Meeting regulatory compliance requirements has long been a standard for Australian businesses. However, in recent years, the pressure has escalated dramatically, with major incidents drawing significant media attention and public scrutiny. For instance, a financial services data breach in March 2023 compromised 14 million customer records; and in 2022, a telco hack affected up to 10 million customers. These incidents underscore the importance of data security and compliance.

With the data explosion happening under our feet, fuelled by the AI era, businesses face unprecedented challenges in maintaining strict data governance. Here are some of the ways in which organisations can navigate these complexities to comply with legislation such as the Privacy Act 1988 and PCI DSS:

Identify relevant regulations

Not all regulations will be relevant and identifying applicable regulations is the first step towards optimising resources towards compliance. Organisations will need to comply with appropriate local and international industry-standard data security and data privacy requirements, as well as internal requirements to protect sensitive data.

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Data inventory and classification

Understanding what data you have, where it is stored, and how it is used is critical for data management. Lineage capabilities provide clarity on data origins, changes, and access.

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Consent management

Consent management is critical to reducing risk and liability. Managing permissions from individuals to collect, use and share their data is essential for regulatory compliance.  

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Incident response and business continuity

A robust incident response and business continuity plan is critical to maintain operations during disruptions, minimising damage and compliance repercussions.

Business continuity features, guided by metrics like Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO), help safeguard mission-critical data and maintain uptime during disasters.

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Training and awareness

Regular training and awareness programs for team members are vital to maintaining a culture of compliance.  

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Continuous monitoring, reporting and improvement

Auditing data with reporting, monitoring and lineage capabilities ensures visibility into data protection efforts. Maintaining high-quality data and routinely auditing it ensures integrity and compliance.

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Certification, documentation and record-keeping

Compliance certifications provide assurance that data is secured with robust protections. Proper documentation and record-keeping demonstrate compliance during audits and inspections.

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Data Compliance in Summary

Staying ahead of data compliance in the AI era demands a comprehensive and proactive approach. While maintaining compliance can feel like being on an arduous treadmill, with the right data compliance processes, a proactive strategy and a tech partner to help implement and automate through the right tools, your organisation can scale and minimise disruptions while maintaining regulatory compliance.

This is part 2 of our Data Governance series, where we explore the critical role of scalable data governance, focusing on the five core components: Compliance, Security, Privacy, Interoperability, and Access. Our next post will dive into 'Security'.