The online world is full of potential for data handling issues. Are you processing data safely and effectively?
Cyber security has become one of the biggest challenges facing the modern business. We routinely store information held on customers for the purposes of business analytics. While this is a harmless way to earn market research data , it is how we handle it that can make or break our business. When data breaches occur, they cost us potentially millions in fees, reparations L1 Escrow, and reputation damage. Are you handling your data correctly? Let’s get clinical to find out.
The Dangers of Data Management
Data management involves every step of the process, from when the data arrives in your organisation until the moment that it leaves. This life cycle, or journey, has multiple contact points with your network. If a hacker breaks into your network while that information is in there, they will try to steal it and to sell it on. Prices for personal information range from a few pounds for your name and address to a hundred or more for a valid passport or driver’s licence.
Worse than the cost of losing your customer’s data, is the cost to your reputation. Last year’s figures show that a data breach could cost your organisation millions of dollars. What we valued at $3 million in 2020 has leaped to $9 million in 2022. These prices are not going to come down, they will only get higher. Once you have suffered that critical breach, customers just don’t trust you again.
Best Practise: the Clinical Data Management Example
So how do we make our organisations as safe as possible from ongoing potential cyber security attacks? We turn to the role of the clinical data manager for an example of best practice. Those with clinical data management jobs know that each piece of data must be collected, treated with high security priorities, registered with the project, perform its task, and become stored in a retrieval system when the trial finishes.
Clinical data managers are impeccable in their handling of data. To get a true best practise for companies, however, we need to combine this best practise solution with a high security priority to keep data safe while it is in your hands. Start with a single devoted employee whose role is overseeing data handling within your organisation. Ensure this individual has cyber security training, and you should have the components you need for effective data management within your business.
Next Steps for your Business
Wondering what to do now? You should have a best practise strategy in place for handling all the information that comes through your firm. You ought to have security measures in place to protect that data at all stages of the journey. Your strategy should include an action plan to follow, should the worst happen and you become the victim of a cyber-attack. Lastly, you should treat any consumer information that you collect and store within your company with the highest care, ensuring you comply with all data handling laws.
