There are a lot of issues inherent with the growth of data. Most of the growth is unstructured data. We are creating more, saving more, accessing more and in general, interacting with data in amounts that just 5 years ago would have been seen as ridiculous. Along with the increase in amounts of data we are seeing an increase in data loss that results from external threats, internal malicious behavior, accidental loss and lack of controls.
Passwords, proprietary data, PII, and other information that was once held in the hands of few are now seemingly available to everyone. With the increase of our electronic footprint it is becoming more difficult to know if our personal information is being secured. From a corporate point of view it’s challenging to prevent data loss.
Creating a good data governance plan, both for individuals and corporations, will go a long way to preventing data loss. As an individual, you can create passwords that are not as simple as <Password>, create an email account solely for on-line shopping, use one credit card that you can monitor closely for use on-line. Companies have greater challenges, but there are many tools that can be utilized, not only to prevent data loss, but to insure that when a loss occurs a limited amount of data can be accessed. The first step is knowing what you have, where it is, who owns it and who is accessing it.
How do you keep your data secure?
