Background

Under certain circumstances, the PDPC may accept a written voluntary undertaking from organizations that are the subject of investigations. The organization's written request to the PDPC to invoke the voluntary undertaking must be made soon after the incident is known, whether upon commencement of investigations and/or in the early stages of investigations.

The possibility of a voluntary undertaking may arise when both of these criteria are met:

• The organization can demonstrate that it has accountable policies and practices in place.
• The organization is ready with and committed to implementing its remediation plan, which should explain the likely cause(s) of the investigated incident, as well as proposed steps to address the cause(s) and the targeted completion date(s) of the proposed steps.

The PDPC may consider accepting a request for a voluntary undertaking if it finds that a voluntary undertaking achieves a similar or better enforcement outcome more effectively and efficiently than a full investigation. The acceptance of a voluntary undertaking is ultimately solely at the PDPC's discretion.

In more detail

In this round of undertakings, the PDPC reported that three companies, in the course of 2024, notified the PDPC of personal data breaches. These data breach incidents arose due to a threat actor, where the threat actor allegedly gains access through the following means:

• Using a domain user account and thereafter performing network scanning and lateral movement from the SonicWall VPN
• Accessing the membership database of registered members via the organization's website, likely due to the lack of implementation of a password for the website's administrator account, and since the website had not been tested for vulnerabilities before it went into production
• Infiltrating the organization's cloud-based platform website and system by exploiting a compromised administrator account

After the incidents, the three affected organizations implemented remedial actions to rectify the situation.

The PDPC therefore accepted undertakings from the three organizations that they will implement remedial measures, including the following:

• Implementing a strengthened password policy as well as two-factor authentication (2FA) on security appliances and remote access
• Engaging an external service provider to improve the cybersecurity setup and data protection practices and policies
• Implementing mandatory single sign-on and enabling 2FA across all internal accounts
• Training employees to reinforce security protocols within the organization
• Engaging vendors for penetration testing and endpoint protection

Key takeaways

We have observed that voluntary undertakings are becoming increasingly common as an enforcement outcome, with the PDPC being provided and accepting 44 undertakings in 2024. The attractiveness in the provision of a voluntary undertaking as an enforcement outcome is that the organization can propose a remediation plan that it deems suitable for its operations and that it does not amount to an admission of breach under the Personal Data Protection Act 2012. 

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