Breach management and response plan
The plan the guideline expects you to have: roles, escalation, decision points and who speaks to the Commissioner, joined up with your IT incident process so the two run in parallel rather than in sequence.
PDPA Data Breach Notification Readiness
Containing a breach and notifying one are different jobs, done by different people, often at the same time. Section 12B and JPDP's guideline set the second job a clock, a harm test and a paper trail. We build the process, the templates and the register before you need them, and stand beside you when you do.
Breach Notification Readiness
What it is
A readiness programme for the legal notification side of a personal data breach. We put in place the breach management and response plan the guideline expects, a significant harm assessment your team can apply under pressure, notification templates for the Commissioner and for individuals, a breach register, processor contract terms and a simulation exercise to prove it works.
Why organisations need it
Section 12B of the amended PDPA requires a data controller to notify the Personal Data Protection Commissioner of a personal data breach as soon as practicable, and to notify affected individuals without unnecessary delay where the breach causes or is likely to cause significant harm. Failing to notify the Commissioner is an offence carrying a fine of up to RM250,000, imprisonment of up to two years, or both. JPDP's guideline puts numbers on it: 72 hours to the Commissioner, seven days to data subjects after that, and a register kept for at least two years. A technically well-handled incident can still be a notification failure.
What the engagement covers
Where you already have an Incident Response Retainer, this is the notification layer that sits alongside it. Where you do not, it stands on its own. For the hour-by-hour sequence, see our first 72 hours checklist.
Significant harm assessment
A structured test your DPO can apply quickly: physical harm, financial loss, a negative effect on credit records, damage to or loss of property, and scale above 1,000 affected individuals. Each decision recorded with its reasons, including decisions not to notify.
Notification templates
Pre-drafted notices to the Commissioner and to affected individuals, with the content the guideline asks for, plus the written explanation needed if the Commissioner is notified late.
Breach register
A register that records every personal data breach, notified or not, kept for at least two years, in the form an investigator would expect to see.
Processor contract terms
Clauses requiring your data processors to tell you promptly about a breach and to help you meet your notification duties, plus a check of your key processor contracts against them.
Simulation exercise
A tabletop exercise that runs a realistic breach through the harm test, the notification decision and the drafting, against the clock, with the people who would actually do it.
What the business gets out of it
The first 72 hours go to decisions, not drafting
With the harm test, templates and roles agreed in advance, the time on the clock goes into understanding the breach rather than deciding who writes to whom.
Every decision is defensible
A recorded significant harm assessment is what shows the Commissioner you took the duty seriously, especially when you decided a breach did not need notifying.
IT and legal stop tripping over each other
Containment and notification run in parallel with clear owners, so neither waits for the other and nobody promises the regulator something the technical team cannot support.
Your processors are on the hook too
Most breaches start at a vendor. Contract terms that make them tell you promptly are the difference between 72 hours and finding out from the news.
The register answers the first question
An investigator's first request is usually your breach history. A maintained register answers it in minutes and shows a pattern of control rather than a single bad day.
Your people have done it before
The guideline asks for periodic training and simulation. A realistic drill is the fastest way to find the gap between the plan and what people actually do.
How it works
How the engagement runs
01
Current state review
How breaches are reported, assessed and escalated today, who holds the relationship with the Commissioner, and what your processor contracts say.
02
Design
The response plan, harm assessment method, roles and escalation, fitted to your existing incident process rather than replacing it.
03
Templates and register
Notification templates for the Commissioner and individuals, the late-notice explanation, and the breach register set up and populated with any recent breaches.
04
Processor terms
Model clauses and a review of your key processor contracts against them.
05
Simulation
A tabletop exercise against the clock, with a short report on what worked and what did not.
06
Standby (optional)
Notification support during a live breach, alongside your IT team or our incident responders, to make and document the notification decisions.
Deliverables
What you receive
Breach management and response plan
Roles, escalation, decision points and communication, aligned with your IT incident process.
Significant harm assessment tool
A structured method and record for deciding whether and whom to notify.
Notification templates
Commissioner notice, data subject notice and late-notification explanation.
Breach register
Set up, populated and kept in a form suitable for at least two years' retention.
Processor clause pack
Model breach notification and assistance clauses, and a gap list for key processor contracts.
Simulation report
What happened in the exercise, the gaps found and the fixes, with owners.
Who it is for
Who this is built for
Industries
Company sizes
Departments
FAQ
FAQ
No. Under the guideline you notify the Commissioner where the breach causes or is likely to cause significant harm, which includes physical harm, financial loss, a negative effect on credit records, damage to or loss of property, or a breach affecting more than 1,000 individuals. Every breach should still go in your register, with the reasons for the decision.
The Act says as soon as practicable. JPDP's guideline sets 72 hours for the Commissioner, with a written explanation and supporting evidence if you are late, and seven days after that for affected individuals where significant harm is likely.
Failing to notify the Commissioner under section 12B is an offence carrying a fine of up to RM250,000, imprisonment of up to two years, or both. The reputational cost of individuals hearing about it first is usually larger.
The duty to notify the Commissioner sits with the data controller. Processors are expected to tell their controllers promptly and help them meet the deadline, and controllers are expected to write that into the contract. We help processors build that escalation too.
The retainer puts responders on call to contain a security incident. This builds the notification process, the harm test, templates, register and processor terms that the PDPA requires. Many clients have both, and they are designed to work together.
The notification is made by your organisation, usually through your DPO. We prepare the assessment and the drafting and support the decision, and we work alongside your legal counsel where legal advice is needed.