The University of Connecticut is offering new training courses in data privacy at the Stamford campus. It is the first institution of higher education, and the 11th organization in the nation, to be certified to offer training for Data Protection Officers in the wake of the European Union\u2019s new data privacy regulations.<\/p>\n
The General Data Protection Regulation, known as GDPR, is a new privacy law that affects companies doing business with the European Union. If those companies receive or exchange personal data, they must be in compliance with this regulation.<\/p>\n
\nUConn offers a pathway for its stakeholders to be compliant with what is a very complex new regulation. — Debbie Gunzelman<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The goal of the regulation, which took effect May 25, 2018, is to better safeguard personal data. To be in compliance with the law, each business, regardless of size, must designate a Data Protection Officer, also known as a DPO<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\u201cUConn offers a pathway for its stakeholders to be compliant with what is a very complex new regulation,\u201d says Debbie Gunzelman, director for non-credit programs at the Connecticut Information Technology Institute (CITI), part of UConn\u2019s School of Business in Stamford. \u201cWithout a designated DPO, companies that handle sensitive data won\u2019t be able to engage in business with the European Union.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jon O\u2019Keefe, a data privacy security expert at Logical Operations, a CITI professional-development training partner, says organizations that ignore the new mandates do so at their own risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would argue that the potential harm that comes from the loss of your customers\u2019 personally identifiable information massively outweighs the cost of properly training your team to be \u2018privacy champions,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cThe cost of remediating a potentially preventable incident is typically in the millions, and the cost of your customers abandoning your brand is even far more devastating. GDPR training will help any organization be on the forefront of protecting their customers\u2019 data.\u201d<\/p>\n
UConn\u2019s new training courses for GDPR-compliance are offered in partnership with the highly respected International Association of Privacy Professionals. The IAPP<\/a> offers the world\u2019s first and only accredited global certification in data privacy.<\/p>\n
The IAPP courses are designed to accommodate candidates from various organizations and backgrounds, regardless of their interaction with the European Union.<\/p>\n
\u201cGDPR is going to change the way everyone, not just EU citizens, view data privacy,\u201d O\u2019Keefe says. \u201cIn the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the Equifax hack, people are more aware of their right to privacy and what it means. Organizations that choose to ignore this shift in mindset, from security to privacy, are in danger of paying large fines, remediation costs and the abandonment of their brand.\u201d<\/p>\n
IAPP\u2019s GDPR certifications are a small sampling of courses offered in the field of IT-Security training, and professional development through UConn\u2019s Connecticut Information Technology Institute. \u201cThe CITI program can help IT professionals transition into a rapidly growing field,\u201d says O\u2019Keefe.<\/p>\n
The most popular GDPR certification course currently offered through UConn CITI is a CIPM\/CIPP-E<\/a> course. This combination provides the training and certification necessary for an individual to become designated as a DPO within any organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe new GDPR regulations have generated curiosity and due diligence among the corporate and institutional communities in Fairfield County,\u201d Gunzelman says. \u201cUConn is now in the position to provide answers and actionable solutions as they relate to obtaining certification for GDPR compliance.\u201d<\/p>\n
CITI\u2019s General Data Protection Regulation course descriptions, dates, times, and costs are now available on the CITI website<\/a>. For more information, please call 203-251-9516 or visit the CITI website at: https:\/\/citi.uconn.edu\/GDPRCertification<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UConn is offering new training courses to prepare companies to comply with European Union data privacy regulations that went into effect this past May.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":140175,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1715,88,1862,174],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2105],"class_list":["post-140042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-impact","category-global-affairs","category-busn","category-uconn-stamford"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-13 22:20:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140042"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140211,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140042\/revisions\/140211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/140175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140042"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=140042"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=140042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}