In order to prepare for the GDPR the ICO advises companies to establish internal data breach procedures

The ICO has advised organisations to implement internal data breach procedures, which should be encouraged by employee trainings, in order to be prepared as soon as the General Data Protection Directive (GDPR) comes into effect in 2018.

Therefore, the recommendation made by the ICO in terms of its breach notification recommendation instruct companies to be compliant from the first day the GDPR is implemented. Furthermore, the recommendation states that “You should make sure that your staff understands what constitutes a data breach, and that this is more than a loss of personal data” and goes on by saying that “You should ensure that you have an internal breach reporting procedure in place. This will facilitate decision making about whether you need to notify the relevant supervisory authority or the public. In light of the tight timescales for reporting a breach, it is important to have robust breach detection, investigation and internal reporting procedures in place.” On top of this, the ICO points out that companies will not have much time to notify the authorities of any data breach due to the fact that article 33 of the GDPR requires notification to take place “without undue delay and, where feasible, not later than 72 hours after having become aware of it (…) unless the personal data breach is unlikely to result in a risk to the rights and freedoms of natural persons”.

A personal data breach is defined as “a breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, personal data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed”.