INTERVIEW Nigel Hawthorn - McAfee
“It’s likely that the Marketing Department is the most likely candidate to first fall foul of GDPR if only because
they have traditionally been a little more cavalier in the past regarding data. ”
Nigel Hawthorn, data private expert at McAfee
What’s Normal Behaviour?
McAfee, the US global
computer security
software company
headquartered in Santa
Clara, California, claims to be
the world’s largest dedicated
security technology company.
Comms Business Magazine
(CBM): You’ve written a book on
GDPR but what have we learned
since GDPR regulations came
into force nearly a year ago?
Nigel Hawthorn (NH): I think we
should back o a bit from the
GDPR doomsayers. I often use a
driving analogy and the law on
speeding. If you doing 90mph in
a 30mph zone then you’ll quite
rightly get the book thrown at
you but if you are doing just 31
or 32mph someone will have a
quiet word in your ear. I think a
lot of people are GDPR zealots
and that 31 or 32mph is a good
starting point.
I do believe however that we
are seeing the calm before the
storm; there’s been the big ne
for Google whilst Marriott and
Comms Business Magazine talks to Nigel Hawthorn, data privacy expert at McAfee,
one of the giants of the security sector, about channel sales opportunities, what have
we learnt from GDPR and what can we expect in the way of security challenges over
the next year
BA are still to be ruled upon
so what I would say right now
is that GDPR has been very
good at grabbing everyone’s
attention. For instance, recently
I took a call from our legal team
enquiring how we were handing
all the customer enquiry details
at a forthcoming trade show.
It’s likely that the Marketing
Department is the most likely
candidate to rst fall foul of
GDPR if only because they have
traditionally been a little more
cavalier in the past regarding
data.
We need to see more
interaction between dierent
groups as everyone has a part to
play in the responsibility for the
security of user data. McAfee
is a thirty year old company
US company and we have
personally approached GDPR
very positively. We have some
customers that have been with
us nearly all of that time but if
we can’t trace the provenance of
that customer, can’t contact them
then we delete that data.
CBM: What are the main sales
opportunities and top channel
tips for monetising data
protection solutions?
NH: Firstly, the channel
opportunities are huge and start
with the ability to be able to give
advice and guidance and help to
create discussions within your
customer base. You know I often
come across customer people
from their compliance team that
have never met people from their
IT teams! How can each judge
what data is condential? IT
people would block everything
but users couldn’t do anything.
When I speak at events I
frequently ask the audience
three questions on cloud
security; how many block the
use of Dropbox (loads of hands),
do you give users somewhere
else to go? (Mostly no) and
thirdly, how many of you have
limits on email attachments?
(the majority). It’s a Gotcha!
Moment. By answering these
questions you have cut o
the three ways users can send
large les and as a result users
will look for other, often more
dangerous ways to get around
this. Plainly their rules are not
current nor t for purpose in
2019.
CBM: What can we expect
from the next 12 months in data
security market?
NH: e ICO’s gures for Q2
2018 (the last Q for which
gures are available) shows
that only 21% of data loss
incidents were caused by cyber
incidents, meaning that over
three quarters were caused by
user actions.
Today we generate a lot
of data as individuals and in
the future we’ll need to see
more use of joined up systems
that can determine out of
character actions such as logins
from multiple and unusual
geographical locations at
unusual time.
Companies need to work
together to on the y recognise
potential problems and what is
going on – this will become more
prevalent. We collect so much
information but we need to
decide what is normal.
©sarayut_sy-stock.adobe.com
30 | Comms Business Magazine | April 2019 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
/www.commsbusiness.co.uk