Direct marketing services provider Direct Group has formed a new Compliance & Critical Communications business unit, which will help clients plan for and execute compliance communications in response to data breaches involving identity- or privacy-related information.
Direct Group reports that the number of data breaches increased 47% in 2008, as tallied by the Identity Theft Resource Center, with a total of 656 reported breaches compared to 446 in 2007.
The new unit is meant to help clients be in compliance with state and federal regulations that kick in once such data breaches occur. “In a lot of cases, when companies experience a data breach, they are under legal requirements to move fast to notify customers,” said Kendall Walsh, who will head the new unit along with Jeffrey Jurick. However, these companies “don’t always have experience getting large volumes of mail out the door quickly,” Walsh continued.
Jurick and Walsh join Direct Group from The Jurick Group, where they worked with insurance companies and security firms to create turnkey data breach and privacy protection programs for clients. They have worked with companies in the financial services, healthcare and education sectors.
The new unit will also assist clients with the dissemination of other time-sensitive compliance, notification or regulation-mandated notices. Industries that commonly use these services include pharmaceuticals, healthcare, retail, automotive, insurance and financial services.
