UK 24-hour breach notification not a big burden

A proposed 24-hour breach notification law in Britain will be a challenge for smaller businesses, but not for enterprises.

In Australia, the Federal Government has progressed its plans for a data breach notification scheme, sharing a draft bill, obtained by SC, with a small number of key stakeholders.

UK Virgin Media group information security manager Stephen Kerslake said it was not impractical to comply as enterprises that would subscribe to it already have supporting resources in place.

“For example, all the major telcos in the UK have 24/7 security operating or network management facilities whereby a report can be generated instantly,” he said.

“More so, that report will be generated from monitoring network activity across their entire infrastructure and on the detection of a malpractice or an incident, they could very quickly determine what the circumstances were and what needed reporting.

“So I don't think it is unrealistic in our terms, where it may be unrealistic is with a small-to-medium enterprise for example, who don't have the necessary resources.”

Former UK Information Commissioner Richard Thomas agreed that a one-size-fits-all-template did not work.

Only telcos were legally obliged to report a breach to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), while others were encouraged to report where necessary.

“The worry is, if it becomes mandatory for all organisations to report all breaches, that is really quite burdensome for small and medium businesses, and some larger ones," Thomas said.

“I also worry about the burden on the ICO's shoulders. When you have this blanket approach it becomes very difficult for any regulator to set priorities and work out what is really important, and focus resources on those areas where you need to intervene and take action.”

Duane Morris partner Jonathan Armstrong said that 24-hour reporting was not unrealistic.

“I'd rather they put their finger in the dyke and stopped the breach and stopped worrying about reporting. In the US, the time doesn't run until law enforcement leave the scene and I would like to see that. Also, if all data is encrypted, should it really be reported? Most of the US statures have that as exemption," he said.

“You also need to take into account notification fatigue; the US has got itself into a mess as people report relatively trivial breaches, so whenever a serious breach happens, people just bin the envelope. That increases the burden on everyone.”

Thomas said that the real priority is not to take steps to notify people, but to stop the breach.

Kerslake also said that an online facility for organisations to report into the ICO would be better, and said that this could be used as an awareness facility on what is important in terms of reporting and what is not.

This article originally appeared at scmagazineuk.com