GDPR will require 28,000 DPOs in Europe and US, study shows (ComputerWeekly)

Read the full article by Warwick Ashford on ComputerWeekly.com 

The staffing impact of the GDPR will be huge, with 28,000 data protection officers (DPOs) in Europe and the US alone, says the International Association of Privacy Professionals.

European Union data protection rules will require the appointment of 28,000 data protection officers (DPOs) in the next two years in Europe and the US alone, a study revealed.

Even though the final version of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires only public authorities and other entities engaged in profiling to appoint a DPO, the staffing impact will be substantial, according to a study by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP)

By the time the GDPR comes into force in early 2018, thousands of European firms outside Germany will have to hire, appoint or contract a data protection officer for the first time, but the IAPP study is the first to estimate the size of the challenge....

Warwick Ashford is security editor at Computer Weekly. In October 2016, he was announced the winner of the cyber writer category of the first Security Serious Unsung Hero Awards. He joined the CW team as chief reporter in June 2007, focusing on IT security, business continuity, IT law and regulation, compliance and governance. He was appointed security editor in May 2012. Before joining CW, he spent four years working in various roles including technology editor for ITWeb, an IT news publisher based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He came to IT journalism after three years as a course developer and technical writer for an IT training organization and eight years working in radio news as a writer and presenter at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).