Data governance is more than a requisite part of data management that handles vast amounts of and numerous types of data. It helps form the solid foundation of a sound encryption strategy, making the application of encryption more targeted and effective.
Data governance should be the precursor to every organization’s encryption strategy.
DATA GOVERNANCE
Data governance encompasses whatever is needed for making sure that data is safe, reliable, complete, appropriately accessible and private. It is not limited to a single product or program. The elements that make up data governance will include standards, technology, actions and any other mechanisms necessary for executing, managing and coordinating the policies and practices related to an organization’s data.
There are internal and external aspects of data governance. Within an organization, there are the data standards, tools and policies that center on the improvement of data quality, a key driver of data governance. They dictate exactly how data is to be collected, stored, processed and eliminated. The external aspect of data governance and another key driver is compliance with industry and government data privacy regulations, such as HIPAA or GDPR.
While digital transformation has been occurring on a massive scale worldwide, organizations have been collecting and generating massive amounts of data. The global volume enterprise data is expected to have a 42.2 percent annual growth rate for 1 petabytes to 2.02 petabytes from 2020 to 2022. Data governance has become an intrinsic part an organization’s ability to approach this data and ensure:
Data can create value within the organization
There is an understanding of an organization’s data storage, data reserves and data flow
Data can be accessed by the parties that have a legitimate need for the data and the authority to access the data
The last point is an important one because alongside the need for organizations to create quality data that can be trusted is the need to protect that data. From a data security perspective, knowing who is able to access specific types of data, the types of data that is under governance, where it is going, where it is stored, etc., are important to applying encryption solutions and policies that can efficiently protect data.
DATA GOVERNANCE INFORMS ENCRYPTION STRATEGY
Realistically, data governance cannot be viewed as an optional because data no longer exists in static, singular environments. Data literally moves all over an organization’s systems, wherever those systems extend, which in this age of interconnectivity could be literally anywhere. In this permanent shift in the cyber landscape, organizations still have to be able to readily answer questions about origin, purpose, location and use of their data. Not knowing where an organization’s data is means that it cannot be efficiently managed, used or protected. Data governance requires that organizations know their data and this knowledge is critical to creating an encryption framework and using the right encryption tools to maintain the integrity of data wherever it is. Any system or operation that requires a critical and comprehensive look at how data is used in an organization is contributing to the better use of encryption technology.
ENCRYPTION STRATEGY AND DATA GOVERNANCE
The effective use of encryption is built upon good data governance. Data governance will help to answer questions like:
Where in the organization is the high risk and high value data?
From which endpoints is sensitive data entering and exiting the network?
Who inside of the organization requires access to conduct their work?
Which parties outside of the organization can have access to which datasets?
In what forms are the highly sensitive data?
Regardless of the type of organization, data governance will highlight the need for quantum-safe encryption solutions that are easily scalable, fast and tailored for use cases like the cloud and IoT and that can be used to enforce data policy consistently cross all of those environments. There are very few encryption solutions like XSOC CORP’s EBP and the FIPS 140-2 validated XSOC Cryptosystem that are capable of easily and quickly transmitting gigabytes or petabytes of data.
WITH NO DATA GOVERNANCE, DATA IS A BUSINESS AND SECURITY LIABILITY
An organization without data governance is one that likely to have data that is unnecessarily duplicated, lost or of poor quality. Business models and operational decisions based off of inadequate or poor-quality data will interfere with an organization’s ability to operate successfully.
The organization’s data will also be a security liability. For example, both structured and unstructured data are used in organizations. However, unstructured data that is not properly categorized will add a level of uncertainty to an organization’s data security framework. It makes it more difficult to locate specific data, which will complicate controlling access privileges to the data. It also makes it difficult to establish and manage data-related protocols across different departments.
XSOC CORP HELPS WITH DATA GOVERNANCE
Data governance provides the insight organizations need to ensure that the cryptography and encryption solutions they use are put to the best use. XSOC CORP products are a vital component of any organization’s data security, creating a layer of fortified encryption protection that will protect data integrity. Contact us today to learn how our cryptography and encryption products and our range of cybersecurity consulting services, such as policy recommendations that align with industry specific governance, can help keep your organization’s data safe.