The average government organisation globally is set to see their data estate grow by up to 444 percent in the next five years, according to research by Rubrik Zero Labs.
“Public sector organisations have long been a goliath in terms of data acquisition and storage needs, with regulations and legislation often requiring datasets to remain for 10 years+,” said Richard Cassidy, EMEA field CISO at Rubrik.
Cassidy told Think Digital Partners that with the sheer volume of data, the cumulative cost of managing and securing data assets puts a significant strain on already over-stretched and often under-funded UK public sector networks. This in turn leads to trust and privacy concerns.
“Public sector organisations need to implement technologies that help ensure data security,” he said. “To help mitigate risks from inevitable cyberattacks, questions must be asked as to what data-sets/types are critical to operations, regulation and national security, versus which aren’t. By prioritising data security, being intentional about data growth, and proactively reviewing sensitive data sets, public sector organisations can actively improve their data security and resilience considerably.
Cassidy did say there is hope on the horizon for organisations in the shape of regulatory requirements, such as NIS2 and CER. These, he said, “are coming into place to help organisations better manage their data and further ensure compliance and data security.”
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Loss of sensitive data
Across the board, one in two organisations have suffered a loss of sensitive data over the last year, according to the research. In fact, one of six organisations experienced multiple losses of data in the past 12 months.
A typical organisation’s data has grown 42 percent over the last 18 months, with SaaS data driving the most growth overall (145 percent) followed by cloud (73 percent) and on-premises (20 percent), as observed in the Rubrik report.
Global organisations have 24.8 million sensitive data records, on average. Sixty-one store sensitive data in multiple locations across cloud, on-premises, and SaaS environments, with fewer than four percent reporting a dedicated, sensitive data storage location.
The most widely reported data types compromised included personally identifiable information (38 percent), corporate financial data (37 percent), and authentication credentials (32 percent).
For more information and insight into government data initiatives why not register to attend next months Think Data for Government conference. It is an in person only event in Westminster.
