{"id":3901,"date":"2012-07-31T19:13:10","date_gmt":"2012-07-31T09:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/?p=3901"},"modified":"2018-12-11T14:31:00","modified_gmt":"2018-12-11T04:31:00","slug":"the-hard-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/2012\/07\/31\/the-hard-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"The hard questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are three hard questions that every company must be prepared to ask when it comes to data:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Why<\/strong> do you care about your data?<\/li>\n
  2. When<\/strong> do you care about your data?<\/li>\n
  3. Who<\/strong> cares most about your data?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Sometimes these are not pleasant questions, and the answers may be very unpleasant. If they are, it’s time to revisit how you deal with data at your company.<\/p>\n

    Why do you care about your data?<\/h3>\n

    …Do you care about your data because you’re tasked<\/em> to care about it?<\/p>\n

    …Do you care about your data because you’re legally required to<\/em> care about it?<\/p>\n

    …Or do you care about your data because it’s the right thing<\/em> to do?<\/p>\n

    There’s no doubt that the first two reasons \u2013 being tasked<\/em>, and being legally required<\/em> to care about data are compelling, and valid reasons to do so. Chances are, if you’re in IT, then at some layer, being asked with data protection, or legally required to ensure data protection will play some factor in your job.<\/p>\n

    Yet neither reason is actually sufficiently compelling at all<\/em> times. If everything we did in IT came down to job description or legal requirements, every job would be just as ‘glamorous’ as every other, and as many people would be eager to work in data protection as are in say, security, or application development.<\/p>\n

    Ultimately, people will care the most<\/em> about data when they feel it’s the right<\/em> thing to do. That is, when there’s an intrinsically felt moral obligation<\/em> to care about it.<\/p>\n

    When do you care about your data?<\/h3>\n

    …Do you care about your data when it is in transit within the network?<\/p>\n

    …Do you care about your data when it is at rest on your storage systems?<\/p>\n

    …Or do you care about your data when it’s been compromised?<\/p>\n

    The answer of course, should be always<\/em>. At every part of the data lifecycle \u2013 at every location data can be found, it should have a custodian, and a custodian who cares<\/em> because it’s the right<\/em> thing to do. Yet, depressingly, we see clear examples time and time again where companies apparently only care about data when it’s been compromised.<\/p>\n

    (In this scenario, by compromise<\/em>, I’m not referring solely to the classic security usage of the word, but to any situation where data is in some way lost or inappropriately modified.)<\/p>\n

    Who cares most about your data?<\/h3>\n

    …Your management team?<\/p>\n

    …Your technical staff?<\/p>\n

    …Your users?<\/p>\n

    …Or external consultants?<\/p>\n

    For all intents and purposes, I’ve been an external consultant<\/em> for the last 12+ years of my career. Ever since I left standard system administration behind, I’ve been working for system integrators, and as such when I walk into a business I’ve got that C-word title: consultant.<\/p>\n

    However, on several occasions over the course of my career, one thing has been abundantly, terrifyingly clear to me: I’ve cared more about the customer data than their own staff. Not all<\/em> the staff, but typically more than two<\/em> of the sub-groups mentioned above. This should not \u2013 this should never<\/em> be the case. Now, I’m not saying I shouldn’t have to care about customer data: far from it. Anyone who calls themselves a consultant should have a deep and profound respect and care about the data of each customer he or she deals with. Yet, the users, management and technical staff at a company should always<\/em> care more about their data than someone external to that customer.<\/p>\n

    Back to the hard questions<\/h3>\n

    So let’s revisit those hard questions:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Why<\/strong> do you care about your data?<\/li>\n
    2. When<\/strong> do you care about your data?<\/li>\n
    3. Who<\/strong> cares most about your data?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      If your business has not asked those questions before, the key stakeholders may not like the answers, but I promise this: not<\/em> asking them doesn’t change those answers. Until they’re answered, and addressed, a higher level of risk will exist in the business than should<\/em> do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      There are three hard questions that every company must be prepared to ask when it comes to data: Why do…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,12],"tags":[199,271,836],"class_list":["post-3901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aside","category-general-technology","tag-care","tag-data","tag-risk"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t