
A survey of 145 US corporate directors of public company boards conducted by BDO USA during August 2018 has revealed that eight out of ten companies have taken steps to ensure they are complying with necessary data protection legislation.
The survey was conducted as part of the BDO 2018 Cyber Governance Survey which you can read here.
This included implemented such measures as completing a gap assessment and updating the company privacy policy. In addition to this up to 33% of the respondents said that their company has increased its spend on data privacy protection and appoints a data protection officer. However it is noticeable that these are the minimal steps that US companies doing business in the European Union must take to ensure that they are compliant with the new General Data Protection Regulation which was introduced on May 25 this year.
Under this new legislation companies face fines of up to €20m or 4% of annual global revenue, whichever figure is higher, if they are found to be in breach of the legislation. Due to this it is of the utmost importance that US companies address their GDPR shortcomings as soon as possible.
Amy Rojik, BDO USA’s National Assurance Partner for Communications and Governance said at the release of the survey: “BDO’s 2018 Cyber Governance Survey reveals how public company board directors increasingly recognize the competitive advantages of embracing a digital transformation strategy and mitigating vulnerabilities related to cyber risk. Developing a strategic path for an organization’s digital transformation and devoting company resources
and board oversight to cybersecurity and data privacy are now necessities for businesses to survive and thrive during this time of intense change.”
Jeff ward, BDO USA’s Third-Party Attestation National Managing Partner said that the is a clear trend emerging that companies are preparing for closer monitoring by data protection authorities in the future. He said: ” Many of our public company clients anticipate increased regulatory scrutiny of their cyber risk and incident disclosures, and are using the SOC for Cyber reporting framework as a benchmark.”
The 2018 BDO Cyber Governance Survey is conducted on an annual basis by the BDO Center for Corporate Governance and Financial Reporting and seeks to gauge the opinion of public company directors on these issues, as well as other key governance concerns.