When Good Just Isn’t Good Enough: STRATEGIZE, IDENTIFY & COMPLY
Many are starting to visualize 2015 as “the year of change”. There have been quite a few companies that have been going through rough times recently all due to the lack of focus on Information Governance. It seems that many organizations haven’t put in place policies and solution tools to collect data and mitigate the risk of data breaches. Others see companies like Sony and Target’s situation as a perfect example of what your organization should avoid. These incidents display just how high information governance should be on their priority list. Even the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has shared valuable insight on implementing certain regulations as it relates to data breaches. First, their concerns, which should be everyone’s is the potential for misuse of consumer information. Secondly, as data stores build within a company so does the interest from outside hackers, creating a risky situation.
You must ask yourself, how and why would an IT Records Manager or Information Governance Professional develop a strategic plan to implementing data governance? Projects like these take time but it’s time well spent protecting the company’s assets and defending against potential litigation cost. When identifying the value of any information, two things should take place. First, identifying if the data is of high or low value is a key. Once the business rules are established, managers are empowered to prioritize what business-related documents should be retained. This process typically provides the company with valuable statistics that result in an action plan for data retention rules and prioritization.
Why should there be a larger focus on information governance? Year after year compliance requirements become more difficult to maintain. On top of that, there have been millions of customers Personal Identifiable Information (PII) inadvertently released to the public in previous years. This can destroy customer loyalty, something no company wants and must defend against. From a personal and consumer standpoint, I’ve taken interest in preventing identity theft and ruling out certain payment methods.
Research shows hackers stay two steps ahead of their targets at all times. So the question remains, what actions must you take as a company?
1) STRATEGIZE: Create an information governance process to fit the company.
2) IDENTIFY: What data is really important and what isn’t?
3) COMPLY: Implement tools and establish data controls so that the risk of a data breach is drastically reduced.
CyberScrub play a fundamental role in helping organizations with data retention policies so that high valued data is kept safe and lower valued data is erased beyond recovery. With our tools you can truly minimize your company’s risk of being breached.