HawkTech AS & IRI, Inc. Partner to Help Firms Protect PII Subject to DPDP Law
India-based Services and US-based Software Firms Form An “Alliance for Compliance”
Noida, India – 15 March 2024 – Hawktech Advance Solutions (HAS, www.hawktech.co.in), a cybersecurity and cloud solutions integrator, and Innovative Routines International (IRI, www.iri.com), a data management and masking ISV, are partnering to help customers assess and reduce the risk of data breaches and privacy law violations, particularly those proscribed by the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act published in India on 11 August 2023.
The DPDP Act mandates that enterprises, educational institutions, hospitals, insurance companies, and other entities handling PII / PHI data protect it. The law applies regardless of whether such data was originally collected in digital form, or in non-digital form and later becomes digitized.
With India’s rapidly evolving digital landscape and the need for data and identity protection, HAS is building a robust services portfolio that will include proven IRI data masking and management solutions. The joint offering will address the significant requirements of the DPDP Act, and the greater responsibility for handling Personally Identifiable Information (PII) behind it. HAS also provides Managed Security Services, including industry risk and third-party risk management.
IRI provides software and support to discover, deliver, delete, or de-identify sensitive data (like names and numbers, other contact or account information, and demographic details) in structured, semi-structured, and unstructured sources on-premise and in the cloud. IRI Data Protector suite tools like DarkShield use multiple search methods and masking functions to scan and protect (plus extract or erase) PII in many database, file, documents, and image formats.
IRI software and services will be used in conjunction with HAS services to classify, search and mask PII, as well as erase or correct data subject to the rights of Data Principals under DPDP law. The data discovery and extraction features in IRI software can also be used to help notify those whose data had not been masked (presumably prior to this venture), in the event of a data breach.
According to HAS Founding Director Amit K Sharma, the “DPDP Act makes it incumbent upon Internet companies, mobile apps and businesses that collect or process citizens’ personal data to now adhere to its requirements, and stiff penalties for its violations. We’ve partnered with IRI so our clients can better understand, document, and meet the obligations of DPDP provisions in their business, and at the same time, maintain data availability, integrity, and confidentiality.”
IRI Director of Worldwide Alliances Luluk Soraya added that “our partnership with HawkTech Advance Solutions represents another proud ‘alliance for compliance’ that IRI is making at the country level. Together we can help firms in India understand, comply with, and prove that they are following the DPDP Act as they collect, process, and store PII and related data.”
Press Contacts:
Meghna Gupta meghna.gupta@hawktech.co.in
Lisa Mangino lisam@iri.com
