Feature

Gone but not forgotten

Traditionally, getting rid of data from storage media has been limited to hard drives, old PCs and laptops once they reach the end of their useable lifespan. In today's increasingly virtual world however, the need to securely erase data has gone way past the physical storage device

Comment

Welcome to our November eNewsletter, which includes a thought-provoking piece that looks at the issues around erasing data and the ‘right to be forgotten’ that is to be introduced as part of next year’s EU GDPR legislation. This ruling is in itself a good reason for businesses to look at how they manage data protection – but there are other drivers as well, as the article points out, including cost savings via media re-use and security concerns for the business itself.

Phil Bridge of Kroll Ontrack comments “Data protection professionals are on the whole well-informed about the new GDPR legislation and for them the challenge is to bridge the gap between theoretical requirements and the practicalities of implementation - as well as the impact this will have on their respective businesses. Conversely there are still a large number of organisations that have not assigned the tasks associated with data protection within their business, be it to an individual data protection officer or a group of data protection focussed members of staff.” For those business, the clock is really ticking now.

David Tyler, Editor david.tyler@btc.co.uk