Digitized data has encompassed and consumed vast portions of the way we interact with the world both in our personal and professional capacities and the scrutiny around the governance of our data, both our private consumer and business critical information has intensified due to the rapid pace at which the data we consume is growing, as well as the complexity surrounding it’s protection, hi-lighting the need for the governance of data laws to adequately ensure that not only are the constructs of data governance understood, but that specific actions are taken to protect our information.
An inability to abide by standards set out by the relevant data governance authorities could have far reaching consequences to business owners, not only by way of penalties, fines and class action suits for negligence, but could cause unrecoverable damage to the reputation of any organization appearing to not take the privacy and confidentiality of their consumers data seriously.
We’ve compiled a list of five Data Laws that your organization should be aware of, and in most cases, have plans implemented to comply with them.
1. Know the Laws Specific to Your Location and Industry
The data laws regarding the protection and use of data often differ from industry to industry, and from one geographical location to another. For example, the medical industry may have standards regarding data retention that differ from the legal or financial industry, while many territories have implemented data sovereignty policies that prohibit certain types of data from leaving its borders. It’s critical that the IT manager of an organization is aware of the policies surrounding the retention and location of data specific to his or her industry and location.
2. Ensure that any encryption used is of the Highest Standards
Many organizations have specific data laws that govern the encryption of certain types of confidential data. It is vital however, that the standard of encryption used has been certified as compliant, is of industry standard quality at a minimum, and is regularly and thoroughly tested and verified.
3. Data is to be safeguarded both at source and during transit
The vast majority of data laws revolve around the issue of data security that is, ensuring that data is safeguarded both on the networks and physical hardware that it resides on, as well as being protected from potential malicious threats both from within and outside the organization. Ensuring that adequate security measures are taken to protect the organizations network via implementing sound and proven firewalls must be high on any IT managers agenda, while ensuring that the correct compliance measures are taken to protect the underlying hardware that data resides on is critical.
4. Data consistency checks are to be conducted regularly
While ensuring that both business critical and confidential personal information is safeguarded, many data laws contend that data can only be classified as secure when the consistency of the data is regularly and thoroughly checked to ensure that all data is free from viruses, has not been corrupted and has no parts omitted or lost.
5. Data is to be backed up regularly
Perhaps the most critical of data laws, and one often overlooked, is the adequate backing up of business critical and sensitive data. Many of the laws regarding data governance emphasize a sound backup plan, with many of the preceding laws interlinking with and being part of a backup and recovery plan. While many different industries may have specific laws controlling where backed up data can be stored and differ in terms of retention policies, it is vital that any solution implemented emphasizes security and data consistency. Redstor Backup Pro software caters for a wide variety of solutions that can be implemented to comply with data laws regardless of industry or location. Their intelligent patching methods and FIPS compliant encryption standards ensure that data is backed up both efficiently and securely, while the regular consistency checks performed by the software, as well as their comprehensive reporting suite ensure that all backup and recovery compliancy regulations of the organization are met and can be reported on.
While the policies and procedures regarding data laws may vary from industry to industry and geographic location, the understanding of the laws pertaining to your organization is critical, both in operational terms as well as for the protection of the trustworthy images organizations have worked hard to build and maintain.
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