Incident Management

Track privacy incidents from initial report through resolution. Manage response timelines, coordinate DPA notifications, and maintain a complete audit trail of every action taken.

Incident Lifecycle

Every incident follows a defined lifecycle. The system tracks status transitions and timestamps every change for compliance evidence.

1

Reported

Incident identified

2

Investigating

Gathering facts

3

Containment

Stopping the impact

4

Notification

Alerting authorities

5

Resolved

Incident closed

Severity Levels

Classify incidents by severity to prioritize response efforts and determine notification obligations.

LOW

Minor incident, no personal data at risk

MEDIUM

Limited exposure, contained quickly

HIGH

Significant data exposure, DPA notification likely

CRITICAL

Large-scale breach, immediate DPA notification required

DPA Notification

Under GDPR Article 33, personal data breaches must be reported to the supervisory authority within 72 hours of becoming aware of the breach. DPO Central tracks this deadline automatically.

72-Hour Rule

When a breach is likely to result in a risk to the rights and freedoms of individuals, notify the supervisory authority without undue delay and, where feasible, not later than 72 hours after becoming aware of it. The system tracks this deadline from the moment the incident is reported and displays countdown timers on your dashboard.

Incident Dashboard

The incidents dashboard gives you an at-a-glance view of your organization's incident status.

12

Total Incidents

3

Open

1

Critical

1

Pending DPA

Incident Timeline

Every incident maintains a detailed timeline recording all events, status changes, communications, and actions. This provides the audit trail needed for regulatory compliance.

Example Timeline

09:15
CREATEDIncident reported by IT team
09:30
UPDATESeverity elevated to HIGH
10:00
ACTIONInvestigation started, containment measures deployed
11:45
UPDATERoot cause identified: misconfigured access control
14:00
NOTIFICATIONDPA notification submitted
16:30
RESOLVEDIncident resolved, post-mortem scheduled

Response Tasks

Assign response tasks to team members to coordinate the incident response. Track completion and ensure all remediation steps are carried out.

Reporting an Incident

1

Report the Incident

Reporter

Navigate to the Incidents module and click 'Report Incident'. Provide initial details: title, description, severity, and affected systems.

2

Triage and Investigate

Privacy Officer

The privacy officer reviews the report, assigns a severity level, and begins the investigation.

  • Determine scope: what data was affected and how many subjects
  • Identify root cause and attack vector if applicable
  • Assess whether DPA notification is required
3

Contain and Mitigate

IT Team

Take immediate action to contain the incident and prevent further data loss.

4

Notify Authorities

DPO

If required, submit DPA notification within 72 hours. Notify affected data subjects if the breach poses a high risk to their rights.

5

Resolve and Document

Privacy Officer

Once the incident is fully resolved, document lessons learned, update policies, and close the incident record.