Roles and Responsibilities for Data Management and Data Security

Today, corporate success is dependent on leveraging data for innovation and continuous improvement. Effectively managing enterprise data to unlock its value is critical but must integrate data management and data security strategies that mitigate the reputational and monetary risks of data breaches.

Effective data management and security enable data quality accountability, and secure data is readily available to all authorised parties and systems that require it. Poor data quality can lead to irreversible mistakes and missed opportunities. On the other hand, unauthorised access to sensitive data can subject the organisation to massive punitive damage and put the whole business at risk. Organisations need a holistic approach and the deployment of suitable personnel to data management that ensure data security, especially around sensitive, regulated and high-value information.

Controlling data operations needs a deep understanding across the full spectrum of data incorporation, management, security and access. It also means aligning a wide range of required skills, processes and technologies across the firm and beyond. For that, enterprises must make and execute plans for how long data will be stored and when to delete it, particularly those most susceptible to security threats. In an organisation, everyone has a role to play in data vigilance. Addressing all the security-related issues and managing data in the best way requires the involvement of a vast set of stakeholders. Let's see how people in different roles contribute to organisational data management and security.

Contribution of Developers

If a company is building an app, it's the responsibility of a developer to do it appropriately. App developers cannot simply rely on regulations or regulatory bodies to tell them how to operate. Instead, they should operate with a high-level of ethics in developing applications.

Including a section in applications that offers transparency on how it uses data can help ease security concerns. Zoom that has gained traction due to its increased use amidst COVID-19 and security concerns brought in leaders in the security space and new acquisitions.

Having a robust strategy like Apple and Google is also important. The tech giants have a good approach with their work on contact tracing. But opting in is not going to give an enterprise enough data.

Reports indicate that the Apple-Google technology preserves privacy by randomising IDs and anonymising data. Descriptions of similar applications also meet anonymisation. However, the privacy challenge is developers don't require extracting someone's name, number or phone model from data to know who they are. They can figure that out based on their movements and location.

These apps could be valuable if done right. They will add value to a lot more things than this global health crisis.

Contribution of the CDO

The chief data officer (CDO) is taking over the office to address data-related considerations. Many businesses have hired CDOs in the past years. Now the United States government is doing the same.

Several US agencies currently have CDOs in their team. In many cases, they have been assigning the role to an existing employee instead of recruiting a dedicated individual. As the CDO is a specialist role, the organization may not consider the smartest data scientist or tech expert for that role.

The CDO is expected to have a strategy for managing all of an organisation's data. Data, managing from a defensive standpoint addressing compliance regulations, data privacy, good data hygiene, etc. and from an offensive standpoint make data more easily consumable for those who want and need it.

Contribution of the Government

Coronavirus tracker app by Norway is being admired as a success story. Over 1.4 million out of 5.5 million people have installed the application.

But it's also been challenging as the Norwegian government released the application in a closed-source way. The app has vulnerabilities from a data handling perspective that is associated with data security.

Governments need to think broadly about app design and data vigilance. Closed-door efforts will not be able to find a solution to this problem because data sharing is critical.