Title: Security Policy Update – Cross-Border Data Compliance and Audit Logging (Traceability)
Version: 2.0
Effective Date: [Insert date]
Policy Owner: Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and Data Protection Officer (DPO)
Approved By: [Insert Governance Body]
Review Cycle: Annual, or sooner upon material regulatory change
- Purpose and Summary of Changes
- Purpose: Establish mandatory controls for lawful, secure, and auditable cross-border data transfers and implement standardized audit logging (traceability) for all related activities.
- Summary of changes:
- Introduces a mandatory Transfer Impact Assessment (TIA) workflow alongside DPIAs for all cross-border transfers of personal or regulated data.
- Defines approved transfer mechanisms per major jurisdictions (EU/UK, China, Brazil, etc.) and aligns with data localization obligations where applicable.
- Standardizes cross-border audit logs, integrity protection, retention, and access control requirements (“留痕”).
- Implements a centralized Transfer Register and dataset lineage evidence requirements.
- Clarifies incident response, government access request handling, and vendor oversight for onward transfers.
- Scope
- Applies to all business units, employees, contractors, and third parties processing Organization Data.
- Covers personal data, sensitive personal data, regulated data (e.g., financial, health), confidential business data, and telemetry containing personal identifiers.
- Applies to production systems, data platforms, backups, analytics environments, and SaaS services.
- Definitions
- Cross-Border Data Transfer: Making data available or accessible from one jurisdiction to another (including remote access, cloud storage in another region, or support access).
- Personal Data: Information relating to an identified or identifiable individual; Sensitive Personal Data as defined by applicable laws.
- Regulated Data: Data subject to sectoral or national regulation (e.g., health, financial, telecom).
- Data Localization: Legal requirement to store/process certain data within a jurisdiction.
- Transfer Mechanism: Legal instrument enabling cross-border transfers (e.g., SCCs, UK IDTA/Addendum, certification, consent).
- Audit Log / Traceability (留痕): Immutable records that evidence who did what, when, where, and why on data and systems, including approvals and dataset lineage.
- Controller / Processor: As defined by applicable privacy laws.
- Policy Statements
4.1 Lawfulness, Necessity, and Minimization
- Only transfer data across borders when necessary for a documented business purpose and lawful basis.
- Minimize data categories, fields, and retention. Prefer anonymization or pseudonymization before transfer where feasible.
4.2 Jurisdictional Compliance and Transfer Mechanisms
- EU/EEA and UK:
- A valid transfer mechanism is required (e.g., EU SCCs 2021/914, UK IDTA/Addendum, adequacy, or recognized certification). Conduct TIAs and implement supplementary measures consistent with applicable guidance.
- United States and other non-adequate jurisdictions:
- Use appropriate contractual clauses or certification frameworks where available; perform TIAs and apply technical safeguards to mitigate public authority access risks.
- China (PIPL and related measures):
- Follow applicable pathways (e.g., governmental security assessment, certification, or standard contract with filing) when required. Comply with data localization where mandated and any filing/record-keeping requirements.
- Brazil (LGPD) and other jurisdictions with cross-border rules (e.g., Singapore, Canada, India when restrictions are notified):
- Use permitted mechanisms (e.g., contractual clauses, adequacy, consent where valid). Observe local breach notification, onward transfer, and transparency requirements.
- Where local law imposes stricter conditions or data localization, the stricter rule prevails.
4.3 Mandatory Assessments and Approvals
- Complete a DPIA for high-risk processing and a TIA for all cross-border transfers of personal or regulated data.
- Obtain approvals from the DPO and Information Security before initiating any cross-border transfer.
- Register each approved transfer in the centralized Transfer Register.
4.4 Technical Safeguards for Transfers
- Encryption:
- In transit: TLS 1.2+ with modern cipher suites; mutual TLS where feasible.
- At rest: AES-256-equivalent or stronger. Enable disk- and application-layer encryption.
- Keys: Managed in-region where possible. Enforce least-privilege KMS access. Prefer customer-managed or hold-your-own key models for high-risk transfers.
