Ransomware Series: Is Data Governance a Team Sport?

When it comes to data governance, technical and business stewards are not always understood as being pivotal to the health, maintenance, and control of the data. Sometimes, cybersecurity professionals feel like they are the ones protecting the data. While they are to an extent, they’re not necessarily knowledgeable in the transformation of the data, the use of it, the meaning, the value, and where the data stands as an asset in the organization.

Ransomware Interview: Part 1 & 2


Stewards and cybersecurity professionals can tremendously help each other mitigate risk and remedy situations by having strong communication. Beyond the obvious classifications, only the technical and business stewards can recognize what is extraordinary data and the value it may bring, turning it into an asset. Cyber security professionals then place those assets into a higher level of protection than they otherwise might have if they didn’t have that input from the stewards. The relationship between stewards and cyber security professionals increases a company’s value both strategically and operationally.

Data governance lends communication management so that these two parties can synchronize their beliefs on what is important in data and what is not. Then, a data governance council gets reformed by stewards and risk individuals. This council highly affects whether data is treated holistically as well as what value the data is given. Data governance acts as a foundation for the accurate weight and ranking of that data so that it can be protected properly, secured properly, and backed up accordingly. In the event of a ransomware attack, it can be rescued appropriately with the right kind of backups and encryptions put in place while also existing within the proper retention schedules so that it can be rendered accordingly and quickly. The risk function/ individuals are always understanding that the digital assets are vital to the enterprise.

Though once again, they don’t always know beyond the broad categories, and as the data traverses and gets transformed in data warehouses or as they become KPIs or get calculated and become a part of business intelligence. They don’t know exactly which data sets are the opens with value. This is where data governance comes in to produce a catalog or portfolio consisting of that level of detailed information.

Continue to Part 3 & 4

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