At the same time, healthcare organizations face considerable obstacles as they strive to govern the massive amounts of data under their control. In the first place, the World Economic Forum estimates that the average hospital generates over 50 petabytes of data every year, most of it unstructured.

Secondly, because of its sensitive nature, healthcare data is heavily regulated. Laws such as HIPAA impose strict requirements on how organizations store, use, and share data. And with protected health information (PHI) living in many different formats, departments, and platforms, compliance proves complicated. Frequent security threats add further complexity.

To address these challenges, healthcare organizations must adopt a proactive and strategic approach to data governance. This process will involve numerous moving parts and does not happen overnight. However, the following tips will help set things off on the right track.

Start with Initial Data Assessment and Cleanup

You cannot govern data unless you know what data you have and where it lives. Therefore, start with a thorough inventory to discover what PHI the organization collects and stores, where it lives, who owns it, and how it is used. Also determine who has access to the data. This information will aid in building a risk profile and determining next steps.

Once you have a view of the organization’s data, classify the data based on sensitivity and prioritize it for protection. This initial data assessment period also presents a good time to perform some data cleanup. This will include resolving duplicate records and archiving or removing data no longer needed. Always refer to regulatory requirements.

Review and Update Access Privileges

Because the patient record plays a pivotal role in care delivery, healthcare organizations need to carefully control access to this information. Access management involves defining who has access to what data and under what circumstances. Work toward a state of least privileged access, in which users have just the authorization they need to do their job and no more.

Controlling access to PHI may also include updating authentication processes to definitively verify the identity of anyone attempting to access sensitive information. Multi-factor authentication (MFI) and other modern authentication methods will prove essential.

Leverage Technology Wisely

Technology can streamline the process of healthcare data governance and reduce errors. For example, biometric scanners reduce the chance of misidentification, and software using AI-powered referential matching can prove effective in reducing duplicate records. Likewise, digital compliance solutions provide critical compliance monitoring and simplify data classification.

When choosing and implementing technology, look for solutions made to scale easily as data sets continue to grow. Also prioritize tools that integrate with existing clinical systems. And utilize robust security systems that use encryption and other protective measures to secure data during transmission and storage.

Build a Culture of Data Governance

No amount of technology, however, will take the place of building a corporate culture of data governance. Engage with stakeholders such as providers and patients as you develop a data governance framework. An essential part of that framework will include defining data governance roles and responsibilities.

Then promote data literacy by providing training for all employees on data governance policies and best practices. For instance, standardized procedures around collecting and updating patient data will assist in preventing errors and duplicates. Formal training and just-in-time reminders will help.

Take Data Governance to the Next Level

Effective data governance takes time and requires careful planning. The eMazzanti team of data experts brings decades of experience in effective data governance and data security consulting and solutions. We can help you design and implement a comprehensives strategy designed to protect data assets and drive both efficiency and innovation.

The post Data Governance in the Healthcare Sector Critical to Improve Health Outcomes and Compliance appeared first on eGovernance.

Data governance truly involves a cyclical process, and organizations must revisit the stages periodically as data sources and business processes change. While various regulatory environments and business needs involve unique approaches, this post outlines the stages of a standard data governance lifecycle.

1. Define the Purpose and Goals

Any successful data governance program starts with an assessment of the current data and regulatory landscape. While technologies and trends support data governance, strategic planning should focus on identifying existing risks and business priorities.

For instance, for many organizations regulatory compliance needs provide the initial motivation for gaining control of data assets. Another key driver might include improving data quality to support AI initiatives or other innovations.

Whatever the motivation, an initial step will involve identifying risks and practices that present obstacles to attaining business goals. For example, insufficient data security will compromise regulatory compliance. And poor data quality will reduce the effectiveness of decision making and AI initiatives.

2. Build a Roadmap

With an understanding of the reasons and goals for data governance in the organization, it is time to put together a detailed plan. Begin by identifying the data elements throughout the organization. Look at the types of data collected, the data sources and data owners, and how the organization uses the data.

