Only 9% of Aussie orgs ready for GDPR

Less than 10% of Australian organisations are ready to comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), according to research from Webroot.

While 89% of Australian respondents said their organisation is already compliant with Australia’s own data breach notification scheme, only 9% are ready to comply with the GDPR, a survey conducted by the company shows.

Nearly all (96%) Australian IT decision-makers feel confident that their employees are equipped to comply with both regulations, and 78% of those working for companies doing business in the EU feel they are capable of complying with GDPR rules requiring them to disclose all personal data collected on individuals within one month of request.

But most staff have still not been trained in maintaining compliance with the GDPR and the majority of organisations are still not ready for the introduction of the regulation, according to Webroot Senior Information Security Analyst Dan Slattery.

“The upcoming GDPR law, while complex, should be seen by Australian organisations as an opportunity to review their entire data strategy and get employees on board to help manage privacy and data security rules that will only get stricter,” he said.

“Ongoing employee education is the best way to protect against many of the threats that companies are targeted with at the moment. If employees are able to correctly identify and report possible phishing or ransomware attacks and report them correctly, there will be less chance of a successful breach.”

He stressed the importance of training all staff in compliance, not just IT, noting that many data breaches today come from careless mistakes from insiders.

“IT and HR teams need to work together to make sure all employees are trained, and continue to be trained on compliance requirements as regulations evolve and as citizens’ demand for more privacy grows.”

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/md3d

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