eSecurity Planet: “The massive Equifax breach that recently affected 143 million consumers would have led to hugely significant fines if the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which takes effect in May 2018, had already been in place. Under the new rules, organizations that fail to protect sensitive data can be fined up to 4 percent of annual global turnover, or 20 million Euros, whichever is greater. Since Equifax had $3.15 billion in operating revenue in 2016, if the breach had taken place after the GDPR had gone into effect, the company could have faced fines of up to $126 million. What’s more, CipherCloud founder and CEO Pravin Kothari told eSecurity Planet by email, GDPR may well just be the beginning. “We expect GDPR to serve as a model for similar regulations in the U.S. and around the world, helping to protect individual privacy and thus minimize the economic threat from future breaches,” he said…”