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Wed, Aug 9, 2017

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GDPR

GDPR: It's Not Just the Fines to Worry About

Much has been made of the new fines that have been set in the new General Data Protection Regulation, which can be up to €20m or 4% of global turnover.

If that doesn't grab your attention, then consider the reputation and financial damage that is possible from a significant data breach.

In late 2013, Target (a major US discount retailer) was subject to a hack after malware was introduced to 1,800+ stores. It was believed to be the result of an external HVAC contractor accessing the network.

A reporter broke the news and Target admitted that over 40 million customer records were compromised, including encrypted PINs.

The fall out and ramifications for Target included:

  • Revenue fell 5%
  • Profits fell by over 50%
  • The CFO had to apologise to congress
  • The CIO had to resign
  • The CEO had to resign
  • The cost to the retail giant was $162m in 2014 alone and the Total damages paid out could exceed US$1 billion before all is said and done!

So it is worth remembering that the consequences are far wider reaching than a potential 4% fine on global turnover!


John Noble

By John Noble, Director at Pro-Active

My passion is for all things data and the use of data in order to drive campaign ROI. Whether that be from deriving insight through analytics or the clever use of data to drive online personalisation, I relish the challenges of working with marketeers who need help from a data perspective.