In the
current business environment, the burden of regulatory compliance, coupled with
the constant risk of hack attacks and insider threats, has forced many
businesses to rethink their data management strategy–including being more
aggressive about identifying and deleting low-value data. The prevailing
sentiment among experts interviewed by CIO.com is this: Why hold onto data you
don’t need (or are mandated to retain) when all it does is increase your
security and compliance risk?
One
database security guru estimates that about a third of data stored in your data
center is likely redundant, obsolete or trivial. In other words, it’s of little
strategic or business value, relative to the risks it may hold. One panel
member, an internet-and-privacy attorney, went so far as to call such data
‘toxic,’ comparing it to spent uranium rods. “Mishandling either will get you
sued,” he cautions.
So, what data types pose the most risk and how can you bolster your current
deletion strategy?
Of course, the best advice will come from an IT Managed Services Provider. But
most experts consider information about former employees, customers and
strategic partners to be very high risk. It can contain personally identifiable
or sensitive account information that crooks find alluring, yet offers little
legitimate incentive for retention. Other examples in the high-risk/low-reward
category include sample data used in production development and testing settings;
data associated with obsolete, out-of-date or unused legacy infrastructure; and
of course, plain-text password files. Strengthen your 2020 data deletion
strategy by calling TeamLogic IT today.