The worldwide shift to a hybrid workplace has pushed us all to embrace ubiquitous connectivity. Those new connections have helped us become more collaborative; routinely editing and sharing documents in real-time from wherever we happen to be working. Instant messaging went from being a tool of convenience to a cornerstone of communication. People in business, operations, and technical roles became adept at stitching together disparate solutions to meet changing needs.
But constant connectivity brings evolving, inherent risks. Over the past two years, organizations have seen a massive increase in their digital footprint, leading to data fragmentation and growth across a multitude of applications, devices, and locations. The Great Reshuffle left blind spots within ever-enlarging data estates. Even the virtual office has created the risk of new collaboration mediums opening doors to sensitive data leaks and other workplace policy infractions. It’s a big digital world for any organization to try to manage.
Just as today’s big-data, multi-platform, hyper-connected workplace brings new vulnerabilities, the responsibility for protecting it is also in flux. For example, an organization with a Chief Data Officer (CDO), Chief Risk Officer (CRO)/Chief Compliance Officer (CCO), Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), and Chief Information Officer (CIO) has to choose whether they will duplicate, compete, or collaborate. Conditions that are driving the need for integrated risk management include:
- The pandemic: Ongoing decentralized work has reinforced the need for strategic, operational, and business continuity management. All of this requires cross-functional data sharing and coordination.
- Nation-state attacks: Increasing sophistication and frequency of nation-state attacks is driving collaboration between compliance, data, and security functions.
- Remote work: Virtual communication spaces require coordination between compliance, IT, and HR.
- Evolving regulations: New requirements, like those from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Department of Justice (DOJ), and the European Union Whistleblower Directive require collaboration among all risk-management leaders.
- Data sharing: Requirements for continuous access to operational data across functions (read the DOJ’s requirements for compliance programs).
- Growing CDO responsibilities: The CDO’s role may go beyond data management and protection to include business intelligence, AI, and machine learning. Because this role can overlap with a Chief Analytics Officer (CAO) and CISO, a unified solution for risk management is vital to eliminating redundancies.
- Governance and compliance: Overlap between information governance, records management, and data collection is driving the need for a comprehensive solution for managing data risk.
The market has responded with dozens of products that force security, data governance, compliance, and legal teams to stitch together a patchwork of solutions. This approach not only strains resources, but it’s also ineffective. Security outcomes are worse—
To meet the challenges of today’s decentralized, data-rich workplace, Microsoft 365 Business Premium provides a comprehensive set of solutions that help you govern, protect, and manage your entire data estate, providing unified data governance and risk management for your organization to help you:
- Gain visibility into assets across your entire data estate.
- Enable easy access to all your data, security, and risk solutions.
- Safeguard and manage sensitive data across clouds, apps, and endpoints.
- Manage end-to-end data risks and regulatory compliance.
- Empower your organization to govern, protect, and manage data in new, comprehensive ways.
To learn more about Microsoft security solutions, visit their website and contact Xantrion with any questions. We take a risk-based approach to cybersecurity, ensuring the best available protection within a sensible budget. We’ve refined this approach over more than a decade of protecting mid-sized businesses from cyber threats.