Next, assess the quality of the organization’s data. Several factors affect data quality. For example, outdated or redundant data will reduce the accuracy of data-driven decision making. Likewise, incomplete data will diminish the reliability of data analytics. And inconsistencies across systems and processes can lead to confusion and errors.

Once you have a detailed picture of the data landscape and the challenges involved, you can construct a data governance plan. This strategic plan will include identifying the steps needed to implement data governance, the key stakeholders, necessary resources, and priorities.

3. Design the Data Governance Strategy

Primary goals of the data governance framework involve establishing standards for data management. They also involve ensuring data security and empowering employees throughout the organization to find and use data effectively.

First, the data governance framework will include determining data governance roles and responsibilities. Properly managing data involves input from stakeholders throughout the organization. Some common roles include data governance sponsors and council, data owners, data custodians, data stewards, and data users.

Next, comprehensive policies and procedures around data access, usage, management, and security form the backbone of a data governance framework. For instance, regulations like PCI DSS and HIPAA impose strict rules around data retention. And numerous privacy laws necessitate security policies to protect sensitive data.

4. Implement the Data Governance Program

With policies and procedures outlined and strategies documented, the real work begins. Technology can play a crucial role in this process. For example, automation can significantly reduce the time involved in labeling and tracking sensitive data. Likewise, automating data retention and destruction policies improves accuracy and defensibility.

Technology solutions can both reduce risk and save time. These solutions will include proactive data security, data compliance monitoring, and comprehensive records management, along with eDiscovery solutions that provide essential visibility into unstructured data.

Additionally, the data governance program must address the human factor, building a culture of data governance from top to bottom. Thus, the program necessarily includes educating and training stakeholders about data governance policies and procedures and their role in maintaining data integrity.

5. Continuously Monitor

Data governance requires continuous monitoring to ensure enforcement of data governance policies and proactively identify risks. This includes both regular audits and automated data compliance monitoring.

6. Review and Adapt

The final stage involves evaluating the effectiveness of data governance initiatives and refining processes and policies accordingly. As new data sets and security risks emerge, and as processes within the organization change, the data governance framework will need to change, as well.

Conduct regular reviews with senior executives and key stakeholders. Track progress against key objectives, measure results, and make any needed adjustments.

Leverage Expert Resources Throughout the Stages of a Data Governance Lifecycle

Many organizations effectively utilize information governance solutions to streamline the data governance process. Working with organizations like eMazzanti Technologies and Messaging Architects provides access to both extensive expertise and cutting-edge technologies.

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In essence, the data steward acts as the guardian of data assets, ensuring their accuracy, consistency, accessibility, and usability. Data stewards generally work in IT but collaborate closely with departments across the organization. Thus, they act as a bridge between the technical and business sides, requiring a unique skillset.

Data Stewardship Puts Data Governance into Practice

Data stewardship plays a pivotal role in effective data governance, translating policies into practice. A data governance framework includes the policies and guidelines for data handling, quality, and security. Data stewards have responsibility for ensuring the implementation and enforcement of these policies.

For example, to enforce data quality standards and ensure trustworthy data for decision making, a data steward might conduct regular data audits to identify inaccuracies or inconsistencies. They could then implement data cleansing processes to eliminate duplicate entries, correct errors, and update outdated information.

Or, to ensure that data access falls within regulatory compliance restrictions, the data steward might design and oversee role-based user access controls. This helps the company achieve a fine balance between data democratization and critical data security.

In implementing data governance policies, the data steward collaborates closely with other data governance roles. For instance, data stewards work closely with data custodians, who provide technical support and maintenance related to data. They also work in tandem with data owners in various departments, as well as the data scientists who retrieve and analyze data.

