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Helion’s Erik Nachbahr for WardsAuto: “Stricter Data Rules Help”

By Erik NachbahrDecember 27, 2019 · 1 min read

Helion’s President & Founder explains that while new data privacy laws are challenging for dealerships, they’re long overdue.

“I understand the dealer perspective,” Nachbahr writes in an article for WardsAuto. “Nobody wants to part with hundreds of thousands of dollars for what is perceived as an onerous new regulation.”

But despite how truck and auto retailers might feel about data privacy laws like the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and New York’s SHIELD Act, Nachbahr argues that many dealerships need the push to update their IT systems and practices. 

“Most dealerships I visit haven’t significantly upgraded their information technology networks in 10 years,” he writes. 

Considering how much reputational damage can result from a single data breach, that lack of concern for cybersecurity is incredibly risky for dealerships.

Nachbahr suggests that rather than viewing new data privacy regulations as obstacles, dealerships should seize the chance to improve their data security strategies. 

“Rather than fight it,” he writes, “dealers can choose to view it as an opportunity to take their business to the next level and to protect the years of hard work they’ve put into it.”

Read the full article on WardsAuto.

About the author

Erik Nachbahr

Founder & President, Helion Technologies

Erik Nachbahr founded Helion Technologies in 1997 and has spent nearly 30 years working exclusively with automotive and heavy truck dealerships. Helion now supports more than 2,000 dealerships and 35,000 end users with managed IT, cybersecurity, FTC Safeguards compliance, Tekion enablement, and managed AI, all under one team. A CISSP, Erik writes and speaks about the parts of dealership technology most operators inherit rather than choose: vendor sprawl, AI governance, and cyber risk. His goal is simple: make the technology work so dealerships can focus on what they do best, selling and servicing cars and heavy trucks.

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