Irish businesses report little change to operations following GDPR
According to a survey carried out one month on from the introduction of GDPR, most Irish companies say that they do not believe that it has not made any difference to their day-to-day operations.
The survey, commissioned by MicroWarehouse, 90% of SME's spent up to €5,000 to ensure compliance whereas 43% of larger companies spent upward of €20,000 in preparation.
SME's did not enact any rigorous preparation model while 20% of companies who employ 30 or more people went so far as employing someone to ensure they became GDPR compliant.
The most common action taken by businesses was to make amendments to data breach procedures.
Only 13% of businesses surveyed said that cyber security was one of the main priorities for their company with 35% stating that it is never discussed at management level.
"As we all know, there was considerable pressure placed on businesses to become GDPR compliant by a strict deadline and as such, we were interested to see how it has impacted their business since that date," said Aidan Finn, Technical Sales Lead at MicroWarehouse.
The research indicates that little or no difference has been recorded to the day to day operations of companies surveyed.
"It also highlights the costs associated with becoming GDPR compliant, which is particularly onerous on SMEs who are subject to the same regulations as larger companies.
"In relation to cyber security and hacking, we were shocked to learn that security of data is so far down the agenda at a senior management level.
"Particularly in an era of cyber crime and data leaks, one would think ensuring the security of your network would be in the company’s best interest."
