Data breaches the challenges of the new industrial revolution

One of our members, Experian South Africa, has recently experienced a data breach after a hacker posed as a legitimate client to gain access to the personal information of millions of South Africans. The credit bureau said identity numbers and residential addresses were amongst the information compromised by the now identified hacker. Experian has reported the incident to the Information Regulator and taken the corrective protocols as laid out by POPIA.

It is reassuring that Experian acted with haste in reporting the incident, to the Information Regulator and offered our citizens more information on who is affected and how to best respond to the current vulnerabilities that they may have been exposed to.

The DMASA’s interventions Data Protection Compliance Programme (DPCP) offer members tools to stay on the right side of the POPI Act such as online risk assessments and training opportunities to boost knowledge transfer within the direct and integrated marketing (IDM) sector.

These resources and others have been years in development and have helped the DMASA’s 300-plus members. We urge our sector to educate their staff as there will be elements that will physically try to bypass the best software. It’s more than just complacency that is the enemy of the safe storage of personal information We urge everyone involved in the storage of personal information to use this latest reminder of the dangers posed by cybercriminals to regularly implement additional measures to safeguard data,” concludes Mr Dickens.