Did you know that as a business in Spain it is your responsibility to ensure your clients personal information is secure and not accessible by the general public or an easy target for hackers? However, these days you need to ensure that this data is securely stored away from potential hackers too.
51% of all data breaches are carried out by organized criminal groups
EU Data Protection laws these days mean that you must do all you can to protect the data you collect from website visitors. Your website must also have clear privacy policy terms and conditions available to view, by law.
Most people don’t think they are vulnerable until it is too late. Believe it or not Phishing schemes still fool people into providing private and important information to third parties. In fact, a recent survey by DBIR suggests that 1 in 14 users are still tricked into opening attachments or following links, especially as many of these appear to be from people you already know.
What can you do to help protect against these schemes?
Firstly, you should make sure you have up to date virus software, the majority of which now include anti-malware and firewall protection.
Make sure all of your passwords are strong and not guessable. Try not to use pet´s names, children’s names or dates of birth as these are the first things any potential hacker will try.
Don´t use the same passwords for different services. Also change your passwords on a regular basis to help stay one step ahead of cyber criminals.
Lately you might have seen the reports if large organisations like the UK´s National Health Service being subjected to ´ransomware ´attacks where the hacker demands money in order to free up the website again. In-depth analysis of the NHS’s infrastructure showed that the computer systems were old and had not kept up to date protection, leaving them easy targets for these criminals.
Just by keeping your software up to date can protect you from these types of attacks.
When online use common sense and never pass on information you do not feel comfortable to provide to people you do not necessarily know personally. Schemes and people are getting more advanced and clever into getting information from you. If you get a call from your bank asking for personal information, ask to call them back so you can double check the authenticity. It Is highly unusual for any banks or proper companies to email and ask you to confirm passwords etc. so always be on your guard with these types of emails.
Lots of useful information on the Spanish Data Protection laws can be found at https://www.agpd.es/ it also covers many of the different types of data and their classification and the potential fines that could be imposed for breaches of data not secured properly.
If you have any questions about business laws or accounting in Spain why not call into our offices or make an appointment for a chat.
