A number of high profile data breaches in several industries including education and yachting have started a debate on data security measures with many UK businesses still unprepared for data theft.
Verity Systems, Britain’s leading UK manufacturer and supplier of hard drive degaussers and destroyers has seen an uptick in demand for its data destruction machines and auditing tools as GDPR and new data laws lead to stricter enforcement, where businesses have been fined for improper data handling and security breaches.
Following the UK’s departure from the European Union, and the current transition period which continues until December, businesses need to continue their compliance with GDPR, which is set to be enshrined in UK data law after Britain formally leaves the EU’s custom union in December 2020.
The new powers given to the Ico have led to a number of fines being issued, and increased scrutiny of businesses and organisations that fail to adequately protect people’s records including address details, phone numbers and credit card numbers.
Part of the problem is in the disposal and upgrading of digital infrastructure. Due to older legacy systems being decommissioned by organisations from universities to the NHS, a risk of data exposure and retrieval remains when older hard drives and data is removed. Due to the risk of data being accessed from hard drives that are no longer in use, it has become important for organisations to degauss and destroy their old data – and implement a data security policy.
David Tucker, President of Verity Systems said, “In the current landscape, it is important for organisations to consider very carefully their data destruction methods, in particular, when upgrading infrastructure and disposing of older hard drives, and magnetic media.”
The issue of data removal is exasperated by the misinformation of software deletion as a go-to option for businesses. With software erasure, data still remains intact on older hard drives, and therefore can be recovered by criminals and state actors that can then sell the data and exploit it for financial gain or extortion.
With data security high on the agenda in trade negotiations and consumers being given more powers to seek compensation for data breaches, data security has to be carefully considered by businesses and organisations, big and small, as we enter a new era of cross-border, digital trade.
