The summer months usually follow a seasonal trend that involves many organisations slowing down, with staff taking leave and buying decisions starting to lag. The education space, for example, stops completely with staff and students alike benefitting from up to 6 weeks. IT staff aren’t likely to have it so easy – systems need to be protected all year round and with less staff around, the summer can be an ideal time for important project work to take place.

While staff may take a break, cyber-criminals won’t. The growing threat to data security is one that cannot be ignored, with several complex cyber-attacks having taken place in recent months. These attacks have shown time and time again the ability of hackers and cyber-criminals to take down networks and cause havoc using a variety of programmes, such as worms, ransomware and deletion tools.

Staying on top of data management and protection doesn’t have to become a laborious task, regardless of the time of year, an organisation following best-practices will already be one step ahead.

Redstor best practice guide around Data Management

Data Management is becoming an increasingly important feature of business operations, due to the increased digitisation. By focusing on four measures, organisations can successfully look after their data management strategies.

Data Governance

Data Governance is used by organisations to help align the processes and technologies to manage data strategically. The goal is to bring together all the data from across the organisation to create a consistent view of a company’s data. This will allow the firm to utilise this data to make more informed decisions, remove redundant data, and increase the accuracy and quality of its data.

Data Stewardship

Data is a valuable corporate asset and needs to be actively looked after. Data stewardship, leadership and accountability is used to establish and enforce data standards, improve data quality and improve data management capabilities within a company. With effective stewardship, data quality will be improved, data redundancy will be reduced and the appropriate security and controls will be established to safeguard the data.

Data Quality

Data Quality is one of the main reason that companies initiate data management programs. Data quality issues are a problem in most companies. There are many examples of how poor data quality has led to problems for corporations. It is key to have quality data as it enables organisations to make more informed decisions, as they will be able to use analytical tools to see target markets, approximate customer size and other useful analytical statistics.

Data Security

One of the more critical areas of business is the protection of critical data; data security covers the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data regardless of the form the data may take: It also can be regarded as the protection of data from unauthorised (accidental or intentional) modification, destruction, or disclosure. When looking at ensuring that data is secure there are many steps businesses should take to ensure that data is secure.

Policy driven protection

By implementing data protection policies, an organisation can begin to safeguard itself from cyber-attack and reduce the likelihood of a data breach. Stopping data breaches should be a top priority for many organisations due to the damaging effects to their operations and reputation. In addition to those damages, data breaches can breach legal requirements and end up with organisations being fined by data protection authorities such as the ICO (Information Commissioners Office).

Automation can add another layer of protection by streamlining operations, ensuring policies are followed correctly and reducing the chance for human error to occur. By implementing these processes an organisation, or the IT staff at least, can gain peace of mind in their environment and how it is protected. Ideal for scorching summer months when a cool head is needed.