North America

Compliant Archiving Post #3: Encryption Hype in the GDPR Era

Sovos
February 2, 2017

This blog was last updated on September 23, 2019

Enterprises conducting business in the EU are currently analyzing the impacts and organizational changes required to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation that will, from May 2018, redesign the legal framework in privacy. The changes will substantially affect risk management processes and privacy requirements will become essential in product development and IT infrastructure design decisions. Very few have by now not heard about the deterrent penalties brought by the GDPR. As of next year, companies will not be able to sweep security breaches under the carpet and will be required to notify such events within 72 hours to their national data protection authority. The notification may need to be extended to affected customers, on an individual basis. A number of organizational, contractual and procedural measures must be taken to fulfill the obligations under this new framework, which also places significant technical requirements on the way companies handle data.

For this and other reasons, one can see why more and more commentators are stressing that encryption will soon become a must-have feature in the procurement and architecture of databases and data interchange. We are convinced that e-invoice archiving will not be any exception to this trend, and the benefits are certainly compelling. If prior to the security breach, data is rendered unintelligible by means of a reliable state-of-the-art encryption method, businesses are exempted from the obligation to individually notify data subjects. Moreover, a fine of up to 10 million euro can be imposed to any business that is deemed to have infringed its obligations under article 32(1) of the GDPR on security measures, which explicitly includes encryption among the appropriate technical measure to safeguard processing of personal data.

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Sovos

Sovos is a global provider of tax, compliance and trust solutions and services that enable businesses to navigate an increasingly regulated world with true confidence. Purpose-built for always-on compliance capabilities, our scalable IT-driven solutions meet the demands of an evolving and complex global regulatory landscape. Sovos’ cloud-based software platform provides an unparalleled level of integration with business applications and government compliance processes. More than 100,000 customers in 100+ countries – including half the Fortune 500 – trust Sovos for their compliance needs. Sovos annually processes more than three billion transactions across 19,000 global tax jurisdictions. Bolstered by a robust partner program more than 400 strong, Sovos brings to bear an unrivaled global network for companies across industries and geographies. Founded in 1979, Sovos has operations across the Americas and Europe, and is owned by Hg and TA Associates.
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