September 15th, 2017.


Less than one in ten (nine per cent) SME owners in the UK fully understands what the forthcoming EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) actually means for their business or have taken the appropriate steps to prepare themselves for it, according to the latest Aldermore small and medium sized business owners (SMEs) Future Attitudes study.

The new framework, which is designed to strengthen and unify data protection for all individuals within the European Union (EU), will hand out tough punishments for those who fail to comply with new rules around the storage and handling of personal data. The regulation comes into force in May 2018, but nearly half (46 per cent) of all SMEs bosses, representing more than 2.5million firms in the UK have not even heard of it.

Furthermore, the GDPR will also introduce a duty on all organisations to report certain data breaches to the relevant supervisory authority and in some cases to the individuals affected, as well as giving customers the right to be forgotten which requires firms to erase all their information. This is a considerable step change and will affect many small and medium-sized organisations, particularly as recent industry figures show that two-thirds (66 per cent) of SMEs have been a victim of cyber-crime since their launch.

With data breach threats becoming an ever-growing concern for business leaders....


For the full story at smallbusiness.co.uk CLICK HERE.