October 17 2016
UK businesses could face up to £122bn in penalties for data breaches when new EU legislation comes into effect in 2018, the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) has warned. According to a UK government 2015 information security breaches survey, 90% of large organisations and 74% of SMEs reported a security breach, leading to an estimated total of £1.4bn in regulatory fines.
In 2018, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will introduce fines for groups of companies of to €20m or 4% of annual worldwide turnover, whichever is greater – far exceeding the current maximum of £500,000.