Organizations are recognizing that data scientists can play a valuable role in enterprise IT security. However, effective security requires a collaborative effort between data scientists and security professionals within an enterprise. While data scientists have a pivotal role to play, they cannot and should not operate in a vacuum.Leveraging Data Science to Mitigate Security RiskData science is a field of research that involves analyzing massive data sets to extract useful information. In the context of…

When a person deactivates, deletes or disengages with his or her profile on an online service, what happens to that person’s personal information? When a person leaves, does personal information stay?In 2015 Ashley Madison, an online dating website known for connecting users to explore or engage in extramarital affairs, was hacked and the personal information of 36 million users was publically exposed. The data breach prompted a joint investigation by the Canadian and Australian privacy…

As explored in an earlier b:INFORM article, “Email Compliance: Act Now, Save Millions – Information Governance Report Is A Call To Action,” email management is proving to be a major compliance challenge for organizations, threatening financial harm and loss of reputation if left unaddressed. Employing a legally compliant and business savvy email management program is a critical starting point in overcoming the complexities and challenges associated with email retention. In order to facilitate compliant email…

The rapid evolution of digital storage technologies over the past two decades illustrates how seemingly timeless inventions can become completely obsolete in the blink of an eye. Today, floppy disks are all but extinct, the use of CD-ROMs is drastically decreasing, and the proliferation of cloud-based storage suggests that hard disk drives may too be on their last legs.Organizations that retain digital records over the long-term must ensure that their records remain accessible into the…

Regrettably, the rise of “Big Data” has been accompanied by the often mistaken notion that organizations should strive to retain as much data as possible. Advancements in technology (through technologies such as the Hadoop® Distributed File System) have allowed large volumes of data to be stored cheaply. Accumulating vast quantities of data can be problematic because the quality and relevance of the data might begin to suffer, not to mention the potential cost and risk…

While Microsoft’s SharePoint platform provides an invaluable infrastructure for enterprise content management (ECM) and information governance (IG), organizations have nonetheless struggled to realize the full potential of this innovative software. A reluctance to make SharePoint adoption an organizational priority has slowed user adoption and made it difficult to keep users engaged.At a time where ECM and IG are more important than ever, it is essential that organizations provide users with the training and support they…

Big data continues to play an increasingly pivotal role for organizations. Managing big data through data governance is futile if the data itself is incomprehensible to an organization’s primary decision-makers. Organizations that are able to effectively communicate or ‘humanize’ data are more likely to reap the benefits available from big data. We offer three simple strategies for presenting big data to audiences composed of people who are non-experts in data governance (i.e. most of us).1. Present…

As the volume of data worldwide continues to increase exponentially, businesses are feeling pressure to start taking more proactive measures in the area of data governance. Much of the current focus on data governance relates to security concerns, but managing unstructured data also presents a potential competitive advantage for businesses.Data is a tremendously overlooked asset for many modern businesses. Organizations may be sitting on extremely valuable sets of data but, without proper organization, this resource…

On 17 May 2016, harmon.ie in collaboration with Gimmal issued a survey report entitled “The One Email You Can’t Ignore: The Risks and Business Impact of Failing to Treat Emails as Records” (“Report”). This Report provides insight into the key challenges that businesses face in managing email records. The findings are based on feedback from over one hundred information governance leaders from different industries.Given the enormous flow of email, businesses should develop a process to…