What is POPIA?
The mandate of South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA, formerly known as PoPI) is to regulate the processing of personal information. With this Act, data breaches need to be reported by law. Organizations need to develop a clear data protection plan to build trust with customers, drive business growth, and avoid costly penalties. The Act came in to force on July 1, 2020.
Under POPIA, personal information collected and retained by organizations is subject to deletion. It can be difficult to guarantee all personal data is deleted if it has been exported to files outside the central database.
Fortra’s Digital Guardian can help you comply with POPIA
Fortra's Digital Guardian can assist with Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) compliance in the following ways:
Encryption and Data Security:
Under POPIA, organizations are obligated to implement reasonable technical measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access or breaches. Digital Guardian offers robust encryption capabilities for data both in transit and at rest, meaning personal information is protected from unauthorized access, even if data is intercepted or stolen.
Audit Trails and Reporting
POPIA emphasizes the importance of accountability and transparency in handling personal information. Digital Guardian supports this by maintaining detailed audit trails and providing comprehensive reporting on data access and handling activities. These audit logs are crucial for demonstrating compliance during audits and investigations, as they provide a clear record of who accessed personal information, when, and for what purpose.
Automated Policy Enforcement
Consistent application of data protection policies is a core requirement under POPIA. Digital Guardian automates the enforcement of these policies, ensuring that data protection measures are applied uniformly across all systems and processes.
Incident Detection and Response
POPIA requires organizations to notify the Information Regulator and affected individuals in case of a data breach involving personal information. Digital Guardian facilitates this by providing advanced tools for the rapid detection and response to security incidents. By quickly identifying potential breaches and triggering appropriate responses, organizations can mitigate the impact of a breach and comply with POPIA’s breach notification requirements
