The information landscape has changed significantly since the European Union (EU) introduced its Data Protection Directive in 1995 aimed at protecting the privacy of EU citizens. The amount, sources and types of data that are collected and used by organisations today has exponentially grown, together with the value organisations can gain from this data.
With the growth of the ‘always on’ culture, driven by the ever-expanding capabilities of mobile devices and the increase in the digital transformation of services, a wide range of identifiable and behavioural data is now collected and processed by organisations every time we interact online. At the same time, how and where organisations process this data has moved from inside the traditional IT perimeter and server rooms into hybrid and cloud environments in data centres across the globe. How organisations process this data has also changed now that data privacy is threatened.
Respondents of Bomgar’s 2017 Secure Access Threat Report found that 57% of employees send files to personal email accounts, 55% download data onto an external memory stick or drive and 53% have employees that log on to company networks over unsecured WiFi.
This proliferation in how and where data is gathered, processed and stored, plus its ever-increasing value, has led the EU Commission to update its regulations to better protect the privacy of its citizens and to standardise data protection laws across the EU.
With the fast-approaching enforcement of GDPR going into effect 25 May 2018, organisations need to be prepared to meet the new standards to maintain data privacy.
Our solutions have always focused on security at the heart of their design. This ensures that every remote access connection made by our customers—whether a privileged user connecting to a critical system or device or a help desk connecting to an end-user’s system—is secure, protecting critical systems and data and helping organisations meet the GDPR requirements.
So how can your organisation comply with these new requirements? Here’s a good place to start:
- Identify What Data You Hold – Obtain a full picture of all relevant data in order to implement necessary changes to ensure they are compliant.
- Review Employee Training – GDPR will require organisations to be able to provide evidence of their compliance, making training a critical component.
- Consider Your Supply Chain – Determine who else has access to your data in addition to your employees.
- Control and Monitor All Access to Your Data – Ensure that personal data is not made accessible to those who do not need it, and manage what people who have authorized access can and can’t do with the data.
How Bomgar can help your organisation meet GDPR requirements
Our Secure Access solutions enable businesses to control, monitor and manage access to critical systems and data, which ensuring that people remain productive and are not impeded in their day to day job tasks. We allow users to access systems quickly and securely, while defending access credentials, and protecting endpoints from threats. Implement a true “security by design” methodology with Bomgar.
For more details about who GDPR applies to, and how our solutions can help you meet the new regulations, watch this on-demand webinar for more insight!
Karl Lankford, Director, Solutions Engineering
Karl Lankford is the Director, Solutions Engineering, for BeyondTrust and has worked at BeyondTrust for 4 years. He has acquired a wide-range of security experience and knowledge working with companies during the last 10 years across multiple industries and is a regular speaker at industry conferences.