A cybersecurity guide to evolving risks and data privacy landscape in India

Software solutions company HelpSystems has released its ‘Cybersecurity Guide: Achieving Compliance with India’s Personal Data Protection Bill’ that examines the evolving risks and data privacy landscape in India, particularly in light of changes in working patterns brought about by COVID-19.

The guide lays out the key steps to help organizations in India sensibly adopt a better data protection posture and build a firm foundation towards onward compliance with India’s Personal Data Protection Bill.

As cyber risk intensifies around the world, regulatory authorities have started looking at privacy and data protection frameworks more seriously.

The draft India Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill includes requirements for notice and prior consent for the use of individual data, limitations on the purposes for which data can be processed by companies, and restrictions to ensure that only data necessary for providing a service to the individual in question is collected.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has irrevocably altered the way businesses operate, crystallizing the link between robust and secure IT infrastructure and business continuity. Today, every investment an organization makes in cybersecurity has to be about protecting data to improve security performance and boost its ability to demonstrate compliance in this increasingly regulated environment,” Mahesh Shanmugasundaram, Regional Director of South Asia, HelpSystems, said.

It outlines why data classification is the starting point and how organizations can go about detecting and preventing leaks, as well as securing and protecting sensitive data that is shared both inside and outside the organization with solutions such as data loss prevention (DLP), digital rights management (DRM), and managed file transfer (MFT).