GDPR. Prevention is always better than cure

GDPR regulations are now in place and won’t be going away. Why it’s important to do everything you can to protect the network against infiltration and data theft.

Every business should be GDPR compliant by now, but in practice, we know that this is certainly not the case. And as we have already discussed in a previous blog about GDPR Compliance, it is not too late to get your house in order. Now is the time to act though. The grace period that we are now in, during which the authorities seem to be giving businesses a little more time to ensure they are compliant, will come to an end at some point.

Almost every business will have done much of the ground-work on target="_blank">GDPR. In doing that they will have also discovered other areas that needed to be addressed, such as their network security. Ahead of the original 25 May 2018 deadline, most of the publicity and advice on GDPR focused on the need to have policies and procedures in place that would ensure personal data is protected and that customers have opted-in to have their data stored and / or receive emails. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Data protection

Doing everything that you can reasonably be done to make sure that all data is protected is also an important part of GDPR compliance. To do this, organisations need to show that they have adequate and appropriate network security in place. This means making sure that your anti-virus and anti-malware software, intrusion detection and prevention, unified threat management, firewall, VPN and other security solutions are up-to-date and properly licensed, so you receive regular necessary updates.

Zyxel and its partners have been dealing with a rising number of enquiries about how to check whether security solutions are current and fully supported. In many cases, we find that customers are using a mix of older and newer solutions, some of which do need to be upgraded. On others, the support cover may have expired, and so needs reviewing.

If you are unsure if your network is secure and GDPR compliant, try our Security Audit.

We have a simple tool that you can use to do a Security Audit to assess the status of your security set up and see whether you need to upgrade. By using this and consulting with a trusted network security advisor on Zyxel technology, you can make sure that your network security is of a standard that protects your data and meet GDPR compliance requirements.

Greater GDPR risk

It is worth remembering that the risk of data loss is much greater if you take no action to prevent it. There is the possibility that a laptop or storage device will be inadvertently left on a train or a bus or stolen – and there are things you can do to minimise exposure, should this happen.

There is a much higher chance of data being compromised through malicious hacking of the network. This is why security solutions need to be kept up to date. If they are, you should never be in the position where you have to explain why you lost data and your security features are not up to standard. GDPR is now firmly in place and it is not going to go away. Preventing or at least minimising the risk of a hack is always going to be a better option and cheaper than fixing your network security after you’ve paid the fine, lost business critical data and lost your customers’ trust. If you are prepared, and ensure your network has up-to-date security features – you will not have a problem.

Speak to one of our Security Experts to find the right network security solution for you and your business. Contact an expert.