GDPR protects the privacy of European citizens and applies to all businesses that hold and process personal data collected in the European Union, regardless of their industry or location. It becomes effective on May 25, 2018. Organizations are focusing on GDPR compliance because fines for certain violations may be up to the greater of ˆ20 million or four percent of total worldwide annual turnover. Companies with significant revenue could face billions of dollars in fines.
According to the survey, 51 percent of respondents said GDPR would impact their companies, nearly a third of the respondents didn’t see the GDPR regulations impacting them, while 11 percent were unsure if GDPR would impact their companies and 5 percent were not familiar with GDPR.
The survey also showed an overall lack of urgency among the IT professionals surveyed with 43 percent of respondents indicating that they are evaluating or implementing change in preparation for GDPR, 29 percent indicating that they were not preparing, and another 28 percent signifying that they were unaware of specific preparations.
“U.S. companies should be evaluating the impact GDPR will have on their data practices, given the major fines for non-compliance,” said Terry Ray, chief product strategist at Imperva.
“Companies need to begin the GDPR legwork now by documenting how personal data is collected and processed in their organizations. From what we’ve seen in working with our clients on GDPR readiness, the projects are complex and involve multiple teams, technologies and systems.”
In asking survey respondents about who is driving GDPR compliance in their organization, 49 percent of survey respondents cited their organization’s legal department, while 8 percent said the IT department is managing the process.
