In today’s data-driven world, information is power. Data allows businesses to gain valuable insights that can increase efficiency, improve products and services, and outmaneuver competitors.
However, data also comes with significant risks. Breaches can damage reputations and bottom lines. Regulations carry severe penalties for non-compliance. And, bad data practices can create distrust amongst tech-savvy customers.
As a result, organizations need to balance minimizing the risks of data leaks while still extracting value from the data they collect. This requires a comprehensive approach to data access governance. So, this article provides a cohesive overview of data access governance by covering the following topics:
What is Data Access Governance?
Data access governance refers to the strategies, policies, processes, and technologies organizations use to control access to and usage of data. This ensures the right people get access to the right data for the right reasons.
It gives organizations visibility into who is accessing data, what they are doing with it, and whether they should have access. This allows companies to reduce risk, comply with regulations, and ensure data is being used properly. Robust data access governance balances security with productivity to help organizations get the most value from their data.
Why Do You Need Data Access Governance?
There are a few key reasons organizations need to prioritize data access governance:
- Security: Data contains sensitive information like customer details, financials, intellectual property, and more. Unauthorized data access can lead to data breaches, leaks, or misuse. Data access governance protects critical information.
- Compliance: Regulations like the GDPR require companies to control access to personal data. Proper data governance helps organizations meet compliance requirements.
- Risk management: Having a sound data access management plan and understanding who can access data, and how, is essential for reducing risk. Data access governance provides visibility to minimize insider threats.
- Productivity: While security is crucial, organizations can’t lock down data to the point it hinders productivity. Data access governance balances open access with control.
Key Elements of Data Access Governance
To successfully implement data access governance, organizations need layered policies, automated controls, dedicated teams, and ongoing auditing and improvement. Key elements work together to enable secure, compliant, and productive data usage. These elements include:
Formal Policies
A foundation of effective governance is formal data access policies. These codify who can access what data, for what purposes, and under what circumstances.
Policies should outline:
- Data classification schemas that indicate sensitivity levels
- Roles and responsibilities around data access
- Access request and approval procedures
- The basis for granting privileged access
- Data use regulations and ethical expectations
- Breach response plans
With clear policies, organizations can enable broad data use while exercising control over sensitive assets.
Access Control Systems
Policies must be operationalized through technical controls. Core access governance technologies include:
- Access management to create and enforce data access rules
- Granular identity and access controls like self-service and just-in-time access
- Multi-factor authentication for sensitive systems
- Encryption to protect data at rest and in motion
- Monitoring, auditing, and alerting on anomalies
These tools automate policy enforcement and provide visibility into access and usage.
Approval Workflows
To ensure proper oversight, data access requests should go through structured approval workflows. Depending on the sensitivity of the data, approvals may be required from data owners, compliance teams, legal departments, and security staff.
Automated request ticketing and approval routing can improve the efficiency of the approval process while creating an audit trail. Organizations can then configure tiered levels of approval by data classification for the automated ticketing system. This balances security with productivity.
Audit Trails and Monitoring
Even robust initial governance strategies require ongoing tuning. Organizations must monitor audit logs for warning signs and adjust approaches to address evolving risks.
This includes:
- Profiling normal vs abnormal data access patterns
- Tuning controls and policies based on audit findings
- Automating policy enforcement via technologies
- Retraining employees as needed on policies
- Regularly updating strategies to align with new regulations and priorities
Data access governance is not a set-it-and-forget-it process. Continuous assessment and improvement is critical.
Data Governance Organization
Technology alone cannot govern data. A capable data governance team is essential to steer organizational efforts.
Key roles may include:
- Data/information security officers to bridge IT and business needs
- Program managers to oversee governance strategies
- Data trustees and data stewards to represent data domains
- Data privacy leaders to advise on regulations
- Technical analysts to implement controls and monitor data
With cross-functional leadership, governance can scale across the enterprise.
Benefits of Data Access Governance
Data and analytics management is essential to modern business – but it comes with risk. Data access governance balances strong security with accessible value.
With thoughtful policies, automated controls, dedicated teams, and continuous improvement, companies can:
Read about how Managing Access to Data Got a Lot Easier
Safely Enable Business Insights From Data
Having a proper data governance framework allows organizations to fully leverage data analytics, AI, and business intelligence tools to extract insights while maintaining security across their data platforms. A few examples of good governance include:
- Implementing decentralized access control policies to limit data access to those who need it for job functions helps minimize risks of leaks.
- Creating approval workflows ensures oversight for broad access requests.
- Activity monitoring proactively detects potential misuse.
Meet Compliance Needs as Regulations Evolve
Data regulations frequently change, but data access governance provides a flexible framework to adapt. For example, classifying data by sensitivity levels facilitates appropriate protections even with changing requirements. As requirements change, governance strategies can be tuned to remain compliant.
Promote Responsible Data Use Across the Enterprise
Comprehensive training, transparency, and accountability promotes responsible data use. You can further promote responsible data use by creating classification guides for appropriate data handling, while using policies to provide clear usage guidelines. Together this encourages employees to use data ethically and securely.
Build Trust with Customers and Stakeholders
Data breaches damage reputations and customer trust. Governance minimizes this risk by securing data and monitoring access. Customers recognize companies prioritizing proper governance and stakeholders appreciate steps taken to use data responsibly and compliantly. This trust can be used as a competitive advantage to build brand loyalty with customers and open up new opportunities with investors.
Data-driven success requires data stewardship and data governance discipline. By taking control of data access, organizations can securely harness data’s power.
Conclusion
By implementing layered policies, technologies, processes, and organizational structures for governance, companies can harness data’s upside while mitigating downside threats. In the data age, strong governance is fundamental to success.
Satori’s data security platform you automates and simplifies data access controls to keep your data assets compliant and secure. You can quickly implement updates to your data access governance making your data security agile and ready to adapt.
To learn more about how Satori can help with data access governance book a meeting with one of our experts to learn more.
