News, articles, legislation and analysis, all about data protection and cybersecurity technologies

Reports: 56% increase in the total number of complaints received by Irish data protection authority – according to the Annual Report 25 May – 31 December 2018 published by DPC

Research: Cybersecurity and risk management among top priorities for 2019 – according to research conducted by Computer Weekly/TechTarget

Data Breaches: 692,853,046 records leaked during data breaches and cyber-attacks in February 2019 – according to an IT Governance article

Guidelines: Assessing the proportionality of measures that limit the fundamental right to privacy stakeholder’s consultation launched by EDPS until 4^th of April

Technology: Dublin is now Europe’s largest data hosting cluster – Capacity of Irish data centres to double in next four to five years, says the report

Graphic of the Week: A Layered Approach of Cybersecurity  

Source: The Cyber-security Hub

Reports

56% increase in the total number of complaints received by Irish data protection authority

Irish data protection authority launched this week the first annual report of the new Data Protection Commission (DPC) covering the period 25 May to 31 December 2018.

Highlights of the 2018 Annual Report include:

• 2,864 complaints received. In total, 4,113 complaints were received in the 2018 calendar year representing a 56% increase in the total number of complaints (2,642) received in 2017.
• 3,542 valid data security breaches notified. In total, 4,740 valid data security breaches were notified in the 2018 calendar year representing a 70% increase on the total number of valid data security breaches (2,795) recorded in 2017.
• 136 cross-border processing complaints were received by the DPC through the new One-Stop-Shop mechanism that was lodged by individuals with other EU data protection authorities.
• 15 statutory inquiries (investigations) were opened in relation to the compliance of certain technology companies with the GDPR.
• 900 Data Protection Officer Notifications were received by the DPC.
• Staffing numbers increased from 85 at the end of 2017 to 110 at the end of 2018.

Commenting on the impact the introduction of GDPR has had, the Data Protection Commissioner, Helen Dixon stated: “Although we are still in the stage of having to bust some myths and misunderstandings that have built up around the GDPR, we feel very optimistic about the improvements we will see in Ireland in personal-data-handling practices over the next few years.” READ HERE THE FULL REPORT ANNOUNCEMENT  

Research

Cybersecurity and risk management among top priorities for 2019

According to the 2019 Computer Weekly/TechTarget, IT Priorities survey cybersecurity and risk management are among the top investment priorities.

Cybersecurity and risk management (32%) is second only to IT automation (33%) in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), followed by cloud migration (29%), when it comes to the broad initiatives 1,578 IT decision-makers in the region plan to implement, The focus on cybersecurity and risk is further underlined by the fact that budget is expected to increase in this area by 39% of EMEA respondents, while 34% expect security budgets to increase in the UK. The increased emphasis broadly on cybersecurity and risk driven by data protection concerns is also reflected in the fact that data governance is the third most highly ranked information management initiative, planned by 33% of EMEA respondents and second most highly ranked in the UK (39%).

The growing recognition by the business of the importance of application security in reducing cyber risk and improving data security is reflected in the fact that 20% of EMEA respondents and 21% in the UK plan to deploy continuous testing as a software development initiative in 2019. While security remains a key area of focus, the survey shows there has been a shift in priorities in the past year, with data loss prevention (DLP) falling from top priority in 2018 to fifth in this year’s rankings, with just 26% of EMEA respondents planning to implement DLP compared with 55% a year ago.

Topping the EMEA security initiative rankings in 2019 is email security (28%), followed by identity and access management (27%) and user security training (27%). This shift in focus shows an increased recognition of the fact that email continues to represent one of the top ways cyber attackers are compromising enterprise security and the continued importance of employees as an organisation’s first line of cyber defence. MORE ABOUT RESEARCH HERE  

Data Breaches

List of data breaches and cyber-attacks in February 2019 – 692,853,046 records leaked – according to IT Governance 

The shortest month of the year is over in a flash, but not before a significant number of data breaches and cyber-attacks could take place.

The total of leaked records in February is 692,853,046, enlarging the 2019’s total to 2,462,038,109. A simple statistic evaluation shows that’s roughly 30,000 records per minute so far this year…

Anyone is interested could subscribe to Daily Sentinel to receive daily updates on the latest data breaches and cyber-attacks

SEE A COMPLETE LIST OF CYBER ATTACKS AND DATA BREACHES HERE  

Guidelines:

Assessing the proportionality of measures that limit the fundamental right to privacy 

As the independent advisor to the EU institutions and bodies under Regulation (EU) 1725/2018 on all matters concerning the processing of personal data, the European Data Protection Supervisor ( EDPS) intends to issue Guidelines for assessing the proportionality of measures that limit the fundamental rights to privacy and to the protection of personal data.

The Guidelines will complement the EDPS Necessity Toolkit and specify, having regard to the fundamental right to the protection of personal data enshrined under Article 8 of the Charter, the more wide-ranging guidance by the Commission and the Council to check compatibility of legislative measures with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

Before issuing the Guidelines in their final version, the EDPS is launching a stakeholders’ consultation on the draft version of the Guidelines, which you can find hereunder. The deadline for receiving your input is 4 April 2019.

The replies to the consultation should be sent to the Policy and Consultation Unit of the EDPS: POLICY-CONSULT@edps.europa.eu READ FULL INFO HERE  

Technology

Dublin is now Europe’s largest data hosting cluster – Capacity of Irish data centres to double in next four to five years says the report

Dublin is now Europe’s largest data hosting cluster, surpassing London with 25 per cent of the European market, according to a new report, which also shows that more than €1 billion was spent on data centres in Ireland last year.

The report from Host In Ireland, a strategic global initiative created to increase awareness of the benefits of hosting digital assets here, and Bitpower, a digital information provider, shows that there were 53 data centres in operation in the State at the end of 2018, with a capital investment spend of over €1 billion in 2018. A further spend of some €1.3 billion is expected in 2019. Ireland has become an increasingly popular location for data centres of global technology firms, with Facebook opening a facility in Clonee, Microsoft ramping up construction in Grange Castle, and Amazon Web Services building in Clonshaugh and Tallaght.

According to the report, some 16 data centres became operational over the course of 2018 with a further 28 in development, “the highest level of activity we’ve seen yet”. In total, there are 53 data centres here with “hyper-scale”, which typically have a minimum of 5,000 servers and are at least 929sq m  in size, but often much larger, accounting for 72 per cent of the market.

At the end of 2018, there were about three million square feet of data centre space in the Dublin Metro area, and according to the report, “indications are that this capacity will double in four to five years” with a spend of about €4 billion over the coming four years. “

We expect 2019 to bring continued growth as Ireland continues to build its reputation”, said Garry Connolly, president and founder of Host in Ireland. Figures from the IDA show that the hosting industry had created about 2,800 jobs in Ireland as of May 2018, a figure that is expected to continue to rise.