Cybersecurity and Data Protection: Some Empirical Observations, and a Lacuna in the PDPA?

Abstract

On the occasion of amendments to the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA), it is timely to review past decisions by the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) to determine what a reasonable standard of data protection in relation to cybersecurity is. In general, a review of PDPC cases confirms that cybersecurity is rising in prominence as an aspect of data protection, and that cybersecurity-related data breaches tend to be more severe in impact in terms of the amount of personal data breached. To stave off data breaches, data organisations would do well to adopt a defence in depth strategy, and to ensure that their data intermediaries and vendors are well-apprised of their data protection obligations; however, it appears that non-data intermediary vendors can cause data breaches for which no liability can attach. While this may not be a desirable state of affairs, it is also not easy to remedy within the current data protection paradigm of the PDPA.