How a data protection gap analysis can help your business

Carrying out a Gap Analysis will help to determine whether your organisation has implemented data protection effectively. It will also allow us to show whether or not your organisation’s policies are being followed when data is processed.

Another name for a gap analysis is a data protection audit or health check.

Completing a gap analysis enables organisations to identify and control potential risks and avoid breaches. It also ensures that the organisation follows the UK GDPR and/or Data Protection Act 2018 (the Act). This can help organisations protect themselves against potential financial penalties and legal claims from those whose data has been breached. Non-compliance can also result in negative publicity, harming an organisation’s reputation. When an organisation complies with these requirements, it effectively identifies and controls risks. Therefore, it protects itself as much as possible in case of a data breach.

An audit will typically assess your organisation’s procedures, systems, records, and activities to:

• Ensure the appropriate policies and procedures are in place
• Verify that those policies and procedures are being followed
• Test the adequacy controls in place
• Detect breaches or potential breaches of compliance
• Recommend any indicated changes in management, policy, and procedure.

Benefits of gap analysis

It’s an audit of data protection implementation in your organisation. For me, it is more of a health check with some great benefits for a business. A gap analysis can help your business:

• Improving compliance: a gap analysis can help you to develop a plan to bring your business into compliance. This can help you to avoid costly fines and legal actions.
• Reducing risk: A gap analysis can help you to identify where your business is vulnerable to data breaches or other security incidents. You can reduce the risk of a data breach and protect your business from the consequences of such an incident.
• Enhancing security: A gap analysis can help you to identify areas where your security measures may be lacking. A plan can be created to improve your security posture and protect your business from cyber threats.
• Building customer trust: With strong data protection measures and ensuring compliance with regulations, you can build trust with your customers. This can result in increased customer loyalty and positive word-of-mouth recommendations.
• Avoiding reputational damage: A data breach can harm your business’s reputation. You can prevent the negative impact of a data breach on your brand image.
• Streamlining processes: You to streamline your data protection processes by identifying areas where you may be duplicating efforts or using outdated technologies. By optimising your operations, you can save time and money while maintaining a high level of data protection. 

Completing a gap analysis

Knowing how to go about it is essential if you’re convinced that a data protection gap analysis is the right step for your business. Here are a few steps you can take to ensure that your gap analysis is practical:

• Could you define your scope? Decide which business areas you want to assess in your gap analysis. This could include policies, procedures, technologies, and practices related to data protection.
• Identify your assets: Determine what types of sensitive data your business handles, where it’s stored, who has access to it, and how it’s processed.
• Evaluate your current state: Assess your data protection measures and identify areas where you may be non-compliant with regulations or vulnerable to data breaches.
• You can develop a plan: Based on your assessment, you can create a plan to address any gaps or vulnerabilities you’ve identified. This plan should prioritise the most critical issues and outline specific steps to improve your data protection measures.
• Monitor and update: Regularly monitor and update your data protection measures to ensure they remain effective and compliant with regulations.

By following these steps, you’ll be well on your way to implementing a thorough and effective data protection gap analysis for your business. Remember, taking proactive steps to protect sensitive data is crucial in today’s digital landscape.

Summary

Overall, a data protection gap analysis is a proactive step that can help your business stay ahead of potential data breaches and ensure compliance with data protection regulations.

It also provides:

• Recommendations on mitigating non-compliance risks.
• Reducing the chance of damage and distress to individuals.
• Minimising regulatory action against your organisation for a breach of the Act.

Overall, a data protection gap analysis is a proactive tool to help your business protect its sensitive data and comply with data protection regulations.

If you need help to get started on completing an analysis or would like to have a fresh set of one of our team complete it for you, please book a free discovery call here.