In the last 18 months or so, since the GDPR, authorities have received notifications of breaches data. What is worrying is that this number seems to be increasing day by day.
Law firm DLA Piper found that in the first eight months after the GDPR came into effect on May 25, 2018, there were an average of 247 breach notifications per day.
“GDPR has thrown the data breach issue into the open. The rate of breaches has increased by 12% since last year’s report, and regulators are often concerned with fining organizations,” said Ross McKean, a partner at DLA Piper who specializes in cyber data protection .
The GDPR Data Breach Survey also reports the total amount companies in fines for breaching the GDPR. This amounts to €114 million ($126 million / £97 million). The largest fine paid to date is €50 million. This fine was paid to Google by French authorities for breaches relating to transparency and consent.
The UK has issued two major fines for data protection breaches, but so far there has been no agreement with the companies involved on payments.
Last July, British Airways was fined $183 million due to cyberattacks on systems that led to the data breach of 500,000 customers.
After an investigation, it was found that the airline was not using adequate measures .
A day later, a £99 million fine was issued to Marriott Hotels for a data breach that exposed the personal information of 339 million customers from around the world.
Under GDPR, fines can be very high. However, it is believed that only a third of organizations are fully GDPR compliant.
The 114 million euros imposed to date is relatively small compared to the potential maximum fines that can be imposed.
Companies should be very careful, because regulators intend to become much stricter.
