Amendments to EU Data Protection Laws Start Leading to Changes

SAN FRANCISCO — RSA CONFERENCE 2012 — Tufin Technologies, a company that offers solutions for automated security policy management and risk mitigation, released the results of a quick survey this week, after speaking to 100 network managers on the topic of recently announced updates to the EU’s Data Protection legislation.

Tufin polled the network managers in response to the January 2012 announcement by European Commissioner for Justice that outlined plans to enhance data protection rights for individuals across Europe, and increase the responsibility and accountability of organizations handling records containing the information of EU citizens. If adopted, the new legislation would apply to all organizations that do business in Europe.

The draft guidelines reflect a growing concern about the way in which personal details are captured, handled and stored in today’s highly complex information age. Proposed changes include severe fines of up to 2% of revenues for privacy violations and a requirement that, under certain circumstances, organizations report privacy breaches to authorities and affected individuals within 24 hours of the breach being noticed

With that said, forty-two percent of the 100 network security managers sampled by Tufin said the proposed changes led to increased risk awareness within their organization; 34% stated that their attitude towards Continuous Compliance had changed as a result, and 54% believe that automating audits would reduce the organization’s risk of violating the law.

Feedback from survey respondents was just as interesting as the statistical data: one IT security professional said that good company security standards would assist in this regard, while another professional favored a strict compliance strategy, with “data security awareness program across the organizations – and online monitoring of compliance checks – helping in reducing the risk of fines due to non-compliance.”