More than half of Irish organisations report little change from GDPR

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More than half (57%) of Irish companies do not think the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) has made any difference to their day to day operations.

According to a survey of more than 100 CIOs and IT leads by MicroWarehouse found that nine out of 10 SMEs spent up to €5,000 on compliance efforts, with close to half (43%) of larger organisations (30 employees or more) spending upwards of €20,000, with one in five (20%) taking someone on for the job.

According to the survey, the most common action undertaken to ensure compliance following GDPR was amendments to data breach procedures by almost a third (32%), but only 13% cited cyber security as one of the main priorities for their company, while more than a third (35%) worryingly admitted that it is never discussed at management level.

Despite the perception of little change, the survey respondents overwhelmingly (67%) stated that they felt Ireland was on a par with the rest of Europe in GDPR compliance terms, but just 6% said we were leaders.

“We undertook this research,” said Aidan Finn, technical sales lead, MicroWarehouse, “to help identify the impact GDPR has had on operations for CIO’s and company IT leads. 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.”

“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,” said Finn.

“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.”

TechCentral Reporters

Read More: compliance Data protection General Data Protection Regulation MicroWarehouse regulation survey