Responsibilities of a Data Steward

Data stewards oversee all activities related to data management. This multi-faceted role includes several main categories of responsibility:

• Data quality assurance – This involves monitoring data for errors or inconsistencies, as well as implementing processes to maintain data accuracy.
• Data security and compliance – Data stewards ensure the protection of data from unauthorized access. They implement security measures, make sure data usage complies with legal and regulatory requirements, and raise awareness about data security best practices.
• Data accessibility and usability – Stewards balance strict data security standards with making sure that authorized users can find and use data. This involves building a data inventory, maintaining data lineage, managing metadata, and so forth.
• Data advocacy – Data stewards promote data value by educating stakeholders on data quality principles, encouraging responsible data usage, and promoting strategic uses of data, such as data-driven decision making.

Businesses May Have Multiple Data Stewards

This responsibility list looks daunting and often proves more than one data steward can reasonably accomplish. Consequently, a company may assign multiple stewards to handle various aspects of data stewardship.

For example, the organization may assign separate data stewards to work with specific types of data, such as customer data. They may also assign stewards according to business function, such as sales or R&D. Alternatively, a data steward may have responsibility for one or more IT systems, such as email.

Skills to Look for in a Data Steward

Because data stewards cover both technical and culture-focused activities, they need a balance of various types of skills. Without a doubt, the job requires technical skills, including data modeling, databases, and database management systems. And in fact, data stewards often report up through IT.

But data stewards also need interpersonal skills and business acumen. Because they act as a liaison between IT and business functions, in addition to promoting good data practices throughout the company, they must be able to communicate and collaborate effectively. Additionally, they often act as subject matter experts in their area of responsibility.

Who are Data Stewards and Why are They Important for Your Business? Explore Key Benefits

Data stewards play a central role in implementing data governance and ensuring a healthy data ecosystem. They not only protect and manage data, but they also help the company navigate a complex data landscape and leverage data for strategic advantage. And as data plays an increasingly vital part in decision making and innovation, this role has become mission critical.

To set the stage for success, hire the right people and give them the tools they need to thrive. eGovernance solutions for information governance offer powerful, cloud-based solutions to help organizations use their information effectively and drive data value.

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Typical roles and responsibilities include data owners, stewards, custodians, and consumers, guided by a data governance committee. Individual organizations will, of course, adapt these roles according to their needs and organizational maturity.

Data Owner

The data owner refers to the person or group with authority and accountability for a specific dataset. Usually a senior manager or business leader, data owners define business requirements and rules for the data. They also establish quality standards and metrics and approve data policies and procedures.

For example, a marketing director owns customer data, overseeing customer segmentation, targeting, and personalization strategies. Likewise, a product manager owns the product data, driving the product development, launch, and feedback processes.

Data Steward

Data stewards include those responsible for implementing data policies and procedures. For instance, a data steward will help monitor data compliance with established regulations and internal standards. They may also educate the workforce on how to access, use, and share data to ensure compliance with privacy and security best practices.

Data Custodian

Data custodians oversee the technical aspects of data management. This includes the processes surrounding data storage, and well as backup and recovery, data access, and quality control.

For example, database administrators manage the databases that store the data, ensuring optimization and security. Data analysts, on the other hand, perform queries and reports on data using tools such as SQL or Python. Their insights and recommendations support decision making.

Data Consumer

Data consumers, as the name suggests, use data for a variety of purposes, from decision making to innovation. They play a key stakeholder role in data governance, as they have specific needs and expectations regarding the quality and availability of the data.

For example, marketing managers leverage data to personalize marketing campaigns. Or product managers developing new products collect data regarding user behavior to inform decisions about features to include.

Within the data governance framework, data consumers have responsibility for providing feedback and identifying issues. These may include issues such as errors or inconsistencies within the data set. They may also include problems with accessibility or data silos that diminish data value.

Data consumers also play a critical role in data security and compliance. By complying with security best practices and policies for data use, they help reduce risk.

Coordinate Data Governance Roles and Responsibilities to Drive Business Goals

The data governance committee includes stakeholders from across the organization. This committee oversees the implementation and maintenance of the data governance program. They begin by defining the vision and goals relating to the organization’s data, as well as the responsibilities of data owners, stewards, custodians, and consumers.

