Information Security – data governance, compliance and risk management

According to recent statistics by Computer Weekly, respondents to their survey highlighted cyber security and risk management as their next biggest focus in IT spending. Over 60% of UK and Ireland respondents said they plan to implement data governance, risk, and compliance software into their operations in 2020.

Data security is of critical importance to all businesses, now more so than ever. With the increase in online and remote working, more companies are digitising their data to future-proof their business and to ensure workers have full access to everything they need outside of the workplace. In some cases, however, these companies may not have fully considered how they intend to sufficiently protect data.

If your business is new to the world of digital information security, it may be worth considering outsourcing your data handling to a professional service. Cleardata is a secure and accredited document management company, offering a comprehensive selection of services bespoke to your company’s needs. We can ensure your data governance, risk management, and data compliance are up to date and fully efficient so that your important data is fully protected.

 What is data governance?

Data governance is the steps and planning a company makes to create and adhere to rules and policies regarding the storing and handling of their data. This includes:

  • Granting or restricting data access to the individual employees who require it
  • Holding employees accountable for data they have accessed, used and changed
  • Ensuring data is consistent and trustworthy
  • Introducing measures to avoid the misuse of data

Data governance’s key focuses are availability, usability, consistency, and accountability of data, as well as data integrity and information security.

If your data is lacking efficient governance, Cleardata’s Electronic Document Management system may be the answer. Our EDM provides a central digital repository for your documents and can automatically send documents to only the relevant, authorised departments. Secure access, version control, and audit trails mean your documents are safe, backed up and accountability for them can be maintained.

Data Risk Management

Data risk management is the preparation and creation of preventative measures to avoid any risks to the security of your data.

The main risks to data are:

  • Hackers and phishing scams
  • Deliberate leaks and insider fraud
  • Human error and data inaccuracy

Cleardata provides ample risk mitigation through our data management solutions. We perform a 2 x 100% data quality check during document scanning and digitisation to prevent inaccuracies. Any documents stored in our secure document facility are protected from fire, flood, and theft, offering a full audit trail and restricted user access.

Information Security and GDPR Compliance

Information security (or infosec) concerns the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data. It differs from data governance in that data governance consists of oversight into how data is handled and specifies the frameworks to be used in its protection, whereas information security are these steps in action.

Data compliance is the practice of ensuring sensitive data is organised and managed in a way that meets business and governmental data regulations. The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was designed to improve corporate handling of personal data. This includes the names, addresses, payment information and anything else that can identify individual customers and employees.

GDPR requires businesses to have secure accessibility, storage, and management of the confidential data they collect, in both physical and electronic forms. Documents must be accessible via an organised system, as any request for data must be fulfilled within 30 days.

Information security is not only important for mitigating the above-mentioned data risks, but can also help you to avoid the severe GDPR fines should your business fail to comply. A potential penalty includes a fine of the greater amount between 4% of the company’s annual turnover, or up to €20 million, so it’s absolutely not worth risking.

Protect your data with Cleardata’s Services

Cleardata’s expert document management services can help implement data governance, risk mitigation and compliance in your business. We are a certified data handling business with the latest accreditations in information and security and records management, trusted by several blue-chip organisations, NHS trusts and local authorities. Data security is at the heart of everything we do; from our staff DBS checks through to full GDPR-compliant management of your documents.

Our secure data services include:

 

  • Archive Management System (Cleardox) gives you full control over the retrieval, management, and destruction of your documents.

 

 More and more companies are starting to fully understand the importance of proper data security. Make sure you don’t learn the hard way by choosing Cleardata for your data management requirements.

For more information on how we can help your business data handling to become compliant and secure, get in touch on 0800 046 8081 or email sales@cleardata.co.uk.