I pleased to say that in my capacity as Strategic Advisor- Manufacturing to leading law firm DMH Stallard we have recently published the third in our series of thought leadership reports into the issues affecting Technology and Engineering businesses in the South East.
The report “Secure your data and protect your business” focuses on how businesses are coping with the so-called “Digital Explosion” and what measures they are taking to mitigate risk, prevent data leakage and improve productivity.
Working with my co-author Frank Jennings, we interviewed several businesses and investigated whether existing methodologies and processes were robust and if companies were embracing solutions that utilized “cloud computing”. We also explored whether companies were aware of the risks of data leakage and what processes they had in place to ensure that their data was secure.
The findings of the report discovered that risk adverse IT professionals within some companies were sticking with tried and tested solutions that were simply not up to the pressures of the modern increasingly digital age. As well as preventing productivity gains there were several instances of employees engaging in sophisticated “work arounds” to circumvent existing processes to enable them to work productively. These often involved using unauthorized or unsecure “cloud solutions”.
Several companies that were interviewed had tackled some of the issues head on and had practical solutions. Most importantly these organisations sifted data and catagorised it and stored it with varying degrees of security according to its risk of loss. The data was the restricted to a “need to know” basis. They also worked at reducing file sizes to enable data to be moved around efficiently. Additionally the report discovered varying accounts of how stored data was backed up and discovered some processes that were seriously flawed and ineffective.
As well as exploring best practice on use of the “cloud” the report investigated phenomena such as Social Media and “Bring your own device” where companies are freeing up employees to use the hardware that they choose and perhaps more importantly significantly reduce capital expenditure within the business.
In common with the previous reports on Intellectual Property and Business Ethics, the report concludes with practical advice gleaned from the experiences of real businesses and tips that businesses of all sectors and sizes can adopt.
A copy of the report can be downloaded at www.dmhstallard.com/data_security
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