Data Compliance? think you are safe? think again..

Here at Lloyd James we take Data Compliance very seriously indeed and so should you. We have already been accredited with the DMA’s Dataseal award for being fully compliant and ensuring that all of our staff are as well which is also very important.

In April 2010 the Data Protection Information Commissioner’s office was granted license to fine up to £500,000 for any breach of the data protection act as we follow the rest of the world into the strictest laws that govern our lives in terms of data compliance and security.

On top of fines issued already by the Commissioner, in certain industries these have been coupled with added fines by their own governing bodies. The FSA fined Credit Suisse £1.75m for data compliance failure, Getco Europe £1.4m and Instnet Europe £1.05m to name but a few.

Breaching the data protection act can be as simple as sending sensitive information to the wrong email address or as in one case not encrypting a company lap top and then having it stolen from your home in a burglary. Fines imposed so far have been huge and can not only damage a business’s balance sheet but its’ reputation as well. It’s not just companies in the private commercial sector that get hit with fines, Surrey Council were fined £120,000 for sending information on 241 people to the wrong group email addresses, Powys County Council £130,000, North Somerset County Council £60,000 for the same breach.

Individuals as well have been successfully prosecuted and fined; two former telecoms employees £73,700 for stealing and selling customer information to a competitor, a medical receptionist £2,500 simply for accessing her own sisters medical records. The list of successful prosecutions is growing at a frightening rate and along with the fines comes the threat of custodial sentences. Do your staff have access to customer information?

So who can be prosecuted, well that’s simple, it’s you and me and our companies. You personally are responsible for ensuring that your staff are compliant and that they understand the principles of Data Compliance. More and more companies are going to be made an example of over the next couple of years and if you are handling data in any way shape or form you could be targeted, you won’t know what’s hit you.

Are you sure that employees working from home are using encryption and secure passwords when accessing confidential data, do you have memory sticks in office drawers, are you dealing with data companies that are non-compliant these are just some of the questions you should be asking yourself.

The Commissioner is on a mission to make examples of us all and in particular those of us dealing in data whether supplying or receiving it, we must be vigilant.

Lloyd James offers a series of Data Compliance propositions take a look at our service offering on our website www.lloydjames.com just by making that move you are showing that you are taking this seriously. You have been warned.

"Not all data companies are created equal! Lloyd James are a DMA Dataseal accredited company. If you deal with data providers ensure they are too”

Lloyd James - CEO