How to Secure, Optimize, and Turbocharge Your Data Management

We know that data management isn’t something to be taken lightly.

It’s a never-ending process of safeguarding sensitive information while optimizing efficiency. Data management is the foundation of informed decision-making, operational efficiency, and regulation compliance. When it’s effective, it can help you derive valuable insights, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions that can lead to a host of competitive advantages. 

With increasing concerns about data privacy and security, having robust data management practices in place will help safeguard sensitive information and protect your organization and its stakeholders. That’s why it’s so important to ensure that you have the right strategies and processes in place.

In our last entry, we took a look at the world of application security. For this post, we’ll delve into data management and the four key considerations you should have your eye on when it comes to handling your sensitive information. 

Complexity

Protecting your organization’s sensitive data remains a huge undertaking–especially when transformation is involved (which it is for almost every organization nowadays). Ensure that only a short list of required personnel have access to the sensitive data that is part of the process. Ever-changing data file formats can add to the complexity that impacts business continuity and requires thoughtful adjustments to your transformation techniques. Designing and implementing vigorous security measures for complex transformations that utilize secure communications is critical to your organization’s operation, reputation, and bottom line.  

While managed file transfer (MFT) may alleviate some concerns for you, the synergy between transformation and MFT can significantly amplify the impact of evolving file formats. With that said, it’s crucial to recognize that the more complex your system is, the more vulnerable touchpoints it will have. Streamlining business processes and increasing operational efficiencies are paramount to your organization’s success and security. 

Efficiency

Let’s not sugarcoat it: efficiency in data management is a multifaceted challenge and demands a delicate balance between speed and security. Everyone wants to achieve faster SLA response times but so much of that is determined by mandatory security measures and how visible your data is which introduces another potential conflict. Data visibility is so important for tracking and processing files but it’s critical to limit the exposure to sensitive information in file content. In MFT and EDI transformation, visibility means knowing a file was successfully delivered to where it needed to go and was processed effectively while adhering to security requirements.

Transaction lifecycle integration is also something that factors into visibility and really highlights the challenge of consolidating the complete lifecycle of files into one centralized location. Streamlining procedures for efficient file processing is crucial to reduce vulnerability touch points. Yet, this efficiency introduces a potential contradiction for you—simplifying processes can expose vulnerabilities, emphasizing the need for a meticulous security checklist to ensure that gains in efficiency do not compromise integrity of data processing. That’s why it’s critical to balance the need for speed and security to achieve data efficiency.

With the cost of a data breach rising by 12.5% in recent years, it’s critical to ensure you have the right technology and partner in place to avoid compromised security.

Security

Let’s explore the aspect of data management that gets the most attention: security–and for good reason. It’s essential for safeguarding you and your organization from various risks, including financial losses, legal consequences, and reputational damage. That’s why it’s so important to ensure you have the right strategy, processes, and tools in place to fortify it. 

The foundation of data security lies within its secure transfer, a multifaceted endeavor encompassing the security of transmission, the data itself, and the users. By focusing your efforts on shoring up this trifecta, you’ll ensure not only the safe transit of data but also the protection of its content and the restriction of access to only those with a legitimate “need to know.” 

But that’s not where the story ends. Data security is not only just a matter of updating software and infrastructure regularly–it’s a comprehensive strategy that combines stringent policy enforcement, visible monitoring of user actions, and a commitment to regular vulnerability testing that goes beyond conventional measures, all while not jeopardizing business continuity. Your focus should include tightening data restrictions and monitoring Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) related to software touching sensitive data. 

Believe it or not, breaches sometimes occur not due to negligence but because your software vendor may be unaware of underlying risks. This further emphasizes the need for constant vigilance, even when operating on the latest software versions. Execute vulnerability tests regularly to ensure your software and infrastructure are robust and resistant to the latest exploit opportunities.

In the end, the key to robust data security within your organization lies in a holistic approach that marries policy, enforcement, and proactive practices to stay one step ahead of the threat actors. 

Automation

Automation can turbocharge your data management efficiency–but it’s often a delicate balancing act and must be managed with precision. The reason? Many organizations overlook the need for a robust auditable change control process which is essential for understanding the nuances of automated actions and attributing them to specific malicious actors. Without it, you may be left with a critical question: 

How can I decipher the intricacies of my automated processes without a detailed, auditable record? 

That’s why it’s so important to incorporate security, visibility, and auditability into your automation strategy. 

Vulnerability testing is also a crucial part of your automation endeavor. However, for many, a notable gap exists as few have the proper tools in place despite them being widely available. As you consider your leap, it’s critical to weave visibility, auditability, access control, business continuity and regular testing seamlessly into the fabric of your strategy to achieve the full benefits of automation.

Leverage the right platform and provider

Taking all the considerations discussed above and putting them into action will be critical for the success and growth of your business. Even more important is leveraging the right platform and technology partner to help ensure your data is not just collected but utilized to its full potential. Your choice when it comes to platform and partner will directly influence the scalability, security, and adaptability of your company’s data infrastructure. A best-fit platform will not only facilitate seamless data integration but will ensure compliance with regulatory standards to protect sensitive information. 

Choosing a technology partner who takes the time to understand your business goals will enable you to stay ahead of the curve and leverage cutting-edge tools and expertise. In essence, the right platform and partner is an investment in the future competitiveness and sustainability of your business, empowering you to harness the full value of its data assets.

Want to learn more?

Our integration practice helps companies like yours solve many of their common daily integration challenges. From communication strategy, data transformation, and translation to data security, visibility, and analytics—we pride ourselves on being experts on everything integration. That paired with our outstanding client service makes us stand out.

To learn more about how our experts can help you get the most out of your data management, contact us today for a free consultation.