Marsh and Atos join forces to support businesses comply with GDPR
Marsh and Atos have joined forces in France to support companies operating in Europe become compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation, which comes into effect in May next year. The regulation focuses on harmonising data protection for individuals within the EU and affects a wide range of personal information.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) aims to strengthen and unify data protection for individuals within the European Union. The GDPR comes into effect from 25 May 2018, and aims to bring harmony to data protection laws across the EU – thereby improving the ability for businesses to be held accountable for, among others, the violation of a host of data protection rules. The legislation includes considerable fines for large breaches and repeat offenders.
To help companies become compliant with the GDPR before it comes into force, the French arms of Marsh, an expert in insurance brokerage and business risk management consulting, and Atos, a specialist in digital transformation and technology services, have struck a partnership. The collaboration is stated to offer clients with an end-to-end solution, leveraging the firms’ respective strengths.
IT security managers and data protection officers will be able to call on the firms to delve into the current state of affairs through a risk and impact assessment; to introduce a "security by default" rule, focused on improving the wider security consciousness within the organisation; and to revise, as needed, procedures for managing personal data in line with the regulatory requirements.
Chris Moret, Vice President Cybersecurity at Atos in France, remarks that the major goal of the partnership is to protect personal information. He adds, "Together with Marsh, we have put in place an end-to-end concept to support companies in identifying the risks linked to the protection of this data, and in implementing technological control mechanisms for the related risks. Our cybersecurity products are focused on securing sensitive data and managing their access, while our SOC (Security operations centres) are mobilised 24/7 to neutralise any suspicious activity in relation to this data."
Luc Vignancour, Cyber & Crime Practice Leader at Marsh, adds, "The GDPR has amplified the cyber risk of companies and made it increasingly necessary to consider insurance to be one of the tools available to companies to finance the impacts of cyber risks.”
Cybercrime has become an increasingly prominent issue for firms, with breaches costing businesses an estimated $280 billion, some of which see large amounts of sensitive private information of customers end up on the street. Against the backdrop, insuring against losses is according to data from KPMG strongly gaining popularity.
