Industry & Business

A research survey conducted by Amárach Research on behalf of BT Ireland found that 69% of CFOs say they are unfamiliar with Privacy Shield, while 63% are oblivious to the requirements or penalties of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation.

This is in spite of  another finding by the same survey that 45% of CFOs say they have more direct responsibility for data protection than they did three years ago, while half say managing regulatory compliance is becoming a bigger part of their job.

The research into large domestic and multi-national organisations with an average 800 employees, showed that only 28% of CFOs aware of the EU General Data Protection Regulation believe it will have a significant impact, with 62% saying it will have some impact.

Similarly, just 32% of CFOs aware of the Privacy Shield say it will have a significant impact, 48% expect some effect, while 20% believe it will have little or no consequence. Earlier research commissioned by BT Ireland showed that CIOs had a different perspective, with 33%  surveyed saying they considered a data breach as having a bigger impact on their company than the departure of a CEO or a major product recall.

In spite of a lack of awareness of key data protection agreements and legislation, 89% of CFOs feel extremely well informed or fairly well informed when signing off major IT projects.

While most CFOs admit to being uninformed when it comes to data protection, a clear majority say that technology will continue to change their role over the next three years. Some 71% expect job changes as a result of technology, with almost a quarter, 24%, expecting many or a lot of changes to their role. Clearly, CFOs foresee even greater change than their CIO peers – 67% of CIOs expected job changes according to BT Ireland research earlier this year.