The hidden time bomb in every business
OK – I know when I put these four letters on the page and you read them that some of you WILL roll your eyes and stop reading. That is a fact – I can’t stop you, I can’t make you and I will not be the one who has to cope with the consequences – YOU will be…
So – deep breath:
G D P R 'The EU General Data Protection Regulation'
There – I have said it. You know it, I know it, they know it - this is a game changer in the way that you and I and our employers store, manage and dispose of data.
The little link will tell you how many days there are left until you can be fined for being in breach of the regulations – that simple as I write this there are just 219 days left for most of us to make massive changes in the way that we store and use data and at this time – none of us are exempt.
The fines for breaching are massive, they are NOT a slap on the wrist and they could actually almost finish a company. Because it is not ‘just’ the fine to factor in, there is the secondary damage as every customer you had as a business questions what you did with their data and then promptly walks away and then you know what, all your competitors have a huge sale and that causes your sales to drop further and then you have the cost of putting right the breach!
I want to give you a ‘for instance’ based on the financial results of one retailer – which will give you thought about how little time there is to sort your data out and how big the fines are:
As of today, there are 219 days left to be compliant.
This retailer is a relatively large business, turning over ￡1.9 billion a year. Last year they made a net profit of around ￡75 million.
Now if this retailer ‘was’ fined the 4% of turnover that is the fine for a breach of the data storage and management regulations then they would be looking at a fine of ￡75 million pounds.
That is right – one data storage and administration breach could and would wipe out the profits that the retailer made in one foul swoop!
Because GDPR does not just cover the data you maintain and retain on your employees, your customers and your business partners – it covers the data that you store… Your data backup and archive, your data warehousing and how long you are keeping it.
So the data you backup could and WOULD wipe-out this theoretical retailers annual profit in one foul swoop…
Follow up that with the publicity, the change in customer perception, the drop in sales, and the damage could be irreparable…
If you have read this far, then clearly you have accepted the gravity of GDPR and the potential for it to change a successful business by simply overlooking data storage and the retention of data – even if it is images of virtual servers. It is black and white – a breach is a breach.
So what can you really do?
I can’t help you with ‘whether or whether not’ your CRM system, accountancy solution or your stores are data compliant – I do not work for a data generalist.
What I can do, is engage a Silverstring consultant to simply look at your data storage, warehousing, backup and recovery and ensure that not only are you compliant but that should the worst happen and your data is unrecoverable in the production environment due to a DDoS attack – that you can get your backed up data back in a completely compliant process.
Be warned, a box of tapes of backups in your office or in a data storage, covered in dust – IS NOT GDPR compliant… Neither is a room full of tapes in your building dating back to the dawn of time! A 10 year old box of data is a GDPR fail and liable for a fine of up to 4% of your turnover.
Reach out to us today – We have specialists I can have on site for a free consultation.
Silverstring - data backup, management and restoration specialists.