Countdown to GDPR: For GDPR Compliance, Web App Security Is a Must
With web and mobile apps becoming a preferred vector for data breaches, organizations must include application security in their plans for complying with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR.)
First discussed in the 1990s and turned into law in 2016, GDPR goes into effect in May of this year, imposing strict requirements on millions of businesses and subjecting violators to severe penalties.
The complex regulation applies to any organization worldwide — not just in Europe — that controls and processes the data of EU citizens, whose privacy the GDPR is meant to protect. Fines are stiff, including up to 4 percent of an organization’s annual revenue, or €20 million, whichever is higher.
While GDPR makes only a few, vague references to technology requirements for compliance, it stresses that data “controllers” and “processors” must safeguard customer information by implementing “appropriate technical and organisational measures.”
The regulation also highlights the need for organizations to have in place secure IT networks and systems that can “resist, at a given level of confidence, accidental events or unlawful or malicious actions.”