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4 NEWS 21.7.2022 A recent survey conducted by the In- formation and Data Protection Com- missioner (IDPC) amongst 259 SMEs found that knowledge about GDPR-re- lated issues was found to be medium to high amongst the majority of SMEs. e survey, conducted together with the Malta Chamber of SMEs, and the Malta Employers Association, was com- missioned by the IDPC as part of a wid- er project to increase GDPR awareness amongst the general public and the busi- ness community, particularly SMEs. is project, co-financed by the EU's Rights, Equality and Citizenship Fund 2014 to 2020, saw the creation of a se- cure online self-assessment compliance tool made available online on https:// idpc.org.mt/for-organisations/self-as- sessment-compliance-tool/ designed in a way that guides SMEs through a set of self-assessment risk levels, recom- mendations and templates to help them measure the compliance of their pro- cessing operations with GDPR require- ments and obligations. Ian Castillo, Owner and Director of ICON who designed the IDPC's online self-assessment tool said that "this latest project for the IDPC has allowed us to implement our capabilities to a nation- wide project that will help SMEs de- termine how compliant they are to the stringent requirements of GDPR." "Users who take this online self-as- sessment will be guided through 48 brief questions that cover the most im- portant provisions under the GDPR. At the end of the questionnaire, the tool generates a report based on the an- swers provided immediately helping the business identify whether its risk level is high, medium, or low. In addition to the report, the tool can measure com- pliance gaps, providing useful feedback and recommendations and offers valu- able documentation and templates of policies that any SME can adapt and im- plement within its own organisations," added Ian Castillo. "is initiative is in line with our of- fice's tasks to increase awareness on data protection among the Maltese business community. Essentially, this compliance tool assists businesses that are not yet fully familiarised with data protection to assess and identify their current risks of non-compliance to be able to mitigate them," said Ian De- guara, Information and Data Protection Commissioner. "e online platform has been de- signed and implemented in a manner that, after the SME completes a ques- tionnaire, it identifies levels of risk, measures compliance gaps and provides feedback. More importantly, we want SMEs to understand that this platform is only a risk algorithm tool developed to deliver an immediate result in the form of a report, including templates of policies, which the controller may con- sider implementing internally," added Pierre Minuti, the IDPC's Senior Tech- nical Executive. Recent research conducted by the IDPC also found that the majority of businesses are aware of the obligation which requires controllers to legitimise activities involving the processing of personal data on the basis of a valid legal ground. Although SMEs generally in- form data subjects about the processing of their personal data mostly through their websites and manual forms, the application of other data protection principles together with the implemen- tation of organisational and technical security measures are areas of the law which should be given more attention. ICON completes nationwide GDPR platform for SME's THE level of efficiency in handling cli- ents' requests and orders was already high at Express Trailers. Nonetheless given the company's constant efforts to improve its operational efficiency, it has now set up a new orders depart- ment which brings together all the work previously carried out by three separate departments "e implementation of our new ERP meant that we had to adapt to a new IT set up and this required us to re- visit our internal structures if we were to increase the efficiency and the lev- el of service to our external customers and within our internal departments," Franco Azzopardi, CEO of Express Trailers, said. "is is why we set up our new Order Department which now brings togeth- er the tasks traditionally carried out by what were formally our new bookings department, our invoicing department, and the management of all the compa- ny's contracts with its clients." e creation of Express Trailers' new Order Department was entrusted to Matthew Vella who is also responsible for the management of the company's freight-forwarding team. e new team staffing this depart- ment consists of seven highly experi- enced employees in the fields of inter- national operations, finance and freight forwarding. Albeit already very fluent in the com- pany's processes, they still underwent a rigorous training process to become experts in the processes of this new de- partment. MEDIRECT, Malta's first digital bank, continues to support Project Maleth II, the second mission under space biosci- ence experiment Project Maleth which investigates the effects of spaceflight and microgravity on diabetic foot ulcer skin tissue samples together with the microbiome. is is a full collection of bacteria, viruses and fungi that live off the skin and may be harmful if wound ulcers develop, such as in the case of patients with diabetes mellitus type 2. e Maleth Program is the first Mal- tese space bioscience project led by Professor Joseph Borg from the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Malta. Maleth II was launched on 15 July 2021. "Maleth II boarded a SpaceX Drag- on spacecraft for the launch as part of Commercial Re-supply Mission 25 (CRS25) and will stay in orbit for around 50 to 60 days," Borg said. e Maleth II bio cube will once again be remotely controlled from Malta by Arkafort Ltd in collaboration with Borg and can provide real-time telemetry data on the running experiment on board the space station. "Alongside the human skin tissue samples to study the microbiome in- volved in diabetes, there is also a yeast sample that forms part of an ongoing mini-project supported by Singleron Biotechnologies to detect at a single cell level all the genetic changes inside the yeast cells when exposed to low earth orbit conditions," Borg said. Chris Portelli, Group CTO of MeDi- rect Bank, said the bank is proud to be a partner in this exciting Maltese re- search project. "MeDirect is driven by research and innovation and believes that research projects like Project Maleth II are the driver behind innovation," he said. "Similarly, single-cell analysis can be a powerful innovative tool in under- standing the impact of space trips on biological organisms." is project is also being conduct- ed with the support of the Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs, the Ministry for Education of Malta, and Singleron Biotechnologies. e mission is being facilitated by the Research, Innovation, Development Trust (RIDT) which will be supporting University of Malta students. Express Trailers sets up orders department MeDirect supports Project Maleth II space mission for bioscience experimentation

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