It's Data Privacy Day: Time to protect your digital footprint

Happy Data Privacy Day 2016!

Data Privacy Day began in the United States and Canada in January 2008 as an extension of the Data Protection Day celebration in Europe. Data Protection Day commemorates the January 28, 1981, signing of Convention 108, the first legally binding international treaty dealing with privacy and data protection. The day is currently celebrated in the United States, Canada, and 27 European countries.

Data Privacy Day is led by the National Cyber Security Alliance, a nonprofit, public-private partnership dedicated to cybersecurity education and awareness. According to the Alliance, Data Privacy Day is an effort to empower and educate people to protect their privacy, control their digital footprint, and make the protection of privacy and data a great priority in their lives.

In recognition of Data Privacy Day, McDonald Hopkins suggests following best practices to protect your personal information. With that in mind, here are a few recommended proactive measures taken from our Data Privacy Playbook to help you improve your data privacy, protection, and preparedness:

• Create a culture of privacy and security throughout your organization
• Assemble your Incident Response Team and prepare an Incident Response Plan
• Perform a data privacy review and risk assessment, including vulnerability scanning and penetration testing
• Utilize data classification and segmentation
• Prepare a Written Information Security Program (WISP)
• Conduct a Breach Response Workshop with a tabletop exercise
• Implement appropriate polices
• Require confidentiality agreements for employees, vendors and visitors
• Provide ongoing data privacy and cybersecurity training to your employees
• Properly shred and securely dispose of personal information
• Use strong password protections and data encryption
• Ensure that your vendors maintain appropriate security measures (and get confirmation in your vendor contracts)
• Review your employee exit process
• Evaluate your cyber liability insurance coverage needs

Contact us to receive a full copy of our Data Privacy Playbook.