- Data Reduction:
- Remove direct identifiers where feasible. Use pseudonymization/tokenization and attribute-based filtering to minimize exposure.
- Access Control:
- Role-based and attribute-based access control for cross-border access; just-in-time elevation; session recording for privileged access.
- Egress and Residency Controls:
- Enforce egress restrictions at network and application layers. Use cloud provider data residency features, geofencing, and region pinning.
- Monitoring and DLP:
- Enable DLP for exfiltration detection (email, endpoints, cloud storage, web). Monitor anomalous access, volume spikes, and cross-region API calls.
4.5 Vendor and Onward Transfer Controls
- Conduct privacy and security due diligence, including TIA/DPIA as applicable, before onboarding vendors with cross-border access or storage.
- Execute appropriate data processing agreements and transfer mechanisms. Prohibit onward transfers without written approval and updated records.
- Maintain a current subprocessor list and ensure audit rights.
4.6 Audit Logging and Traceability (留痕)
- Coverage:
- Log all cross-border data access, transfers, exports, approvals, and key events (dataset preparation, de-identification, encryption, key usage, and vendor access).
- Required Log Content (at minimum):
- Event type and unique ID; timestamp (UTC); user/service identity; source and destination regions/countries; system/service; dataset identifier and version/hash; data category and sensitivity; legal basis; transfer mechanism reference (e.g., SCC ID); approval record ID; encryption status and key reference; volume/record count; success/failure with error codes; onward transfer flags.
- Time and Integrity:
- Synchronize clocks via authenticated NTP/PTP. Protect logs with integrity controls (hash chains, append-only/WORM storage, or tamper-evident systems). Apply secure time-stamping for critical approvals and exports.
- Privacy in Logs:
- Do not store raw personal data in logs. Use identifiers and metadata only; mask tokens; avoid payloads.
- Centralization and Monitoring:
- Ingest logs into the central SIEM within 15 minutes of event occurrence when feasible. Define detections for unapproved transfers, unsanctioned regions, excessive volumes, and mechanism mismatches.
- Access and Separation of Duties:
- Restrict log access to authorized security, privacy, and audit personnel. Enforce least privilege and dual control for log deletion or retention changes.
- Retention and Disposal:
- Retain cross-border transfer and security event logs for a minimum of 12 months, with at least 90 days in immediately searchable storage, unless a longer period is mandated by applicable law, contract, or litigation hold. Dispose of logs securely when the retention period expires.
4.7 Record-Keeping and Evidence
- Maintain the Transfer Register with:
- Controller/processor roles; data categories; data subjects’ regions; purpose; lawful basis; transfer mechanism and documents; TIA/DPIA references; technical/organizational measures; importer/exporter identities; onward transfers; start/end dates; retention; disposal plan.
- Maintain dataset lineage:
- Record dataset versions, transformation steps, and cryptographic hashes to evidence what was transferred.
- Maintain a Record of Processing Activities (RoPA) aligned to applicable regulations.
4.8 Incident Response and Government Access Requests
- Classify and escalate cross-border incidents per the Incident Response Plan. Identify impacted jurisdictions using transfer and dataset logs.
- Notify supervisory authorities, regulators, and affected individuals in the timelines and formats required by applicable law.
- Government or law enforcement requests:
- Require written legal process; promptly notify the Legal team and DPO; assess legality and scope; challenge overbroad requests where permitted; log request details and disclosures; disclose only what is legally required; document all decisions and approvals.
4.9 Data Subject Rights and Transparency
- Ensure mechanisms to honor access, correction, deletion, restriction, objection, and portability requests across borders. Use the Transfer Register to route requests to importers when necessary.
- Provide transparent notices describing cross-border transfers, purposes, recipients, and safeguards, where required by law.
4.10 Training and Awareness
- Provide role-based training on cross-border rules, transfer mechanisms, logging requirements, and incident handling for relevant personnel (engineering, data, legal, procurement, operations).
- Procedures (Operational)
5.1 Cross-Border Transfer Request (CBTR) Workflow
- Step 1: Initiator completes CBTR form (datasets, purpose, destination, importer).
