Companies with unencrypted personal data face high penalties in 2019

Hamburg, 14 February 2019 – Companies that transmit or store personal data unencrypted will face severe penalties in 2019. TeamDrive Systems GmbH, which operates a data exchange service of the same name with end-to-end encryption, points this out.

“The basic data protection ordinance stipulates clearly and unequivocally that personal data must be completely encrypted,” says TeamDrive Managing Director Detlef Schmuck. He explains: “Companies that have still not implemented the DSGVO this year must expect severe penalties and personal liability on the part of the board of directors, managing directors and IT managers”. The basic data protection regulation provides for fines of up to four percent of turnover or up to 20 million euros, warns Detlef Schmuck not to take the legal requirements seriously. This also includes the fact that in the event of a data leak, the companies must inform both the persons concerned and the supervisory authority within 72 hours.

End-to-end encryption is best

“The first fines for violations of the DSGVO were already due in 2018, but still below 100,000 euros, because a transitional period had previously been assumed. This time is up, who gets caught in 2019, will have to spend a lot of money”, says TeamDrive boss Detlef Schmuck.

His company offers a Sync&Share service with 100% end-to-end encryption. Even if data falls into the wrong hands for whatever reason, the encryption makes it worthless. Since not even the provider can decrypt the data himself, no accidental or intentional transfer of readable data is possible under any circumstances, not even to the authorities.

According to the provider, the use of the TeamDrive solution is “significantly cheaper” than setting up in-house encrypted servers and backup systems according to DSGVO specifications, even with large amounts of data. Especially self-employed and small companies can reduce their costs by using the TeamDrive Cloud, can often do without local servers completely and at the same time receive a significantly higher level of security and convenience than only large companies enjoy. This enables companies to control their already rising costs for data and information security. A study conducted by TeamDrive together with the National Initiative for Information and Internet Security (NIFIS) revealed that 60 percent of companies in Germany expect IT security costs to rise by at least one third in 2019.