How Information Governance Supports Your Data Disciplines

Information governance supports an organization’s data disciplines by establishing comprehensive policies and procedures that ensure the effective management, protection, and utilization of data across those data disciplines. Here is how IG supports each data discipline:

eDiscovery

• Efficient Data Management: IG provides structure and organization to data, making it easier to locate and retrieve information during identification, preservation and collection.
• Retention and Disposal Policies: By enforcing retention and disposal policies, IG ensures that relevant information is preserved while redundant, obsolete and trivial (ROT) data is eliminated, streamlining eDiscovery efforts.
• Legal Hold Management: IG frameworks support procedures for implementing legal holds to prevent the destruction of relevant data during litigation. Those frameworks are coordinated with the legal hold process to ensure that data that no longer needs to be held for discovery purposes returns to control under retention and destruction policies.
• Audit Trails: IG supports the maintenance of detailed records of data access and changes, providing essential audit trails that support eDiscovery processes.

Cybersecurity

• Policy Development and Enforcement: IG establishes policies and procedures that define how information is managed, accessed, and protected. These policies and procedures provide a “jump start” in creating robust cybersecurity protocols.
• Risk Management: By identifying and classifying information assets, IG aids in assessing risks and implementing appropriate security controls, focusing those controls where they’re needed most.
• Data Integrity and Confidentiality: IG helps ensure the accuracy, consistency, and reliability of data, without which, maintaining the integrity and confidentiality of that data becomes difficult to impossible.
• Incident Response: No matter how prepared you are, a cyber incident could still happen. IG frameworks typically include incident response plans, which are essential for effective cybersecurity incident management and mitigation.

Data Privacy

• Compliance: In the past six years, we’ve seen the European Union implement GDPR and 19 US states pass comprehensive data privacy laws. IG helps organizations comply with ever-evolving data privacy regulations by conforming to rules on how personal data should be collected, processed, stored, and deleted.
• Data Subject Rights: IG frameworks ensure mechanisms are in place to respect and fulfill data subject rights, such as access, correction, and deletion of personal data.
• Data Minimization and Retention: IG principles promote data minimization and define retention schedules, reducing the volume of personal data stored and thus limiting privacy risks.
• Privacy by Design: IG helps integrate privacy considerations into the design of business processes and information systems.

Artificial Intelligence

• Data Quality and Consistency: The idea of “garbage in, garbage out” is even more important to the success of AI models. IG ensures that the data used for AI is accurate, consistent, and reliable, which is critical for training and deploying effective AI models.
• Ethical and Responsible AI: Today’s IG frameworks typically include guidelines for ethical AI use, addressing issues such as bias, transparency, and accountability in AI systems.
• Data Governance: IG establishes clear ownership and stewardship of data, facilitating effective data governance practices that support AI initiatives.
• Regulatory Compliance: IG ensures that AI systems comply with relevant regulations and standards, particularly those related to data protection and privacy.

Your Data Disciplines Start with a Solid Foundation

Organizations talk a lot about eDiscovery, cybersecurity, data privacy and (especially) AI. They don’t talk about information governance near enough. But, without IG, those disciplines suffer, and issues typically emerge. Ensure a solid IG foundation to maximize the effectiveness of your organization’s data disciplines!

For more regarding Trustpoint.One’s Information Governance capabilities, click here.