ManageEngine’s guide for POPIA compliance

I am sure that you have heard all about POPI compliance lately, but we wanted to shed more light on POPIA, specifically for IT professionals to understand how it all fits together with regards to your IT roles and IT environments. ManageEngine has put together this guide especially for you to explain how its products can assist you comply with POPIA compliance.

What is Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA)?

The POPIA is a regulatory mandate aimed at safeguarding the personally identifiable information (PII) of South African citizens. It provides conditions for the lawful collection and processing of personal data of the citizens by all public and private organisations residing both in and outside the Republic of South Africa.

What is personal information according to POPIA?

POPIA compliance requires protecting the PII of employees, vendors, suppliers and partners in addition to customer data. In POPIA, personal information includes (but is not limited to) aspects as diverse as: 

• Religious or philosophical beliefs
• Race, gender, ethnic origin
• Trade union membership or political persuasion
• Medical, financial, educational or criminal records
• Biometric information
• Confidential correspondence (e-mail content)
• Online identifier
• Information of children

Why should my organisation comply with POPIA?

Increased goodwill

Compliance to such regulations will improve your organisation's reputation among the public. 

Competitive advantage

Adhering to such strict guidelines will earn the trust of customers. They'll know they can trust your company over others that aren't complying.

Cyber security

Security measures taken for POPIA compliance will be a stepping stone to protect your organisation against data breaches.

Avoid unwanted penalties

Failure to comply with POPIA can cost you and your company either imprisonment of up to 10 years, a fine of up to R10 million, or both.

How to comply with POPIA conditions

POPIA requirements are vast, and they might seem complex and baffling. Adherence to these conditions requires a combination of strict organisational policies and technical measures to be in place. But by adopting the right processes and IT products, POPIA compliance can be made a lot easier. ManageEngine has a comprehensive suite of IT management solutions to help your organisation comply with the data security, documentation and audit requirements of POPIA. Meet the following POPIA conditions with the help of ManageEngine solutions.

Condition 1: Accountability

What it means to your organisation

Appoint an information officer or a deputy information officer who will bear the sole responsibility to ensure compliance during the collection and processing of data.

How can IT help?

Identity and access management tools will help to establish role-based access controls so that only authorised personnel will be able to handle sensitive data.

How can ManageEngine help?

Access Manager Plus: Create custom roles with preset role permissions to ensure users have only the access required to perform their tasks.

M365 Manager Plus: Help establish role-based access control for Microsoft 365 administration.

Desktop Central: Grant permissions of your choice based on multiple predefined and/or tailor-made roles using its role-based access control (RBAC) approach.

AD360: Select any combination of management, auditing, reporting and alerting tasks concerning AD and Microsoft 365, and delegate them by creating custom help desk roles.

Download the full ManageEngine’s Guide to POPIA Compliance to find out how all eight conditions relate to IT and how the ManageEngine solutions can help you comply.

Download full guide now