Preliminary Communication
This article belongs to the Special Issue No. 1, 2026 on Security 4.0 – Cybersecurity and Digital Resilience of Information Systems (CYRES 2026)
A. Sivro and J. Azemović, “Compliance of Technical and Organizational Data Protection Measures with the New Law on Personal Data Protection of Bosnia and Herzegovina (2025) and the NIS2 Directive: A Comparative Doctrinal and Gap Analysis,” International Journal of Innovative Solutions in Engineering, no. S1, pp. 126–138, Oct. 2026, doi: 10.47960/3029-3200.2026.S1.1.126.
pages 126-138
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Abstract
Modern information systems face growing cybersecurity regulatory requirements as the EU enforces both the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the NIS2 Directive (EU 2022/2555). Although not an EU member state, Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted a new, GDPR-aligned Law on Personal Data Protection in early 2025, while regional initiatives increasingly reference NIS2 standards. This paper maps and compares the technical and organizational measures prescribed by the Bosnian law against the ten security-measure categories of Article 21 of NIS2, identifying the degree of coverage and regulatory gaps. The study used qualitative comparative document analysis, with two independent coders reviewing the primary legal texts. Results show the law conceptually addresses nine of ten categories, with a dominant pattern of partial coverage (70%): it establishes security principles but rarely reaches the technical detail required by NIS2. Only cryptography/encryption and effectiveness assessment (20%) are fully covered, while multi-factor authentication (10%) remains unaddressed. An internal asymmetry emerges within the law: more precise technical elaboration of access controls for competent authorities in the criminal-law context than for economic operators, the primary NIS2 addressees. The findings offer a basis for recommendations to BiH regulators and organizations and a starting point for future regional research.
Keywords
Personal Data Protection, NIS2, Cybersecurity, GDPR, Regulatory Compliance, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
ijise ID
34
Publication Date
In Press
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