E-Handbook: Big data security management embraces governance, privacy Article 1 of 4

Minding the data store on multiple fronts

Data managers are forever vigilant when it comes to protecting the integrity and privacy of their precious data stores. The security and privacy challenges sparked by an onslaught of data breaches and malware attacks over the past few years and the new wave of consumer privacy regulations have been exacerbated by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which accelerated the transition of the digital workforce to a remote work environment.

Companies with solid data governance policies as part of their overall big data security management strategy are better prepared to cope with attacks that penetrate multiple ports of entry and compromise the integrity of data used for analytics, strategic planning and operational decision-making. But governance policies aren't enough. As vendors and service providers acclimate to the scope of cyberattacks as well as GDPR and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) regulations, traditional data management tools and services are being contorted and extended. They're also being increasingly injected with AI and machine learning capabilities to keep pace with the increased number of petabyte-sized applications, particularly in the cloud.

"Shifting of workloads to the cloud is shifting consumption of managed security services (MSS), and by 2022, 35% of MSS customers will be served by cloudified MSS providers," IDC's Frank Dickson, program vice president, cybersecurity products, predicted during a FutureScape 2020 webinar. "Explosions in data and analysis force the adoption of edge computing. To guarantee data provenance and security, 25% of enterprise data will reside in distributed ledger systems by 2025."

Gartner projected that 60% of organizations will invest in multiple data security tools this year for data loss prevention, encryption and data-centric audits. The analyst firm also predicted that the global information security market will surpass $170 billion by 2022.

This handbook examines the effect of cyberattacks, data privacy laws and COVID-19 on evolving big data security management tools and techniques. First, data managers step up measures to protect the integrity of their data, while complying with GDPR and CCPA regulations. Next, companies turn to existing data governance and security best practices in the wake of the pandemic. Finally, we look at the importance of corporate culture, communication and education in determining the success of data governance and its parent, data management.