‘Data visibility’ and ‘Data Loss’ are two of the prevailing challenges for organisations into 2021 and beyond thanks to the upsurge of a dispersed workforce due to the pandemic.
Throw in the rise of AI and cloud-based systems and you can see how many factors you might need to consider when planning data protection strategies.
Why data visibility is important in your organisation
Having a strong data visibility strategy allows you to make astute and informed decisions in your organisation. It can also feed into customer experience and staff productivity.
Even more important, is that data visibility allows organisations to protect their networks, accounts, credentials, and secrets.
Put simply, poor data visibility creates risk because you can’t manage what you can’t see!
The consequences of data loss
The inconvenient truth is that because 2020 was a year no one expected, it is inevitable many organisations will discover some form of data loss. Almost overnight organisations flipped a switch from a predominantly office-based workforce to remote workers. During the lockdowns last year, many businesses had little choice but to set up remote working with whatever systems and technology they had.
Now IT departments must methodically search through data to troubleshoot network performance problems. Leaders will need to get an insight into exactly how much intellectual property was stolen by external attackers and malicious insiders during that switch.
Sam Marshall, Chief Technical Security Officer at The Missing Link confirms how we can all evaluate the data consequences of the past year: “While it is highly likely that attackers took advantage of the change and confusion, organisations with ‘security maturity’ already had remote working secured, and just increased its capacity. Those organisations already have visibility. For the less mature, if they don’t know now, they will likely never know (unless their data turns up on the Internet).”
Key areas that will need investigation include:
- How strong is your cyber security?
- Where are your vulnerabilities?
- How much downtime do you deal with due to insufficient data logs?
- How has Cloud technology changed in the past year while remote work became more common?
Remote work is the new normal
Remote work in some form is here to stay. As organisations realise the many benefits of working from home, or remote work, there will be a greater need for adapted systems. But with the shift towards remote work becoming “the new normal” many organisations have been compelled to invest in their IT systems and infrastructure.
As with any change or evolution, there are risks. In the case of data visibility, the risks come in the form of data loss, cyber-attacks, and intellectual property gaps. Managing a remote workforce requires leaders to adopt a different mindset as there is now an expanded perimeter for an attack. We now need to switch focus on how data is used and accessed, rather than how it is retained and controlled.
So how can you get ahead of the data game? Speak to our data security and protection experts at The Missing Link.
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