Interview | 05 Oct 2017

Understanding GDPR with Abeed of InfoSaas

Posted in Industry news, Interview, Client,

In today’s digital world, InfoSaaS has revolutionised and redefined information security by helping businesses achieve certification through cost-effective, cloud-based information security solutions.

In need of marketing and PR support, InfoSaaS called on The Work Crowd to help them get their message out to the wider B2B community. In light of the new data protection regulations coming out in May 2018 (the dreaded GDPR), we thought it was about time we interviewed Abeed Janmohamed, Commercial Director of InfosaaS, to find out more.

Can you tell us a little about GDPR and why it’s so important to become compliant?

"If you are a business that works with or in the EU, then GDPR affects you. The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) takes effect on 25th May 2018, and will affect the management and processing of all personal data throughout the countries of the European Union. Even following Brexit, it will remain a significant element of ongoing data protection legislation within the UK."

"From 2018, GDPR no longer requires data controllers to register with their local Data Protection Authority. Instead, they will be required to willingly communicate information about their data processing activities and specifically how they will provide protection for personal data. A clear Privacy Impact Assessment builds confidence, trust and is now widely acknowledged as being one of the best ways of doing this."

As one of the fasted growing information security companies, what’s next for InfoSaaS?

Our big differentiator has always been the quality of our journalist and media data. We employ 130 media researchers worldwide who interact with journalists and the media on a daily basis. This ensures that the data that our clients are using is completely up to date. We are more likely to have a personal mobile telephone number, direct email address and direct land line number than other providers.

Up to date and relevant information is obviously key for your users, how do you ensure the data you provide is?

"It’s been an exciting journey over the last few years, but with the new GDPR legislation, businesses are really starting to give information security the focus it deserves. As such, we’re working with organisations globally, from start-ups to governments, assisting them to ensure their information security practices are as good as they can be for the world we operate in today. We’re having regular discussions with various partners around how we can integrate our product, so watch this space for some exciting partnership announcements!"

"We’re always keen for feedback from our customers and the community about how else we can assist their information security needs. To date, we’ve been very agile in our adoption of additional standards (such as ISO27018), which has delighted our customer base and allows them to get a much simpler and holistic view of how their business information security looks today.

How did The Work Crowd fit into this picture? What were you looking for when you registered and what was your experience with the platform and our community?

We were looking for PR and marketing support to get our message out there, specifically around GDPR. We realised that this was a very niche area, to say the least, but were hopeful that we might find someone who had relevant experience. Very quickly after advertising the role, I received enquiries from very qualified candidates on the platform, but one stood out above the rest – B2B Tech PR expert, Marc. He had some recent experience working in this sector and already understood GDPR, so we jumped at the chance to work with him.

Without The Work Crowd, we would still be looking for support today. Marc has engaged well with our team and has done some amazing work getting our articles published, getting us to comment publicly on other stories, and helping us with our press releases. Overall, it’s been a successful experience.

 

Tagged in data, GDPR, client-story,