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It's time to make POPI compliance a priority!

Take the first step to a truly data-centric approach with Boldon James - Data Classification.


Johannesburg, 22 Sep 2017

The Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI) has been the 'talk of the town' for the past couple of years in South Africa. Introduced in 2013, it has not come into effect fully. However once it is implemented in its entirety, organizations would need to strictly comply with the regulations laid down in the Act. Therefore gearing up to make it a priority is key, for 2017.

For those who are being newly introduced to this Act, here are some highlights without going too much into details. The enactment of the POPI Act was intended to stem the tide of free-flowing personal information and offer protection to South Africans seeking to unfold their constitutional rights to privacy and dignity.

After the commencement date, the clock starts ticking therefore, it is important for organisations not to become complacent and start getting their data protection practices in order now by:

* Determining the risks to be managed;
* Understanding what data needs to be protected and starting to secure it right away; and
* Putting resources and policies in place.

The best place to start is with data classification - the first step to a truly data-centric approach to protecting personal information.

How can you secure sensitive data?

First and foremost you need to understand all of the personal or sensitive data you hold, and the potential risks to its security. You will need to ask:

* What data you already hold on South African citizens?
* What data is being collected, and where from?
* Where is it being stored and processed?
* Why you have it?
* How sensitive it is?
* How it is accessed, used or shared - including externally?

How can StarLink help to mobilise?

StarLink, the region's trusted security-specialised "true" value-added-distributor (VAD) brings to the region IT compliance and next-generation threat-driven solutions to customers to secure critical enterprise assets.

One amongst the many niche vendors that we represent is Boldon James. Boldon James Classifier, the market leading data classification product supports compliance with POPI by:

* Ensuring appropriate control of confidential or sensitive information.
* Classifying or labelling data with visual (and metadata) labels to highlight any special handling requirements.
* Alerting users when personal data is leaving the organisation to warn or prevent them from sending messages that contain sensitive information.
* Educating users about the sensitivity of data whilst ensuring adherence to corporate policy providing critical audit information on classification events to enable remediation activity and demonstrate compliance position to regulatory authorities.
* Enabling rapid search and data retrieval based on classification labels to support subject access requests.
* Utilising metadata labels to drive additional security controls and solutions, such as DLP, encryption and rights management.
* Orchestrating data management solutions, such as data retention and archiving, to ensure adherence to data storage requirements.

"We understand the importance of being equipped with a protection strategy to safeguard the different types of data organisations have and the levels of security they require. With Boldon James, organisations can select the right data classification approach for their business and initiate steps towards being POPI compliant," said Wayne Forsman, Territory Manager, Sub-Saharan Africa at StarLink.

In order to be ready, organisations need to start taking steps now and change their security mindset about protection customer data and StarLink is readily available to assist with more information on how data classification can protect your sensitive data.

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StarLink

StarLink is acclaimed as the largest and fastest-growing "true" value-added distributor across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa regions with on-the-ground presence in 11 countries. With its innovate Security Framework, StarLink is also recognised as a "Trusted Security Advisor" to over 2 200 enterprise and government customers that use one or more of StarLink's best-of-breed and market-leading technologies, sold through its channel network of over 770 partners. The StarLink Solution Lifecycle helps channel partners differentiate offerings, and assists customers to identify key risks and define priorities for addressing IT security gaps relating to compliance and next-generation threat protection. For more information about StarLink, please visit www.starlinkme.net/en-africa

Boldon James

For 30 years, Boldon James has been a leader in data classification and secure messaging solutions, helping organisations of all sizes manage sensitive information securely and in compliance with legislation and standards, in some of the most demanding messaging environments in the world.

Boldon James is a wholly-owned subsidiary of QinetiQ, a FTSE 250 company, with offices worldwide. www.boldonjames.com