Blancco Technology Group Study Finds Global Organizations Don't Know Where All Customer Data Is Stored and Use Unreliable Data Removal Methods to Erase User Content
Atlanta and London, May 25, 2017 - EU GDPR is a game-changing piece of data protection legislation that goes into effect one year from today on May 25, 2018. While the legislation includes various components related to how organizations collect, store, manage and protect customer data, the right to be forgotten' gives individuals the right to have personal data erased. But if most organizations cannot locate where their customer data is stored (both on-premise and offsite), it will be difficult to fulfill right to be forgotten' requests, according to the EU GDPR: Countdown to Compliance research study released by Blancco Technology Group today.
As our study found, most organizations struggle with identifying and locating where all customer data is stored. 15 percent of German organizations admitted they don't know where all customer data is stored, both on-premise and offsite. Plus, the United States (13 percent) and United Kingdom (12 percent) are the two countries with the second and third highest percentages of respondents who don't know where all of their customer data is stored. For French organizations, however, the problem is somewhat worse with 20 percent saying their confidence level in their ability to find all customer data is low - ranging from extremely unconfident to slightly unconfident.
Richard Stiennon, Chief Strategy Officer, Blancco Technology Group, said, If an organization cannot find their customers' data, how will they be capable of erasing the data and complying with the EU GDPR's requirement? Once they do finally locate their customers' data, the next step is erasing the data permanently so that it can never be recovered. But as our study reveals, it's quite common for organizations to use insecure and unreliable data removal methods, such as basic deletion and free data wiping software, which further undermines their security and compliance to EU GDPR.
Key findings from the study include:
French, Spanish and German companies will beef up spending on EU GDPR-readiness technologies and processes. 85 percent of Spanish companies will spend up to $3.99 million, while 77 percent of French companies and 73 percent of German companies will spend the same amount. However, fewer American companies (65 percent) will spend this same amount.
72-hour breach notification, records maintenance of data processing activities and right to be forgotten' top the list of EU GDPR priorities. Meeting the 72-hour data breach notification rule (25 percent) and maintaining written records of data processing activities (25 percent) both ranked as the top priorities for American organizations. British organizations are most concerned with maintaining written records of data processing activities (22 percent). Conversely, 22 percent of Spanish organizations will prioritize the appointment of a Data Protection Officer.
Insufficient budgets, improper handling/storage of IT equipment and lack of data removal software are the biggest roadblocks to the right to be forgotten.' 12 percent of the American respondents cited insufficient budget as their biggest challenge, while it's also a challenge for French companies (17 percent), British companies (16 percent) and German companies (15 percent). Plus, improper handling/storage of IT equipment ranks as a major challenge for Spanish companies (28 percent), American companies (21 percent) and British companies (17 percent).
Insecure and unreliable data removal methods undermine security and compliance. Basic deletion is used by IT professionals in France (34 percent), US (28 percent), Spain (26 percent), UK (24 percent) and Germany (23 percent) to remove data. Meanwhile, free data wiping solutions (without proof) are used by organizations in Spain (35 percent), UK (33 percent), US (25 percent), Germany (27 percent), US (25 percent) and France (21 percent).
Data Protection Officers are uncommon and costly additions. 59 percent of American companies and 53 percent of British companies are most likely to assign the responsibilities of a DPO to an existing role. In Germany, however, companies would be somewhat inclined to hire a new, dedicated role (40 percent). Meanwhile, 16 percent of French companies would outsource the role to a consultant.
Change begins with a data protection gap analysis. 41 percent of American organizations are currently undergoing a gap analysis and 43 percent of British organizations plan to start in the second half of 2017. In addition, 50 percent of Spanish organizations will do so in the second half of this year. But 14 percent of the French respondents and 14 percent of the German respondents will wait until 2018.
Stiennon concluded, The first priority for all companies should be to gain a complete picture of all data that is collected, stored or processed that contains EU citizen information. After that, companies must ensure that adequate means of protecting that data have been implemented, such as access being restricted to authorized personnel, proper authentication being used and proper procedures for backing up and archiving data and data sanitization policies being implemented to remove data when it is no longer needed or requested by customers. In addition, any third parties that have access to the data must be evaluated to ensure they too have adequate controls in place.
For more details about the various requirements of the EU GDPR, visit the dedicated page on Blancco's website.
About Blancco Technology Group Blancco Technology Group (AIM: BLTG) is the de facto standard in data erasure and mobile device diagnostics. The Blancco Data Eraser solutions provide thousands of organizati
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Blancco Technology Group Study Finds Global Organizations Don't Know Where All Customer Data Is Stored and Use Unreliable Data Removal Methods to Erase User Content
