The Data Protection Directive is a regulatory framework from the EU, aimed at protecting the privacy of personal information. You might be surprised to know that the regulations in the EU are far more structured and comprehensive than those across the pond in the US.
Now, this applies to everyone who holds data on EU citizens. It is for this reason that companies who are based in the US that handle EU data have to put extra measures in place in order to be compliant with this directive. Data security is just one element of the directive; compliance requirements mean that strong data encryption must be in place to make sure that personal records are kept in the strictest of confidence.
The Fines for breaching this directive are pretty steep, for a single breach you can be fined up to one hundred million euros, or 5% of your turnover annually – not to mention the very public notification you must give to any affected customers, which will most likely have a knock-on effect on future business too.
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Encryption is the greatest way to secure personal information
It has been widely acknowledged and accepted that encrypting data, is one of the best, if not the best way to secure this information. It makes any data completely incomprehensible to anyone who isn’t authorised to have access to the data and gives exceptional protection in the case of data loss, or a data breach.
An added benefit to a business that uses data encryption as part of its security strategy is a significant reduction in the likelihood of receiving any of the above-named penalties. If you can demonstrate, that the personal data was originally encrypted, then your chance of being fined in respect of a data breach are massively reduced. Additionally, you will also not be required to notify your customers who were affected by this breach as well – meaning your company’s reputation should also go unaffected, and you will be able to continue trading, without any significant or long lasting harm to your business standing.
Whatever type of business you are in, if you collect or store personal information about any EU citizen, there is no doubt that encrypting the data can significantly reduce the risk your business faces if a data breach or data loss occurs. SMiD provides the best solution for data encryption for the SMB, mitigating that risk and giving you complete peace of mind that your data is secured in the best way possible, with the least exposure for your company.