Data classification: What it is and why you need it
PA Consulting’s Alastair McAulay, IT strategy expert, comments on the importance of organisations adopting data classification, in an article in Computer Weekly by Stephen Pritchard.
The article discusses the importance of organisations using data classification to protect sensitive data and the business.
Adding to this discussion, Alastair explains that: “The topic of data management has crept up in importance among the leadership teams of many organisations over the past few years.”
He adds: “There are two big drivers for this. The first driver is a positive one, where organisations are keen to maximise the value of their data, to liberate it from individual systems and place it where it can be accessed by analytics tools to create insight, to improve businesses performance.
He continues, “The second driver is a negative one, where organisations discover how valuable their data is to other parties.”
Alastair goes on to explain that in order for organisations to protect their data against hackers or ransomware, firms need a robust system for labelling and tracking data.
He concludes that, firms can only be successful at data management if they are aware of the kind of data they have and where it is, saying: “Tools will only ever be as effective as the data classification that underpins them.”
Explore more
