The Information Regulator, the agency responsible for enforcing the Protection of Personal Information Act (Popia), is starting to flex its muscles.

Among other things, the regulator is tasked with investigating data breaches – including cyberattacks – and will not hesitate to mete out punishment on companies and government entities that don’t take the protection of customer or citizen information seriously.

Already engaged in an enforcement action over a cyberattack at the department of justice & constitutional development – the department was fined R5-million – the regulator is seeing a flood of self-reported incidents reach its offices. In fact, more than a thousand such incidents have been reported this year alone, a sharp increase from the 2022 figure of about 600.

TechCentral recently welcomed the Information Regulator’s chair, Adv Pansy Tlakula, onto the TechCentral Show (TCS) for a discussion about the regulator, its enforcement actions and some of the investigations it is pursuing.

In the TCS interview, Tlakula chats about:

• Her day-to-day duties as chair of the Information Regulator;

• Popia and the Promotion of Access to Information Act and the Information Regulator’s role in enforcing both pieces of legislation;

• What organisations in both the private and public sectors should know about the work of the regulator;

• Enforcement actions that it has been involved in, including the ongoing matter involving the department of justice and a resolution to a dispute with pharmacy chain Dis-Chem over a recent incident involving customer information;

• The reported cyberattack on the State Security Agency and what the regulator plans to do about it;

• The rising number of cyberattacks on public sector infrastructure, what’s driving it and what can be done about it; and

• Much more besides.

Don’t miss a great discussion! TechCentral