UK’s Data Protection Act Gets Teeth – UK Information Commissioner’s Office Gets Authority To Levy £500,000 Penalties For Personal Data Security Breaches
Keith Crosley, 14/01/2010, posted in "Analysis"
Keith Crosley directs corporate communications for Proofpoint. Keith’s job entails the promotion of Proofpoint e-mail security solutions to press, analysts and the enterprise e-mail security market at large. His ...more info
Keith Crosley directs corporate communications for Proofpoint. Keith’s job entails the promotion of Proofpoint e-mail security solutions to press, analysts and the enterprise e-mail security market at large. His blog covers a wide variety of e-mail security topics including anti-spam, phishing, identity theft, data breaches and the policy, culture and technology issues that surround e-mail. Previous positions have included director, corporate communications at Elance, senior director, worldwide public relations at BroadVision and director of marketing at WiredPlanet.com. As a key spokesperson for Proofpoint and e-mail security evangelist/researcher, he takes part in television and radio appearances. Avocationally and semi-professionally, he is a filmmaker, musician and all-round multimedia enthusiast. ...less info
Dan Raywood at SC Magazine (UK) reports today that the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office has been given the authority to levy fines for serious violations of the UK’s Data Protection Act. As noted in the article:
As revealed by SC Magazine last year, there are plans to increase the punishing powers of the ICO and an announcement revealed that it will be able to order organisations to pay up to £500,000 as a penalty for serious breaches of the Data Protection Act.
The ICO has produced statutory guidance about how it proposes to use this new power, which has been approved by the Secretary of State for Justice, and was laid before Parliament yesterday.
Information Commissioner Christopher Graham said: “Getting data protection right has never been more important than it is today. As citizens, we are increasingly asked to complete transactions online, with the state, banks and other organisations using huge databases to store our personal details.”
You can read full coverage over at SC Magazine UK here:
This new authority is part of a general trend these days for stepped up enforcement of data protection regulations worldwide (as just one example, see the enhancements enacted in the US to improve enforcement of HIPAA’s healthcare privacy provisions).
I expect this legislation will increase interest in data loss prevention and encryption solutions among large enterprises in the UK. At Proofpoint, we’ve been responding to these trends by introducing solutions such as Proofpoint Encryption and by bundling that email encryption technology with our Proofpoint ENTERPRISE Privacy solution, making it more affordable for large organizations to protect sensitive content in email across the entire organization.
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