Build customer trust and avoid fines

If you don't want to jeopardize the loyalty of your customers and avoid fines, you need to manage their information comprehensively and according to its value. An efficient data management strategy should include seven core functions:

1. Localize: First, the company must gain an overview of where which data is stored in the first place - they need a data map, so to speak. To do this, the IT manager obtains a comprehensive overview of all resources on which company data and applications are stored. This includes local resources as well as all private and public clouds. In this context, companies should check for compliance reasons whether the data center is located in the EU or a suitable third country.
2. Evaluate: The strongest approach to uniformly determine the value of data is the automatic classification of information. Modern variants of this technique use several hundred technical indicators that recognize unique content features in the data and automatically categorize them accordingly and, most importantly, without errors, using so-called tags. The technique draws on Algorithmsfrom the areas Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to provide the most accurate results possible. Thanks to the automatisms, it is also possible, for example, to personal data as such - an essential prerequisite for finding them in the cloud and being able to protect them better accordingly.
3. Minimize: One of the objectives of the GDPR is to regulate that companies hold less personal data overall and store it only for specific purposes. Therefore, each file should be given an expiration date according to its value and automatically deleted after a certain period of time - depending on the purpose of use. Data declared as unimportant is eliminated by the system immediately and without risk. This reduces the amount of data and lowers storage costs.
4. Protect: Actually self-evident, but important - personal data is particularly worth protecting. Companies must take measures to fend off attackers from outside and inside. If something does happen, the data leak must be reported within 72 hours.
5. Backup: If data is lost, companies are dependent on backup copies. The backup technologies used for this purpose must take into account all data sources and storage destinations in order to have backup copies ready in case of an emergency.
6. Monitor: Comprehensive data management software that constantly checks the complex storage infrastructure for irregularities is worth its weight in gold. This enables a company to detect that information has been lost due to a data leak, for example.
7. Search: It is important to be able to search specifically for certain data. The GDPR alone gives EU citizens the right to demand an overview of the data stored. Companies must provide this in a timely manner. A process and software that can quickly locate data together and delete it if necessary are essential here.