The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the European Union law that came into force on May 25, 2018. Its main purpose is to protect the personal data of individuals and grant them greater control over how their information is collected, used, and stored.
The GDPR has a global scope — it applies to any organization, inside or outside the EU, that processes the data of EU residents. Under this regulation, all personal data must be processed lawfully, fairly, and transparently, and used only for legitimate and specific purposes.
Organizations must also implement technical and organizational measures to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the data. Non-compliance can lead to severe penalties — up to €20 million or 4 % of the company’s global annual revenue, whichever is higher.
Key Principles
The GDPR is built on seven fundamental principles that guide all data-processing activities:
- Lawfulness, fairness and transparency – personal data must be collected and processed in a fair, clear and lawful manner.
- Purpose limitation – data should only be collected for specific, legitimate purposes.
- Data minimization – only the minimum amount of data necessary should be processed.
- Accuracy – data must be kept accurate and up to date.
- Storage limitation – information should be kept only as long as necessary for its intended purpose.
- Integrity and confidentiality – data must be secured against unauthorized access, loss, or alteration (through encryption, pseudonymization, and access controls).
- Accountability – organizations must be able to demonstrate compliance with all GDPR principles.
Rights of Individuals
The GDPR recognizes a series of rights that empower individuals over their data, including:
- The right of access, rectification, and erasure (“right to be forgotten”).
- The right to data portability, enabling users to transfer their data to another provider.
- The right to restrict or object to processing.
- The right not to be subject to automated decision-making, including profiling, without human intervention.
These rights enhance transparency, digital trust, and ethical handling of personal information.
Data Protection Impact Assessments and Privacy by Design
The regulation requires Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) whenever an activity poses a high risk to individuals’ rights — for instance, large-scale surveillance, behavioral analysis, or processing of sensitive data.
It also introduces the principle of Privacy by Design and by Default, which means that data protection must be built into every project from the start, and that systems must be configured to collect only the minimum data necessary.
In this context, encryption, pseudonymization, access controls, and incident management procedures are essential cybersecurity measures.
GDPR and Cybersecurity
The GDPR and cybersecurity are deeply interconnected.
Organizations are required to protect personal data from unauthorized access, loss, or damage, and to notify security breaches (data breaches) to the competent authority — and, in certain cases, to affected individuals.
Compliance with the GDPR therefore not only reduces legal risks, but also strengthens digital resilience, improves incident-response capabilities, and builds trust among clients and users.
Conclusion
Complying with the GDPR is more than a legal obligation — it’s a core component of cybersecurity and corporate responsibility.
Implementing its principles helps organizations safeguard data, prevent incidents, and foster a culture of trust and accountability in the digital ecosystem.