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EDITOR’S QUESTION
JOHNNY KARAM, VICE
PRESIDENT EMERGING
MARKET AT VERITAS
A
s organisations become increasingly reliant on data – and
as the value of data continues to increase – the challenge of
data governance, management and security is rising to the
top of the corporate agenda.
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This has been compounded by changes in the regulatory environment
including GDPR, and the high profile and very public headlines that
data-related issues continue to make around the world.
We now all recognise that data is one of the most valuable assets of
any organisation and the challenge of data management is growing
in line with the increasing volumes and type of data held within every
organisation, and with the complexities of multi-cloud.
Organisations increasingly need a policy-driven data management
strategy to protect valuable data assets across multiple data centres,
public and hybrid clouds.
Data management in the cloud is critical to help organisations
ensure compliance and protection of their data while extracting
maximum value; in the Middle East, concerns around the ability to do
this are slowing some cloud adoption decisions.
GDPR creates a potential new risk for Middle East organisations
but also an opportunity to develop the good data governance and
management practices that are also good for business data hygiene,
based on visibility and classification, data protection and the ability
to monitor data actively. The increasing risk is adding financial pressures, such as budgeting to
cover potential ransom demands, or the rising cost of cyberinsurance
premiums as more organisations make claims. PWC estimates that
annual gross written premiums for cyberinsurance are set to rise to
US$7.5 billion by the end of the decade.
This is highlighted by new findings from a Veritas global research
study that revealed that consumers in the UAE have little trust in
organisations to safeguard their personal data. The findings also
suggest that consumers will reward (spend more) and punish (buy
from competitors, tell others, report and post negative comments)
organisations according to how effectively they protect personal data. While there may be a prevailing attitude that an attack is inevitable,
there are steps that businesses can take to mitigate the dangers:
an approach that should be built around education (employees
as the first line of defence), security (secure IT infrastructure) and
protection (the most vital element, a contingency plan to recover
data and ensure business continuity, avoid catastrophic failure and
protect reputation).
With the advent of greater enterprise collaboration with third parties
and the sharing of data, the risk of data breaches may increase,
but the internal and external environment continue to present the
greatest data security challenges. Given this, we should all be in a
perpetual state of readiness.
In its 2017 Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment, Europol
revealed that ransomware attacks have now overtaken almost every
other type of cyberattack. In fact, the scale of the problem could
actually be much greater than suggested because not all instances
may be reported.
www.intelligentcio.com
Ransomware happens whatever the size or type of organisation.
The information an organisation holds is the lifeblood of its business
and losing it could prove to be fatal. Handling data is challenging
and fraught with risk, and as concerns about service reliability,
data security and recovery rise, the resources available to deal with
securing data are declining.
At the same time, there is unprecedented pressure to make sure data
remains intact, searchable and retrievable in any contingency.
When it comes to data protection, there is no other option.
INTELLIGENTCIO
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