Data Governance and Keeping the Castle Safe from Within

Managed Solution is one of Conectrix’s many world-class providers, and you can check out an earlier blog we did on them and Azure migration. But Azure is not Managed Solution’s only offering. Today, we’ll talk about identity management and data governance, what it is, and why it is important.

Data governance is the protection and management of company data by controlling who has access to what. A nice visualization is a king looking at his castle. While he can build up his walls, pull up the drawbridge, and fill the moat, he still has to consider the people within his walls; as much as the enemy is beyond the walls, his subjects can accidentally leak information, look at secret plans they weren’t supposed to, or even go rogue. Data governance is really about security between employees as well as compliance.

The Need for Data Governance

As companies grow and scale, it becomes such a hassle to monitor and manage data on an individual scale. By creating and managing identities, it makes it easier to manage who has access to what. For example, someone in the marketing department needs access to the marketing software, marketing passwords, and sales report. The sales and revenue report may be marked as sensitive financial data. It’s important to have parameters set in place so that the marketing person can only access what they need and not have access to the entire financial systems. The bottom line is, companies want their employees to have all the resources they need to be effective, but none of the things they shouldn’t.

Additionally, there are so many remote workers in today’s businesses. Employees are sharing so much sensitive information between each other and from devices that can be easily comprised. What if a low-level employee or a client sees something they shouldn’t?

Consider also scenarios where employees go rogue. What if someone with a vendetta decides to share a bunch of sensitive information or reveal secure data? Compliance then becomes another problem. For example, if you’re a healthcare organization, you’ve likely been compromised and broke HIPPA code, meaning you may face the law. Companies need a system in place to cover all their corners.

Features to Ensure Security and Productivity

Azure AD Privileged Identity Management is Managed Solution’s identity management through Azure Active Directory. This system works within Azure AD, Microsoft’s Office 365 and Microsoft Intune, SaaS apps, as well as other Microsoft products. Identity management makes sure that only the right people look at certain information. Location or platform is not a hindrance to Identity management and the system is great for compliance codes like HIPPA, CCPA, and GDPR.

Identity management is both reactive and proactive. It’s all about allowing and restricting permission to certain data. Say an accounting employee needs to view some sensitive information, that access can be granted and then removed after a time. This type of management also helps with productivity because parameters can be set on what information you get in emails and updates, eliminating the hassle of sifting through material that doesn’t pertain to you and your department.

Identity management is perfect in an age where employees share information back and forth. This system makes such sharing safe and protects against data breaches and cyber-attacks. Certain parties will have to request access and only certain people can grant access.

Finally, identity management also allows for the management of admins, including creating new ones and tracking their activity. You can also create eligible admins or admins who can be triggered on and off depending on the need; they’re not permanent.

Secure the Castle from Within

In today’s business scape we can get so caught up on external threats that we forget about internal ones. Companies could be spending tons of resources on firewalls while a single employee could look at and share the wrong document. Data governance is a worthwhile pursuit and Azure Active Directory is the system up for the task.