The Importance of Proper Governance of Access to Critical Data

Securely protecting the most sensitive information is vital. Without proper governance, there may be disruptions to business operations and revenue loss. Conversely, effective governance maximizes revenue, customer satisfaction, and operational cost-efficiency.

To design appropriate controls, you must first know the importance of your data. This requires intimate knowledge of your records and information as well as the regulations that govern it and the consequences the breach could have on you.

It’s difficult to pinpoint crucial data elements, but it is worth the effort. It allows your organization to better align goals and tasks precisely, leading to better product quality, higher revenue, and reduced risks. It also allows you to reduce the number of tasks that need to be completed which can free up resources.

Data that is essential to your business can be defined as data that is lost or compromised could have a moderately to a significantly negative impact on the capacity to carry out essential functions and services. It must be protected with security measures that are appropriate with the risk and are set out in your security policy.

If you’re trying to determine if your data is important, consider the three components that make up any access control system: who, what and what, who, and how. What is the relationship to the asset itself such as an energy plant, computer system or database. Who are the users requesting access. It could be people or computers and their level of risk. What is the degree of security required? It is determined by rules and principles, like separation of privileges and the lowest privilege.

A business must also consider the amount of time it’s willing examine and manage critical information. For instance, if your company doesn’t keep records long enough to be considered critical, it can save time and money by making sure you delete them promptly. This should be carried out in a controlled manner to ensure that all documents that are still needed are reclassified.

You should also set up a process to update and declutter your records and information. This involves identifying and classifying the critical data. This includes deleting any data that is no longer needed or Continued valuable and making sure that all remaining data is erased in a timely fashion. This will ensure that your business only keeps the important data for its operations, and that it does not store any data that could be accessed.

Companies must continually evaluate their data and security controls as the cybersecurity landscape evolves. By implementing a central and easy-to-use method of managing data, businesses can lower risks, improve efficiency and drive satisfaction of customers. For more details on how to effectively manage your data download this white paper.