In the run up to the introduction of GDPR, back in May 2018, there was a lot made of the fines and penalties that could be applied in the event of a data breach. However, 6 months later, organizations that have suffered a data breach are finding out that the real cost of an incident lies in the negative publicity that follows a reported data breach. The impact can often be felt at many levels; falling share prices, enforced CIO resignations, and critically, loss of business resulting from the erosion of trust in the organization. Across all sectors, customers now consider how an organization protects customer data as a factor in their buying and renewal decisions.

To mitigate against some of these significant issues, one of the most important features that organizations should now consider in their data protection strategy is end to end data encryption. Of particular importance is to ensure encryption extends beyond stored data environments to cover data in transit, for example: a print job being sent to a printer.

While data protection on its own may not stop a data breach, it can have a critical impact on the implications of that breach, as encryption, if applied correctly, makes the stolen data unusable.  In addition to the strengthening of data protection, encryption has another significant benefit. In most US states data breach notification laws (and GDPR) there is what is referred to as “The encryption safe harbor”. The safe harbor, which exists in nearly every state in some form, means the security breach notification law does not always apply if the breached information was encrypted and does not contain the encryption key.  In other words, if an organization has applied a government grade encryption solution throughout its network, covering data in transit as well as at rest, and the encrypted data is stolen, there is potentially no obligation to publicize the data breach and become a news story.

One key area that can be a data breach vulnerability for an organization that is often overlooked is the print and imaging workflow.

FollowMe® by Ringdale is trusted by global leaders in banking, health and government organizations to prevent data interception and to protect sensitive customer, employee and organizational information.  Organizations choose the FollowMe solution because it takes government grade encryption into account at all levels, meaning encryption is the core of communications, authentication, storage and printing.

For further information on FollowMe Print Management by Ringdale, visit www.followme.ringdale.com


A Significant Breach Has Occurred at a Canadian Hospital