From left: Michael O’Hara, managing director, with David Keating, security specialist, DataSolutions. Image: Comit
New DataSolutions survey reveals what’s on Irish IT decision-makers’ minds when it comes to GDPR.
The survey, carried out on behalf of DataSolutions by TechPro magazine, revealed that nearly a quarter of Irish organisations would have to cease trading if they were found to be liable to fines under the impending GPDR legislation. As well as this, a further 10pc of respondents said that layoffs would have to happen in order to continue trading after being fined.
The upcoming deadline of 25 May 2018 is a hot-button issue for entire businesses, not just their respective IT departments, and this survey takes a pretty good temperature of the current Irish attitude.
With fines for non-compliant companies as large as €20m, or 4pc of global turnover (whichever is larger), GDPR will certainly affect Irish companies in a myriad of ways. Despite the warnings about financial penalties, 20pc of organisations surveyed said that GDPR was not presently a priority task.
34pc of Irish organisations said they have a specific annual budget allocated to address regulatory changes that will come about as a result of GDPR. Cybersecurity spend in general is set to jump, with nearly all respondents (93pc) set to spend more on the area than they did in 2016.
DataSolutions advice
There is a simple thing that more companies could be implementing at this stage, according to DataSolutions – two-factor authentication.
Just 33pc of Irish IT decision-makers surveyed said that their organisations had adopted this extra security measure. Those who do make use of it see it deployed mostly as a way for employees to access their corporate VPN outside of the office.
Security specialist at DataSolutions, David Keating, commented on the insights the survey unveiled: “The results of this year’s survey outline how the changing information security environment is having a direct effect on Irish organisations.”
Keating also extolled the virtues of two-factor authentication as a relatively simple but effective step on the way to GDPR compliance. “As well as this, simple enhancements, such as implementing two-factor authentication, can dramatically improve an organisation’s information security standing. It’s time for organisations to realise that cyber-criminals are incredibly sophisticated, and to do everything they can to stay one step ahead.”
More findings from the DataSolutions survey will be discussed at its Secure Computing Forum on Thursday 21 September 2017 at the Aviva Stadium, Dublin.
