Sweden is facing a considerable clean-up after a national data breach this week. Adequate safeguards were not adopted and as a result the subsequent scandal could throw the government into turmoil.
Iain Chidgey, VP and General Manager International at Delphix commented below on the gravity of this data breach and the importance of compliance as we move towards GDPR.
Iain Chidgey, VP and General Manager International at Delphix:
“The gravity of Sweden’s national data breach continues to be felt. Senior politicians are already paying for the recently-revealed data security failure with their jobs.
The incident illustrates the real-world impact that poor data oversight can have today. Be it unknown subcontractors having access to an organisation’s data. Or data being stored unmasked, making it highly valuable to hackers. Not to mention the fallout from negative press when a failure is uncovered.
As we get closer to GDPR coming into force, we are going to see more examples of historical data breaches coming to light. Organisations will be looking to ‘clear the decks’ now for anything that could come back to haunt them financially after the legislation comes into effect.
However, preparation for GDPR needs more than just confessing past sins before tougher legislation can punish you. It also requires companies to get control of their data sources – in particular copies of data used for testing, reporting or any other requirement. These are often the most overlooked but at greater risk of loss, theft or abuse if it’s forgotten about and stored in an unmasked and unencrypted fashion.”
