionally been manual efforts that are inefficient and inaccurate. There are many digital solutions available geared towards automating and simplifying data compliance efforts. Data compliance can be easier than you think with such a solution, particularly if it integrates easily with your existing tech eco-system.
If you’d like to explore enhancing GDPR compliance for your organization, ComplyD would be glad to help. Leverage our SAP-native data discovery and compliance enablement tool. Enjoy comprehensive visibility through a user-friendly, unified dashboard with analytics. You’ll be able to take pro-actively take steps to meet any compliance regulations for ANY industry or geography. Our scientific, robust DASH approach discovers vulnerabilities and secures and hardens your perimeter to meet compliance regulations and avoid regulations. If you’d like a taste of compliance simplified for your entire enterprise, please request a demo.