The committee will develop and approve data policies and procedures, ensuring they align with the company’s business goals and compliance requirements. They monitor and measure the performance of data governance activities. And they identify both risks and opportunities for improvement. Importantly, they serve as data champions.

For example, a healthcare organization’s data governance committee oversees the quality, privacy, and security of patient data across different departments. Likewise, a retail company’s data governance committee coordinates the collection and integration of customer data from various sources.

Jumpstart Data Governance Strategy with Expert Guidance

Effective data governance requires building data strategies one piece at a time. The data experts at eMazzanti Technologies and Messaging Architects will help your organization implement a structured and comprehensive program to reduce risk and increase data value.

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Information governance encompasses the overall strategy for information across the organization. This includes identifying, categorizing, and storing data. It also involves managing information lifecycles, ensuring data security and supporting eDiscovery and regulatory compliance.

IT governance, on the other hand, ensures the technical foundation and support for information governance. By implementing information governance and IT governance in coordination, organizations optimize their use of information assets. At the same time, they improve risk management, ensure regulatory compliance and drive innovation.

Data Management

Data holds tremendous potential to provide insights, improve decision making, and inform strategy. At the same time, the sheer velocity of data poses challenges. Organizations ingest huge quantities of data in various formats from a wide range of sources. But if people cannot find and access quality data when they need it, it holds little value.

IT governance supports data management by providing the tools, policies, and processes to ensure data quality and availability. This includes supporting the classification and storage of data as well as controlling information access and sharing. It also involves enabling effective and responsible archiving and destruction of data.

For example, IT governance establishes the data architecture necessary to ensure that all team members can access accurate information, regardless of their location. It also provides data analytics and visualization tools to enable data exploration and reporting.

Risk Management

Any business activity entails risk that can negatively impact the company’s performance, reputation, and even its bottom line. Insufficient cyber security measures introduce the risk of data breach, for instance. Likewise, natural disasters and ransomware can interrupt business continuity and result in crippling data loss.

Risk management requires IT governance to provide the necessary resources and processes to enable risk identification, analysis, and response. For example, effective IT governance provides for risk assessments to identify potential vulnerabilities of IT systems and processes. It will also include the implementation of strategies and controls to close security gaps moving forward.

Additionally, risk management must include implementing data backup and recovery procedures as part of an overall business continuity strategy. And once the organization has identified risks and initiated mitigation strategies, ongoing IT monitoring enables timely resolution of any issues.

Compliance Management

Effective risk management forms a critical component of overall compliance management. Regulatory compliance plays a critical role in avoiding legal penalties, maintaining trust, and achieving competitive advantage. For many organizations, compliance challenges provide the initial motivation for developing and implementing information governance programs.

Here again, IT governance supports compliance management by providing necessary systems and processes to enable compliance evidence and improvement. This includes policies and procedures around data privacy and security. It also includes a strong reporting component to establish proof of compliance with applicable legislation and industry standards.

Innovation

Data plays an increasingly important role in guiding innovation. For example, by analyzing data from various sources, the company can understand what customers need and value. Data also provides insights into gaps and opportunities in current product offerings. With these insights, the organization can then design and deliver solutions specifically targeted to customer needs.

IT governance supports data-driven innovation by fostering a culture of experimentation and collaboration while providing the necessary resources and guidance. This often includes delivering the guidance and structure to responsibly and successfully leverage emerging technologies such as AI.

Optimize Use of Information Assets with Effective IT Governance

By coordinating IT governance and information governance, organizations increase the value of data assets while reducing risk, achieving compliance, and supporting innovation. This requires ensuring that IT infrastructure and operations are automated and integrated where feasible. It also involves using best practices to enhance information security, quality and availability.

Consider seeking external guidance and support as you develop your governance strategies. For instance, the consultants at eMazzanti and Messaging Architects bring a wealth of experience and tools to help you unlock the power of data for your organization.

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However, implementing effective information governance requires careful planning and coordination. And it takes time. Organizations should start with a comprehensive data audit to inform next steps. Leveraging information governance consulting services will streamline the process.

