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The European Union to revamp data-protection rules that will control information flow

January 24th, 2012

Europe has been struggling for stricter data breach laws for a long time. The recent data thefts have pushed the EU to make tough rules as regards data breaches and data security. This certainly is the need of the hour, not only in Europe but all over the world as data breaches are on the rise and hackers are taking advantage of the loopholes in the system.

EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding talks about introducing new data protection regulations

The European Union is in the process of proposing new regulations regarding how companies use the personal information of Internet users this week. The new regulations are going to have a major impact on companies like Google and Facebook. This is going to put stricter limits on how they use the information of the people that use their services. According to Viciane Reading, vice president of the European Commission, a branch of the EU, these new regulations are absolutely required to protect personal data of the users and rebuild a sense of confidence in them.

The current state of security laws in Europe:

At present there are conflicting laws from various countries that form the Union. These laws force the companies to collect data on consumers from the Internet. Companies who do not follow any regulations are becoming a victiom of data breach and are always at loggerheads with the governments. For e.g. Facebook, has been in the limelight as it was targeted by both U.S. and European regulators for the wayt they use user data. The company underwent 20 years of independent audits after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission proved that the company’s use of customer information was illegal.

What data privacy means for consumers?

Privacy is a major concern for today’s insurance industry. The more transactions we carry out online, the more we stand to risk of becoming a target of cyber crime. Data Breaches puts information of millions of consumers at risk and that means monetary losses for companies and insurance groups.

What will the new rules exactly do?

The new rules will make it compulsory for financial services firms and credit card processors to report incidents of lost or stolen data within 24 hours of a breach. These rules are set to come into effect today. The companies must, as per new rules, appoint a data protection officer to preside over the protection of personal data stored and processed by individual businesses.

EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding’s comment

“I want to explicitly clarify that people shall have the right – and not only the ‘possibility’ – to withdraw their consent to the processing of the personal data they have given out themselves,” says Reding. “If an individual no longer wants his personal data to be processed or stored by a data controller, and if there is no legitimate reason for keeping it, the data should be removed from their system.” ”Companies that suffer a data leak must inform the data protection authorities and the individuals concerned, and they must do so without undue delay,” adds Reding. “As a general rule, without undue delay means for me ‘within 24 hours’.”

Data security with Alertsec

Following the essential guidelines is very necessary for data security in any organization. This news exemplifies the need for data protection applications. In an incident which highlights the need of Data encryption software and recovery software, the threat could have simply been reduced to an insurance matter by a mere investment of $13/month. The information would have been secure with no loss what so ever. That is certainly a small price to pay compared to what can happen if you lose confidential or sensitive data. Alertsec Xpress offers a very good and easy-to-use laptop security. There are no short cuts to Data security in any organization. Alertsec offers ervice that includes more than the traditional software licensing model.