- Step 2: Data classification and minimization review; design de-identification plan if feasible.
- Step 3: DPIA/TIA completed with Legal and DPO; select transfer mechanism; define technical safeguards.
- Step 4: Security architecture review (encryption, keys, egress controls, monitoring).
- Step 5: Execute legal instruments (e.g., SCCs/IDTA/Addendum/standard contracts) and vendor DPA.
- Step 6: Configure controls and logging; validate with test transfer; enable detections.
- Step 7: Approvals by DPO and Security; register in Transfer Register; go-live.
- Step 8: Quarterly review of transfers, logs, and effectiveness of safeguards.
5.2 Logging Implementation Minimums
- Standardize JSON log schema with required fields; include dataset version/hash and transfer mechanism ID.
- Configure cloud and platform services to log cross-region access and data egress; enable object-level access logging for storage buckets.
- Protect logs with WORM-capable storage for critical events; apply daily hash sealing and external timestamping.
5.3 Key Management
- Use region-scoped KMS where available; restrict key material from leaving required jurisdictions.
- For high-risk transfers, use application-layer encryption or client-side encryption. Document key custodians and recovery procedures.
5.4 Exceptions
- Document exceptions with risk acceptance by the CISO and DPO, include compensating controls, timeline, and review date. Record in the Exceptions Register.
- Roles and Responsibilities
- DPO: Owns compliance interpretation, TIAs/DPIAs approval, Transfer Register oversight.
- CISO: Owns technical safeguards, logging, monitoring, and incident response alignment.
- Legal: Advises on transfer mechanisms and jurisdictional obligations; maintains templates.
- Data Owners: Ensure minimization, accuracy, lawful basis, and timely review of transfers.
- Procurement/Vendor Management: Enforces contractual and onboarding controls for importers/subprocessors.
- Security Operations: Monitors logs, investigates alerts, maintains SIEM detections.
- Engineering/Data Platform: Implements encryption, residency controls, DLP, and log pipelines.
- Compliance and Assurance
- Metrics:
- Percentage of transfers with completed DPIA/TIA.
- Coverage of required log fields and ingestion latency.
- Detection-to-response time for unapproved transfer attempts.
- Quarterly review completion and remediation rate.
- Audits:
- Internal audits at least annually; external audits as required. Provide Transfer Register and log evidence.
- Enforcement
- Violations may result in disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment or contract, and may trigger regulatory notification. Unapproved cross-border transfers are prohibited and treated as security incidents.
- References (Non-exhaustive)
- EU GDPR and EU SCCs (2021/914)
- UK GDPR and UK IDTA/Addendum
- China Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) and applicable cross-border transfer measures
- Brazil LGPD
- APEC Cross-Border Privacy Rules (CBPR), where applicable
- Organization Information Security Policy, Privacy Policy, Incident Response Plan, Vendor Risk Management Standard
Appendix A – Transfer Register Required Fields (Minimum)
- Transfer ID; business owner; controller/processor role; datasets and versions; data categories and sensitivity; subjects’ regions; purpose; lawful basis; transfer mechanism and document references; importer/exporter; destination countries/regions; technical and organizational measures; approvals; start date; review cadence; retention and disposal; onward transfers; incident references.
Appendix B – Standard Cross-Border Log Fields (Minimum)
- Event ID; UTC timestamp; actor (user/service) ID; source system/region; destination system/region; dataset ID and version/hash; data category; record count/size; legal basis; transfer mechanism ID; approval record ID; encryption state and key reference; network identifiers (e.g., egress gateway); result status and error code; onward transfer flag; correlation IDs.
Appendix C – Quick Guidance on Mechanism Selection
- Adequate jurisdictions: Use adequacy when applicable and document it.
- Non-adequate jurisdictions: Use SCCs/IDTA/Addendum or approved certifications; conduct TIA and apply supplementary measures.
- Jurisdictions with localization or filing obligations: Consult Legal/DPO to determine required pathway (e.g., assessment, certification, standard contract with filing) before transfer.
