Data risk management is essential to any business or organization that stores sensitive and valuable information. In today's world of ever-shifting cyber threats and strict regulatory requirements relating to data storage, it's important to shift the conversation from one that is merely concerned with data improvement to the more pressing issue of how data risk affects business value.
Brave New Landscape for Managing Data Risk
It is fairly obvious that secured data is critical to an organization's financial value, especially in light of the data amassed by huge tech companies such as Twitter, Google and Facebook. As the Wall Street Journal noted, a large share of potential risk these business face is based on their stored data:
"Facebook, eBay and Google have combined assets minus combined debt of $125 billion. But the combined value of shares is $660 billion. The difference reflects the stock market’s understanding that the companies’ prize assets, such as search algorithms, patents and enormous troves of information on their users and customers, don’t show up on their balance sheets."
The question becomes how to more precisely gauge the value of an organization's data. There are a few ways to measure this, such as calculating the cost of the initial investment in the data storage requirements. However, the best measure for comprehending the value of business data is by the risk that its exposure would place on the company — placing data security and business success on the same plane.
Increased Data Storage Equals Greater Risk
Today’s near obsession with amassing huge stores of data means that organizations face an exponentially increased exposure to risk. Data risk is heightened by the increase in data sources as well as the locations needed to store the data.
For years, one of the greatest sources for data risk has come from email. Hackers try to use an employee’s good will or naiveté to harm companies by sending emails that contain viruses, malware or ransomware that could potentially and accidentally be distributed throughout the organization.
There are also employees with bad intentions who look to personally profit by stealing corporate data and selling it to external parties. Social media and other messaging channels provide more methods for employees to distribute information — purposefully or accidentally — than ever before.
Data Privacy and Security
There is a large amount of personally identifiable information (PII) that is regularly compromised by poor privacy and security controls. This type of sensitive information includes health data, highly confidential company secrets, customer payment card information and more.
International companies are especially vulnerable, due to the need to abide by multiple countries’ laws concerning all aspects of data maintenance, from storage to notifications and dissemination. Some of the more specific and restrictive regulations come from the European Union, which has its “Data Protection Directive," regulating how companies collect, store and use personal data.
In the U.S., the most demanding regulations come from the health sector. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) poses serious financial penalties for organizations that fail to comply with their strict data management requirements. This increases a company’s responsibility to be especially vigilant concerning any health care information they may store about their employees or customers.
Regulatory Enforcement
The complexity of the US regulatory system has only increased over the past few years. In addition to industry regulations such as HIPAA, there has been increased pressure on any company it deems to have violated the FCPA (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act) of 1977. Companies that are not especially rigorous in their controls around employee conduct are subject to hefty fines and sanctions.
There are also strict regulations facing companies in the financial sector. These regulatory agencies are unlikely to be lenient with a company that does not show evidence of particular strict controls. Fines can be especially punishing and can add up into millions of dollars. What is potentially the most dangerous aspect of data risk management is that companies often have no idea that their data security solutions are inefficient and are putting them at serious financial risk.
Data Risk Management With MSP Risk Intelligence
MSP Risk Intelligence from SolarWinds MSP enables you to build a case for comprehensive protection against unanticipated data risk.
MSP Risk Intelligence reveals the depth of an organization's data security risks by assigning real dollars to potential vulnerabilities. This helps you build the strongest case possible for the best data protection on the market today.
If your clients have a lot of personally identifiable information, including driver’s license numbers, credit card info, social security numbers and more, they need to know exactly what information is stored, where it is stored and how vulnerable that sensitive data is to the risk of a breach.
MSP Risk Intelligence finds sensitive data where it lives and provides actionable report information on the level of sensitivity, so that you can help those clients limit their exposure to compromised data. It also allows you to discover and limit inappropriate data access permissions.
Perhaps the most valuable aspect of MSP Risk Intelligence is its advanced reporting capability. By utilizing big-data analytics to not only gauge current data vulnerabilities but also forecast the financial cost of potential data risk, business management can more accurately prioritize which data security concerns demand the most immediate attention. These vulnerability and risk trend reports can help you become am ore valued partner in improving your client's security posture over the long term.
Don't let your client's data risk management oversight put them at risk for severe regulatory non-compliance sanctions or malicious cyberattacks. Explore the suite of comprehensive remote data management and network security tools available from SolarWinds MSP (formerly LOGICnow) to find out how you can provide your clients with an industry-leading level of security. SolarWinds MSP offers solutions for email continuity and security, data backup and disaster recovery, hybrid cloud data storage and layered network security.
Try out MSP Risk Intelligence for yourself by starting a free trial today. You can experience for yourself how a information-rich data risk management tool can provide you the overall vision and forecasting you need to truly protect your clients.
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Sources:
Wall Street Journal: www.wsj.com/articles/whats-all-that-data-worth
Risk Management Monitor: www.riskmanagementmonitor.com/new-approaches-needed-for-effective-data-risk-management
