Niall Colgan & Co. Solicitors

Data Breach Policy

Effective 25^th May, 2018

1. Introduction

Niall Colgan & Co. Solicitors  holds, processes, and shares a large amount of personal data, a valuable asset that needs to be suitably protected.

Every care is taken to protect personal data from incidents (either accidentally or deliberately) to avoid a data protection breach that could compromise security.

Compromise of information, confidentiality, integrity, or availability may result in harm to individual(s), reputational damage, detrimental effect on service provision, legislative noncompliance, and/or financial costs.

2. Purpose

Niall Colgan & Co. Solicitors. is obliged under the Data Protection Act and the General Data Protection regulation EU 2016/679 to have in place an institutional framework designed to ensure the security of all personal data during its lifecycle, including clear lines of responsibility.

This Policy sets out the procedure to be followed to ensure a consistent and effective approach is in place for managing data breach and information security incidents across Niall Colgan & Co. Solicitors.

3. Scope

This Policy relates to all personal and sensitive data held by Niall Colgan & Co. Solicitors., regardless of format.

This Policy applies to all clients, employees, and other related third parties at Niall Colgan & Co. Solicitors. This includes temporary, casual or agency employees and contractors, consultants, suppliers and data processors working for, or on behalf of Niall Colgan & Co. Solicitors.

The objective of this Policy is to contain any breaches, to minimise the risk associated with the breach and consider what action is necessary to secure personal data and prevent further breaches.

4. Definition / Types of Breach

For the purpose of this Policy, data security breaches include both confirmed and suspected incidents.

An incident in the context of this Policy is an event or action which may compromise the confidentiality, integrity or availability of systems or data, either accidentally or deliberatly, and has caused or has the potential to cause damage to Niall Colgan & Co’s information assets and/or reputation.

An incident includes but is not restricted to, the following:

• Loss or theft of confidential or sentitive data or equipment on which such data is stored (e.g. loss of laptop, USB stick, iPad/tablet device, or paper record);
• Equipment theft or failure;
• Unauthorised use of, access to or modification of data or information systems;
• Attempts (failed or successful) to gain unauthorised access to information or IT system(s);
• Unauthorised disclosure of sensitive / confidential data;
• Website defacement;
• Hacking attack;
• Unforseen circumstances such as a fire or flood;
• Human error;
• ‘Blagging’ offences where information is obtained by deceiving the organisation who holds it.

5. Reporting an Incident

Any individual who accesses, uses or manages Niall Colgan & Co. Solicitors’s information is responsible for reporting data breach and information security incidents immediately to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (“ODPC”) (at www.dataprotection.ie) and to all persons affected by the breach.

If the breach occurs or is discovered outside normal working hours, it must be reported as soon as is practicable.

The report will include full and accurate details of the incident, when the breach occurred (dates and times), who is reporting it, if the data relates to people, the nature of the information, and how many individuals are involved. An Incident Report Form should be completed and provided to the ODPC and to the Data Subject as part of the reporting process. See Appendix 1.

6. Containment and Recovery

Niall Colgan & Co. Solicitors. will firstly determine if the breach is still occurring. If so, the appropriate steps will be taken immediately to minimise the effect of the breach.

An initial assessment will be made in order to establish the severity of the breach.

Niall Colgan & Co. Solicitors. will establish whether there is anything that can be done to recover any losses and limit the damage the breach could cause.

Niall Colgan & Co. Solicitors. will establish who may need to be notified as part of the initial containment and will inform the authorities, where appropriate.

Advice from experts may be sought in resolving the incident promptly.

Niall Colgan & Co. Solicitors., in liaison with any experts involved in the process will determine the suitable course of action to be taken to ensure a resolution to the incident.

7. Investigation and Risk Assessment

An investigation will be undertaken by Niall Colgan & Co. Solicitors immediately and wherever possible within 24 hours of the breach being discovered / reported.

Niall Colgan & Co. Solicitors. will investigate the breach and assess the risks associated with it, for example, the potential adverse consequences for individuals, how serious or substantial those are and how likely they are to occur.

The investigation will need to take into account the following:

• the type of data involved ;
• its sensitivity ;
• that protections are in place (e.g. encryptions) ;
• what has happened to the data, has it been lost or stolen (?) ;
• whether the data could be put to any illegal or inappropriate use ;
• who the individuals are, number of individuals involved and the potential effects on those data subject(s) ;
• whether there are wider consequences to the breach.

8. Notification

Niall Colgan & Co. Solicitors. will determine who needs to be notified of the breach.

Every incident will be assessed on a case by case basis; however, the following will need to be considered:

• Whether there are any legal/contractual notification requirements;
• Whether notification would assist the individual affected – could they act on the information to mitigate risks?
• Whether notification would help prevent the unauthorised or unlawful use of personal data?
• Would notification help Niall Colgan & Co. Solicitors. meet its obligations under Principle 7 of the GDPR;
• If a large number of people are affected, or there are very serious consequences, whether the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) should be notified. The ODPC will only be notified if personal data is involved. Guidance on when and how to notify ODPC is available from their website at: https://www.dataprotection.ie/docs/complaints/1592.htm ;
• If necessary, the ODPC will be notified without undue delay or within 72 hours;
• The dangers of over notifying. Not every incident warrants notification and over notification may cause disproportionate enquiries and work.

Notification to the individuals whose personal data has been affected by the incident will include a description of how and when the breach occurred and the data involved. Specific and clear advice will be given on what they can do to protect themselves, and include what action has already been taken to mitigate the risks. Individuals will also be provided with a way in which they can contact Niall Colgan & Co. Solicitors. for further information or to ask questions on what has occurred. The affected data subject will be notified without undue delay or within 72 hours.

Niall Colgan & Co. Solicitors. will consider notifying third parties such as the police, insurers, bank or credit card companies, and trade unions.

All actions will be recorded by Niall Colgan & Co. Solicitors.

9. Evaluation and Response

Once the initial incident is contained, Niall Colgan & Co. Solicitors. will carry out a full review of the causes of the breach; the effectiveness of the response(s) and whether any changes to systems, policies and procedures should be undertaken.

Existing controls will be reviewed to determine their adequacy, and whether any corrective action should be taken to minimise the risk of similar incidents occurring.

The review will consider:

• Where and how personal data is held and where and how it is stored ;
• Where the biggest risks lie, and will identify any further potential weak points within its existing measures ;
• Whether methods of transmission are secure; sharing minimum amount of data necessary ;
• Identifying weak points within existing security measures ;
• Employee and third party (data processor) awareness.

If deemed necessary a report recommending any changes to systems, policies and procedures will be considered by Niall Colgan & Co. Solicitors.