Even though GDPR is right around the corner, it makes a lot of sense - practically and financially - to maintain your traditional information security measures, because compliance with the Data Protection Regulation both can and should build upon your existing security measures.

Our new white paper, GDPR - Handling Personal Data Security Breaches in Three Phases, considers the formal requirements for handling a personal data security breach in accordance with GDPR and sets out guidelines for the preparation and anchoring of appropriate contingency measures.

Due both to an eagerness to do things correctly and a fear of doing things wrong, many companies prepare far more records of their processing activities than necessary. Our expert explains how you can group together your processing activities and save yourself many hours of (wasted) work.

Picture this: it’s the end of May and you’ve managed to fulfil the criteria of the EU Data Protection Regulation - you’ve achieved GDPR compliance. But how do you make sure you stay compliant in the future?

No doubt the GDPR implementation project was big and required a team effort. There might even have been extra resources allocated, as everyone realised the importance of getting this right. But now that the deadline has passed, and the goal has been met, your co-workers need to get back to their day-to-day assignments. So how do you successfully maintain continuous GDPR compliance with half the people, and maybe even half the resources?

- Guidance and good advice for carrying out a DPIA

For some organisations, the DPIA is high on the list of GDPR related assignments that need to be sorted. But for many, the DPIA can actually wait – or at least be simplified so that it doesn’t require so many resources. Our Director explains when and how you should carry out a DPIA.

The EU Data Protection Regulation states that you must train your employees in handling - and securing - personal data. However, it doesn't say anything about how you should train your employees in handling personal data.

"That part is open to interpretation, so you have to get creative," says Lone Forland, our product specialist who also works with information security campaigns.

The EU Data Protection Regulation is a good example of just how important it is to define a challenge before you start trying to solve it.

Essentially, GDPR is about organisations protecting their personal data. However, before you can figure out how your organisation protects its personal data, you need to know why the organisation has this data to begin with. Understanding the reason is basically a pre-requisite for taking any action.

- Registering your data processing activities is enough.

Are you busy preparing for the GDPR, but getting stuck carrying out a dataflow analysis? Then you need to read this: When it comes to complying with the GDPR, a comprehensive and detailed dataflow analysis is not necessary or mandatory!

It is uncertain where the speculation started, but at some point, people started talking about the necessity of performing lengthy dataflow analyses to be compliant with the GPDR. 

Likely, this resulted from an embellishment of the regulation requirements, and somehow it seems to have stuck around. The fact is - the Data Protection Regulation does not explicitly mention nor require you to carry out a dataflow analysis! It does however state that you need to “maintain a record” of your relevant “processing activities”. One could argue semantics here, but it is easy to see where exaggerations and embellishments can be easily introduced. 

The EU data protection regulation is about getting those who process personal data used to the right processes. However, when it comes to compliance, the GDPR is very much about getting used to doing what is necessary. No more, no less.

We have identified three areas in which you can save time, money, and worrying: