Partner Article

Cyber Security workshop reveals data concerns in event of 'No Deal' Brexit

Business owners have been urged at an event organised by a leading Midlands’ accountancy firm to take steps before Brexit to ensure they can still receive data from Europe.

Burgis & Bullock organised the cyber security seminar to help businesses protect their data against cyber security and GDPR vulnerabilities.

Mike Kilby, of Xynics Data Solutions Ltd, was one of the industry experts speaking at the event and he informed businesses that the ability to receive data could be at risk if steps are not taken before the Brexit deadline on October 31.

Attendees learned that to continue lawfully receiving data from businesses in European Economic Area (EEA) countries, additional standard contract clauses will have to be put in place before leaving the EU in the event of a ‘No Deal’.

Firms with a European office must also comply with UK and EU GDPR rules and may need to nominate a representative in Europe to handle data.

Gerrard Fisher, of Astrid Data Protection, delivered a plea to business owners to help employees ensure passwords are secure and to be alert for Phishing Emails from cyber criminals looking for a shortcut to valuable business data.

Jon Newlyn of Edward James Associates, explained how a cyber-attack would typically be executed, which starts with simple surveillance and how to avoid becoming a target.

Jonathan Wooton of Clear Insurance Group introduced Laura Potts, Development Underwriter of Hiscox Insurance to explain the measures you can take to both prevent and most important, recover from a cyber security attack and how to mitigate the costs if the worst happens.

Sean Farnell, a partner at Burgis & Bullock, said: “We had some of the cyber security industry’s leading professionals advising business owners on how to protect against one of the biggest dangers in modern business.

“The aim of the workshop was to inform, educate, raise awareness and provide practical solutions to the businesses who attended.

“Businesses were also able to voice their concerns about their own cyber security and the damaging impact a data breach could have on their business.

“Every day issues are being debated around Brexit, but the issue of data transfer and protection has not been widely discussed and we hope this workshop helped to highlight the possible problems to businesses that they could face.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Matt Joyce .