72-hour breach notification process documented
Why it matters
GDPR Art. 33 requires that a personal data breach be notified to the competent supervisory authority within 72 hours of the controller becoming aware of it — not 72 hours after they feel ready, not 72 hours after legal review, 72 hours flat. Without a documented breach notification procedure specifying who is responsible, what constitutes 'becoming aware,' and which supervisory authority is relevant, this deadline is structurally unachievable. Art. 34 separately requires notifying affected individuals without undue delay when the breach poses high risk to their rights. An organization that discovers a breach and has no runbook will spend the 72 hours figuring out process instead of executing it.
Severity rationale
Low because breach notification is a procedural obligation that only activates at breach time — but missing the 72-hour window after a breach is one of the most commonly cited standalone GDPR violations, carrying significant independent fines.
Remediation
Create INCIDENT_RESPONSE.md at the repo root with a breach notification runbook that covers detection, containment, regulatory notification, and user notification.
# Data Breach Response — INCIDENT_RESPONSE.md
## Designated Incident Owner
Role: [Engineering Lead / CTO]
Contact: [email / Slack handle]
## Hour 0-1: Detect and Contain
- Assess scope: what data, how many users, attack vector
- Contain: rotate credentials, revoke tokens, isolate affected services
## Hour 1-72: Regulatory Notification (GDPR Art. 33)
- If breach "likely to result in risk" to data subjects: notify supervisory authority
- UK: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/data-security-and-protection/report-a-breach
- EU: find national DPA at edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/members
- Required: data categories, approx. number of subjects, likely consequences, measures taken
## User Notification (GDPR Art. 34)
- Required when high risk to individuals' rights
- Email within 72 hours: describe what happened, data affected, actions taken, user steps
## Post-Incident
- Root cause analysis within 5 business days
- Document in incident log: date, scope, notifications sent, remediation
Ensure every team member knows who the incident owner is and how to reach them at any hour.
DetectionPro
The detection method for this pattern is part of AuditBuffet Pro.
The full method (what to look for, pass and fail conditions, and how results get reported) ships inside the GDPR Readiness Audit. The pattern definition, severity rationale, and remediation remain openly licensed under CC-BY-4.0.
External references
- gdpr · Art. 33 — Notification of personal data breach to supervisory authority within 72 hours
- gdpr · Art. 34 — Communication of personal data breach to the data subject
- nist-csf:2.0 · RS.CO-3 — Information is shared consistent with response plans
Taxons
History
- 2026-04-18·v1.0.0·Initial import from gdpr-readiness·automated