Know where your data is - don't be in breach

It’s about to get that much tougher for companies either based or doing business in the UK. A new law forcing all organizations to publically declare data breaches will go into effect in the UK within four years. Telcos and ISPs will have to be ready even sooner; a separate law, requiring them to publicly disclose serious security breaches, takes effect in Britain next spring.

There are already laws like that in the United States, of course; 46 states and the District of Columbia have regulations in place requiring public disclosure, and the European Community has several laws pertaining to this issue as well.

This news hits at the very time that more firms are realizing the potential of the data they’ve simply been storing and allowing to languish in some dark corner. They’re realizing the advantages that can be achieved by actively analyzing the data, seeking trends and insights that can enable them to do business better. It’s not just big companies that are doing this; mid-tier firms are implementing business intelligence (BI) and data analytics strategies, using outsourced offerings (like our Data Warehousing as a Service).

With opportunity, however, comes caution: if the data is being actively used, there’s an increased chance for abuse, loss or accidental disclosure. Having deployed DaaS for companies around the world, we’ve been very familiar with that for years. And we’ve taken steps that any company would do well to heed.

Firstly, know where the data is: simply saying “it’s in the cloud” is not acceptable. You need to know where the information is stored, and where it’s being accessed. Moreover, you should establish clear policies that specifically state who is entitled to access the data, and at which level…some workers may not need the same detail that others require.

At Kognitio, we’ve hosted our DaaS clients’ data at our own data centres in the past. More recently, we’ve established alliances with trusted partners in the UK (2e2) and in the US (Hosted Solutions), which will enable us to store our clients’ information, knowing that security and other concerns are well-addressed. Our clients, of course, have the option of deploying DaaS in such a way that they keep their data on site.

Security is still the primary concern of companies considering a push into cloud computing; in some cases, those concerns trump the potential benefits. We’ve firmly believed for years in the power of BI SaaS, but have known from the beginning that the privacy of the data our clients have entrusted to us is paramount.

If you’re doing more with your data than simply letting it sit there, you need to know it as well. And you don’t need a US or UK/EU law to tell you that.