Oliver Allanach discusses how to protect employee data in HR Magazine

Oliver Allanach, solicitor and employment law expert at Gordons, has been featured in HR Magazine discussing how HR professionals can best handle data breaches, amid a sharp rise in cyber attacks throughout 2025.

The threat from cyber criminals is continually growing, with the National Cyber Security Centre reporting that highly significant attacks have risen by 50 per cent in the past year. Four in five of these breaches involve HR files.

Oliver commented: “Employee data makes an attractive target to increasingly enterprising cyber criminals who often target organisations because of the type of data, the amount of data held and the public nature of any breach.

“We’ve seen a number of high-profile attacks in recent times, targeting some of the world’s biggest organisations.

“The first thing to note is that employers are primarily responsible for the protection of employee data.

“Procuring third-party IT platforms to capture, store and manage data in areas such as payroll management, recruitment and employee engagement is common.

“However, under data protection laws, employers are the ‘data controllers’ of personal data, even if a third party is used to process the relevant information.”

You can read Oliver’s comments in HR Magazine here.

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