Calendar cleared to focus on data privacy

There are still a few working hours left for resellers to hit the phones and talk to customers about the need to protect information against the backdrop of Data Privacy Day.

The industry is increasingly taking days in the calendar to talk about data privacy, storage and managed services and each should provide the channel with a chance to talk to customers about the topic.

According to the Wikipedia entry Data Privacy Day is a chance, "to raise awareness and promote privacy and data protection best practices".

Those in the industry with a pitch around data protection have been quick to talk up the prospects of the occasion sparking some thoughts in customers around their current practices.

“Data Protection Day should serve as a wake-up call for those businesses who are not complying with privacy and data protection best practices. Organisations only have one chance to get compliance right – or face the ICO," said David Smith, head of GDPR technology, SAS UK & Ireland.

“Complying with data protection regulation like GDPR makes business sense. Those who fail to respect their customers or their data risk losing both. Equally, companies can gain a competitive edge and win customer loyalty by respecting data privacy and consent," he added.

Customers are facing an increasingly complex environment but Rainer Rehm, EMEA data privacy officer at Zscaler, saw that as even more of a reason to tackle the issue.

“In today’s digitally transforming world, keeping data protected has become increasingly difficult. Between a lack of awareness, unintended user actions, system glitches, and increasingly sophisticated cyber adversaries, preventing data loss is no mean feat," he added "With increasing risks and expanding regulations for data protection, organisations must focus on closing security gaps that have emerged in the era of cloud and mobility."

For those resellers looking to focus the conversation around specific places that a customer could start to improve data privacy there was some advice from Tristan Liverpool, director of systems engineering, F5 Networks.

“We urge businesses this Data Privacy Day to rethink where their priorities lie in an increasingly complex and shifting IT landscape. An immediate priority should be to secure all business applications. This will allow organisations to gain a tremendous return on investment and manage multi-cloud deployments with greater certainty," he said.

Aside from the threats of fines from the ICO and the consequences of falling foul of GDPR data protection regulations there is also a degree of common sense in getting on top of keep sensitive information private.

“Failure to safeguard consumer or business data not only hits the trust in a company, but also leads to lower customer satisfaction and can have a major impact,” said Owais Ahmed, European information security officer at Kyocera Document Solutions Europe.

“Organisations must make data protection a central part of their business strategy. The implementation of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation has opened the eyes of many companies to the importance of compliance, but a huge proportion of the market are yet to recognise the role that security can have on the reputation of a company,” he added.