Assess Your Current State and Future Data Goals

To begin with, the organization must learn what data it has and where it lives. An initial data audit will develop a picture of data across the enterprise. The audit includes components such as:

• Data mapping – The organization must identify where data lives and how it is stored. This will include understanding information infrastructure elements such as document libraries. It will encompass all storage locations, whether on premises or in the cloud. And it will involve identifying sensitive data.
• Determining data quality – Duplicates, outdated information, and data silos all affect the quality of data. Likewise, access issues affect the usefulness of data. If the right people cannot find and access the information they need quickly and securely, the data holds little value.
• Assessing data processes and policies – Determine what information policies exist and whether they are enforced. These include policies for accessing and sharing data as well as policies for retaining and destroying information.
• Evaluating information security – A cyber security assessment reviews the policies and security controls governing information storage, movement, and access. And it evaluates existing security measures against regulatory requirements, industry standards and business needs.

With an understanding of the current state of information, the organization can define its vision and goals for information governance, aligning those goals with business needs.

Locate and Classify Data

Data classification proves foundational to good information governance. Sensitive and important data may be hidden in documents, meeting minutes, emails, chats and more. Labeling sensitive data allows data stewards to track that data and apply essential protections such as encryption and sharing restrictions.

Manually locating and tagging data proves difficult if not impossible at scale. But AI-powered tools automate the process of finding and classifying data wherever it lives. Properly classified data simplifies regulatory compliance and eases the eDiscovery process.

Define and Implement Data Lifecycle Policies

Data classification plays a key role in enforcing data retention and destruction policies. Regulations such as PCI DSS and HIPAA include strict rules around the minimum amount of time to retain certain types of information. On the other hand, information retained too long can become a liability.

Automating retention policies according to data type gives the organization a defensible way to maintain regulatory compliance. Because regulations and business priorities evolve over time, data stewards should regularly review and update retention policies.

Ensure Compliance Management

To address mandates from a wide variety of regulations, an effective information governance strategy should include regular compliance monitoring. eGovernance monitoring tools deliver visibility into sensitive data from a single console. Content alerts and reports allow for proactive remediation. And monitoring provides proof of policy demanded by many regulations.

Build Comprehensive Data Security

Data security works hand in hand with compliance monitoring as an essential element of information governance. While regulatory compliance mandates reasonable security precautions, organizations must move beyond checkbox compliance to protect against data breaches.

A risk assessment will highlight vulnerabilities and provide a basis for security planning. Security strategies must include ensuring proper access management. Endpoint protection, encryption, data backups, and multifactor authentication prove critical, as well. And organizations must address supply chain security and provide regular security awareness training for all staff.

Adapt Information Governance Strategy to Business Needs

Company structure, business priorities and specific industry requirements all play a role in information governance. Consequently, the optimal strategy will look different from one company to another. In every organization, however, effective information governance requires engagement of stakeholders and users throughout the organization.

eGovernance delivers a cloud-based information governance solution. Our consultants will work with your organization to design and implement an information governance strategy customized to your specific business needs.

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According to the IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report, the average cost of a data breach in 2022 was $ 4.35 million. The report also found that 45% of breaches occurred in the cloud, with public cloud breaches costing the most. Thus, effective ISG makes financial sense.

Clear Vision and Action Required

The primary elements of ISG include:

• A clear vision and direction for information security communicated and supported by senior management and stakeholders.

For example, an organization can define its information security mission, vision, and values, and communicate them through a charter, a policy statement, or a code of conduct.

• A set of policies, standards, guidelines, and procedures that define the roles, responsibilities and accountabilities of information security functions and processes.

Thus, the organization establishes an information security policy framework that covers topics such as access control, data protection, and incident management.

• A mechanism to monitor, measure and report on the performance and effectiveness of information security controls and activities.
• A process to identify, assess and manage information security risks and incidents in a timely and consistent manner.

Thus, an organization should implement an incident response plan that defines the roles, procedures, and tools for handling information security incidents.

