Let’s say you’re planning a train robbery in the Old West. Your posse can jump on board at the station, on the route or at the last stop. The same is true of today’s data robbers. There are three main states in which data exists across an enterprise: at rest, in motion and in use. As defenders, we need to ensure data security from creation to disposal and everything in between.
While most of us know how to protect data at rest (i.e., inactive data in storage, such as in databases), the other two states require more complex strategies. Let’s take a look at how to provide data security along the whole journey.
Tension Between Data Security and Governance
Organizations collect a tremendous amount of data from a lot of sources. Any of these sources might contain sensitive data. We often relocate data for warehousing, reporting, analytics, storage, testing and application use. Therefore, that data or artificial intelligence (AI) models might be copied multiple times, resulting in misuse. Gartner estimates that backup and archiving of personal data represents the largest area of privacy risk for 70% of businesses, up from 10% in 2018.
The rise of newer platforms, such as cloud and data lakes, can make the issue even worse. Organizations often feel a natural tension between data governance, data security and innovation. A well-governed, secure environment can spur innovation and make people more productive.
security along every stage journey
