If you happen to experience a data breach, you need to do a data breach notification. What is this? And why is this important? To find out more about this, keep on reading this article.
Data Breach Notification
What is a data breach notification? It is a procedure that involves disclosing any data breach to its affected users. If you can identify the fact that your data was breached, this is the proper procedure to follow.
The procedure must contain the following information:
- Who is involved in the breach
- Details about the data breach itself
- What kind of information was released by the breach
- Who will be responsible for notifying all affected users of this breach
- What action should be taken by all affected individuals
- Who should be contacted by affected individuals
- Why do companies have to carry out data breach notifications?
This is because a compulsory requirement needed to be followed by all countries that are members of the European Union. Also, in the US, you need to follow the Federal Trade Commission’s Red Flags Rule. It involves a lot of factors that should be taken into consideration to determine if a data breach has occurred.
Identifying What to Include in a Data Breach Notification
The first factor that you should consider is whether you were involved in a data breach or not. If the answer to this question is affirmative, then you need to determine if your company can identify the kind of data that was involved in the breach.
For you to identify the kind of data that was affected by this breach, you need to be able to know as much as possible about your business as well as about the users of your system. In addition, you must also understand what kind of data was involved in this.
After determining all these factors, you can then proceed forward and determine if a data breach happened or not. What should companies do if a data breach has occurred?
If a company determines that a data breach has occurred, they must contact the users who were affected by this and tell them about it. You have to notify these users within 72 hours from when the breach has been identified.
This is because there are cybercriminals out there who will take advantage of any identified breaches and will use their access to these systems for their gain. There are many cases where this procedure may not be followed and the cybercriminal would already operate on these systems.
Aside from notifying the affected users and telling them what types of information were involved in this breach, companies should also notify:
- Any regulatory bodies that they are registered with
- Any law enforcement agencies that they are registered with
- All other affected individuals by written notices
- All other interested parties such as those who may be affected due to this incident (customers, partners, vendors, and more)
Last Words
So, if you are in a company that is involved in a data breach, the proper procedure to follow is the data breach notification. This will let all affected users know about the breach and what they should do to be safe from this breach.