• A culture of awareness, education and training that fosters a shared understanding and commitment to information security among all employees and partners.

Organizations that conduct regular security awareness training and simulations to raise the level of security knowledge and behavior among staff and stakeholders reduce the risk and cost of a data security breach.

Protect Assets and Reputation; Increase Efficiency and Innovation

The benefits of information security governance extend beyond protecting information assets. Effective ISG enables organizations to:

• Protect information assets from unauthorized access, disclosure, modification, or destruction.

For example, effective ISG can prevent costly data breaches, cyberattacks, frauds and thefts that compromise confidential information and intellectual property.

• Enhance reputation and trust among customers, suppliers, regulators, and other stakeholders.
• Avoid lawsuits, investigations and sanctions that result from violating data protection laws, privacy regulations or contractual obligations.
• Improve operational efficiency and effectiveness by minimizing disruptions, errors, and losses.
• Achieve strategic goals and objectives by enabling innovation, collaboration, and agility.

Staff more readily leverage information assets to create new products, services or business models that enhance competitive advantage and customer satisfaction.

Information Security Governance Challenges

However, efforts to implement ISG often encounter challenges. For example, an organization may face difficulties in obtaining sufficient budget, resources, or authority for its information security initiatives if senior management does not prioritize their importance or value.

And an organization may encounter resistance or inconsistency in implementing its information security policies or controls. If different departments or teams have goals or interests not aligned or harmonized with the whole, it reduces their incentive to comply.

Additionally, some organizations may lack the necessary staff or tools to perform information security activities. If they don’t invest in recruiting, training, or outsourcing information security capabilities, they fall behind.

And organizations may face challenges in enforcing their information security rules or standards. This happens when employees or partners do not understand or appreciate the benefits or consequences.

Adopt a Holistic, Proactive, Continuous Approach

To overcome these challenges, organizations must adopt a holistic, proactive, and continuous approach to information security governance. They need to align their information security objectives with business goals and engage stakeholders in a collaborative dialogue.

Organizations must also allocate adequate resources and capabilities to their information governance and security functions.

Fostering a culture of awareness and accountability among employees and partners delivers long-term benefits. And adapting information security practices to the changing environment makes the process sustainable.

Information Security Governance Experts

Not a one-time project or a checklist item, the ISG journey requires constant vigilance, improvement, and alignment. By embracing ISG as a strategic imperative, organizations enhance their resilience, competitiveness, and success in the digital age. The eGovernance.com information security governance experts stand ready to assist.

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Consider the vast amount of sensitive data held by county governments. Without appropriate information governance, sensitive information related to local citizens and businesses could be vulnerable to breach. And when mismanaged data makes it difficult to fulfill public records requests, governments incur penalties and lose face with the public.

On the other hand, when that same county government manages, secures, and uses data effectively, they achieve critical goals of accountability, transparency and efficiency. Decision makers have reliable access to quality data, and public trust in the governing process increases. These same benefits apply to organizations in all industries.

What is eGovernance?

eGovernance refers to electronic governance, specifically governance of electronic information. As in the county government example above, common goals of eGovernance include improving data access, strengthening data security, driving efficiency and productivity and promoting accountability.

That is, organizations need to know what data they have, where it lives, who owns it and who can access it. They need to ensure that they data they own is high quality and secure from breach. And they need to achieve compliance with legislation and other regulations that govern data.

Information Governance Challenges

Today’s data environment poses significant challenges for information governance. In the first place, organizations collect massive amounts of data every day from many disparate sources. These include Teams documents, customer input from company websites, emails, meeting recordings, chat messages, data from IoT devices and much more.

Because information lives in so many different places, including BYOD devices and remote locations, identifying and securing that data proves challenging. At the same time, the regulatory environment grows more complex every year.

Technology trends such as cloud computing and artificial intelligence offer exciting capabilities. But they also complicate the cyber security environment and introduce new privacy and ethics concerns.

