Europe plans new data breach rules

Cath Everett explores the implications of tougher data breach rules proposed by the European Commission
 
The European Union is planning to make it mandatory for all businesses to notify customers should the security of their personal information be breached.

The proposal is part of an overhaul of EU data protection legislation that was first introduced in 1995. At the recent data protection and privacy conference hosted by the British Banking Association in London, European justice commissioner Viviane Reding said, “I intend to introduce a mandatory requirement to notify data security breaches – the same as I did for telecoms and internet access when I was Telecoms Commissioner, but this time for all sectors, including banking and financial services.”

Recent high profile security breaches and hacker attacks at Sony and Sega have turned data protection into a political issue. The philosophy behind the proposed reforms to the directives that govern this area was to create a stronger incentive for businesses to undertake risk assessments and put in place measures to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of personal data.

Reding also wanted to protect personal data in the Cloud, even though it was widely claimed that such regulation was impossible.
 
“I am considering the inclusion of the ‘accountability principle’ in my reform so that data of citizens exported to third countries is always exported with their rights attached,” she said.

This article is based on a report that was originally published by MyCustomer.com.

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