A data breach notification refers to a communication of an organization or business that informs affected individuals or regulatory authorities about a security incident involving personal data, such as unauthorized access, use, disclosure or destruction of personal data.
This is why data-breach notification is so vital.
Transparency: The incident notification impacts the transparency and holding companies accountable by letting people know what the incident was.
Reassuring Trust: Listening to what customers and clients want during and after business GO TO will preserve trust through honest communication timely.
It is a legally-binding issue: So many jurisdictions have laws compelling data breach notification to at least you, and to high-up people in the org, and following that trail.
Damage Control: By sending an alert, individuals can take measures to mitigate any potential damages of identity theft & fraud.
What Should The Notification Of A Data Breach Contain
Keep It Simple: The notification should be clear and simple, without technical jargon.
Nature of the Breach: The compromise of the data, the nature of the breach and classification of types of data compromised
Impact Assessment: This section should state the likely impact of the breach on the affected data subjects.
Actions taken to Limit the Breach — Clearly explain what measures were done to investigate the breach, limit the impact and prevent from re-occurring in future.
What Those Affected Can Do: Tell people how to protect themselves from being impacted, like monitoring their credit reports or changing passwords.
Contact Information: List contact information where people can go to find more help.
Data Breach Notification: Best Practices
Create a Notification Process: Whipping up the steps to respond to a data breach includes the steps to notify the individual(s) potentially affected by a data breach.
Notification without undue delay: Unless doing so would impede law enforcement or public security, notify the affected individuals as soon as generally practicable after becoming aware of the security breach
Communicate the truth: If there has been a breach, it is best to be upfront.
Multiple Communication Channels: Contact individuals through a variety of means – email, snail mail, telephone.
Collaboration with LEAs: Work with law enforcement agencies to investigate the breach and arrest the criminals.
Continuous Monitoring: Deploy timely detection and alerting mechanisms to detect and counter security risks and threats.
Through implementing and following best practices that align with the privacy law organizations can prepare for the best breach response thereby minimizing impact on breaches to the individuals involved.