Finally, decision makers and data analytics tools need clean, trustworthy data. This requires comprehensive checks for duplicates, errors, and outdated information. It also requires a balance between facilitating data access and ensuring data protection and privacy.

eGovernance Solution Companies Best Practices Deliver Key Benefits

By following best practices for information governance, organizations do more than ease the path to regulatory compliance. They also reduce risk, ensure appropriate access to high quality data, and improve business planning.

An effective information governance program steps beyond checkbox compliance. For instance, in addition to ensuring the implementation of appropriate data security controls, proactive organizations will conduct penetration testing.

In addition, automating repetitive or redundant tasks such as tagging data and processing permission requests helps to reduce error. In fact, automation proves essential to managing an increasingly complex data environment.

As organizations migrate some or all their data to the cloud, they will need to adjust the tools they use to manage their data. Look for tools designed specifically to find and manage data across multiple clouds and on-premises environments.

Partner with eGovernance Solution Companies to Achieve Business Goals

An eGovernance solution company will help you choose and implement information governance solutions tailored to your business needs. The consultants at eMazzanti Technologies and Messaging Architects deliver a fully managed, cloud-based solution for preserving, discovering, and accessing digital data across your data environments.

Our data experts will begin by assisting you to build a comprehensive data and records management plan to reduce unstructured data and risk. A state-of-the-art archiving solution facilitates policy-based retention and destruction of data, regardless of Microsoft license type. Add our powerful eDiscovery tool and digital compliance solutions to gain the transparency, accountability, and efficiency your organization needs.

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Compliance involves addressing both cyber security and data privacy. Data retention and destruction policies also play a key role. Consequently, compliance best practices involve improving data visibility through information governance and monitoring. They also include updating data policies and security practices and addressing the human component.

Use AI to Strengthen Information Governance

Because achieving compliance requires that organizations know what data they have, where it lives and who has access to it, information governance plays an important part. For instance, several privacy regulations include the “right to be forgotten.” This means that a company must be able to find and delete an individual’s personal data upon request.

Additionally, rules such as HIPAA and PCI DSS mandate the careful control of sensitive data such as protected health information (PHI) and financial data. These regulations require that organizations locate and tag all sensitive data wherever it lives or travels. With vast amounts of data on multiple platforms, finding and tagging that data represents a monumental task.

Fortunately, AI and machine learning can help. The average company manages hundreds of terabytes of data, with new data created every minute. Humans cannot feasibly find and classify all sensitive data manually. However, using pattern matching and machine learning, automated AI tools can find and classify sensitive data quickly and accurately.

Gain Visibility Through Compliance Monitoring

To identify compliance gaps, organizations should conduct regular compliance and security audits. In addition, continuous compliance monitoring allows data administrators to proactively address any potential compliance issues. Here again, automation plays a critical role.

Much of a company’s most sensitive information hides in unstructured data such as emails, PDF files and instant messages. This data can prove difficult to manage. But automated tools, powered by AI, monitor both structured and unstructured data for compliance violations.

These monitoring systems deliver automated alerts to appropriate personnel while taking precautionary action. For example, if a user attempts to improperly share PHI, the system will block the action and alert compliance officers. In addition to keeping sensitive data safe, monitoring allows the organization to demonstrate compliance in the event of an audit.

Regularly Review Data Policies

Data policies play an essential role in compliance. For instance, policies mandate who can access data and how long data should be retained. They also govern how users can share data and with whom. And they may cover certain security actions, such as the encryption of sensitive data.

An effective electronic communications policy includes not just the written policy, but also the technology to enforce that policy. For example, tools such as Microsoft 365 allow organizations to automatically prohibit sharing or destruction of sensitive data. Data policies require regular review and updates as the regulatory landscape changes and as the company adopts new tools.

Implement Essential Cyber Security Practices

Because compliance requires keeping data safe and secure from unauthorized access, data compliance best practices necessarily include security measures. At a minimum, organizations should use firewalls, keep software up to date, change default passwords and implement both multi-factor authentication and encryption.

In addition, security teams should regularly review access rights and permissions. Apply the principle of least privilege to ensure that users have the minimum amount of access they need. And make sure to remove user accounts and access when no longer needed. Tools such as Microsoft Entra help to automate access and identity management.

Provide Compliance and Security Awareness Training

Regardless of the technology involved, no compliance or security effort will prove successful if it ignores the human component. Take time to engage employees at all levels through regular privacy and security awareness training. Complement the training with phishing simulations and internal events such as privacy awareness month.

Compliance Technology Powers Data Compliance Best Practices

With a rapidly evolving regulatory environment, compliance experts suggest taking a big picture approach to achieving compliance. That is, look for privacy solutions that apply to most privacy laws, rather than applying different rules to different locations in compliance with individual states.

Technology will prove essential to a successful compliance strategy. For instance, intelligent compliance solutions from eGovernance provide insight into all indexed data through a single portal. Automatic reports alert auditors whenever an issue arises, allowing for immediate remediation. Proactive intervention saves time and money while delivering peace of mind.

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Collect Massive Amounts of Data from Disparate Sources

Civil and criminal cases frequently hinge on digital evidence, and that can mean data requests involving millions of document files. With modern collaboration methods, those documents include everything from email and voicemail to word processing files, social media and more.

In addition to including many different types of files, eDiscovery must also address numerous data environments. For instance, employees may use both company-owned and personal devices, from laptops to phones and tablets. Additionally, the organization may store data both on-premises and in multiple cloud environments and numerous applications.

Legal teams must find efficient methods to locate, collect and process that data. This involves finding a balance between collecting all relevant information and yet avoiding a data dump.

With the right tools, legal teams can locate and assess the data in place before collecting anything. An early data assessment that involves an initial in-place review of data delivers several key benefits. Legal teams can identify and address potential roadblocks early on. They also avoid over-collection of data, saving significant time and money.

Prevent Digital Spoliation of Evidence

While gathering these massive amounts of data, legal teams must take care to prevent destruction of or tampering with relevant data. This includes altering or deleting documents in any way. Whether intentional or not, this destruction of evidence, or spoliation, can result in stiff penalties and cause enormous problems.

To avoid spoliation claims, the team must use defensible methods to collect and preserve data. A critical component of this involves legal holds. Once again, early data assessment plays a key role. When the legal team identifies potentially relevant information early on, they can immediately apply legal holds to protect that data.

Technology has simplified legal holds, allowing legal teams to automate the process of creating and sending legal hold requests and releases. Reliable legal hold technology also includes auditing capabilities that ensure defensibility.

eDiscovery Challenges to Ensure Data Security

When organizations collect huge amounts of data and send it outside the organization, they effectively lose control of that data. Consider the thumb drives and other copies of data held by opposing counsel and expert witnesses. Every copy of the data distributed represents a cyber security risk.

Organizations reduce that risk by mapping and indexing the data, making it possible to conduct a preliminary review in place. Done well, this will reduce the amount of data that needs to be collected.

Taking the process a step further, the organization can collaborate with outside counsel on keywords and other search criteria. They can then gather the data set into one place and grant outside counsel conditional access to run reviews and publish for litigation. Keeping sensitive data in house ensures that the organization retains control and can audit any access.

Address eDiscovery Challenges with Unique eDiscovery Solution

Locating, collecting, and preserving data in a defensible way can prove incredibly difficult and time consuming when organizations do not have control of their data. And because of the amount of data and the time involved, eDiscovery costs typically represent from 20 to 50 percent of the costs of litigation.

Proactive organizations meet eDiscovery challenges with a strong foundation of information governance, aided by the right technology. When companies know where data resides, who owns it and who can access it, eDiscovery becomes much less painful. Legal technology such as legal holds software and automated early case assessment further streamlines the process.

eGovernance provides a comprehensive eDiscovery solution to reduce discovery overhead and improve the speed and efficiency of managing requests across disparate systems. Our unique tools allow organizations to centralize eDiscovery. Whether legal counsel reviews data in place or extracts copies for more resilient retention requirements, the data stays secure.

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