Monday, July 16, 2012

Adding Value To Business Processes With Information Security Benchmarking

By Marian Skinner


The processing of data is a major requirement for many businesses today. As critical as this process is it requires careful implementation and management. All this can only be successful if it is carried out from a point of reference such as the information security benchmarking.

Standards are important for many business processes. These enable a thorough evaluation of the business activities to ensure that they are conforming to accepted quality levels. While such a yardstick is not implemented the process quality remains questionable.

The standard measure that is acceptable by most industries is always a good starting point. Therefore for processed data having a clearly defined roles and responsibilities framework within the organization is important. This must be a well defined team with its own management structure.

The definition of the roles is pertinent to assigning the responsibilities. As such having an officer in charge and working with a dedicated data processing team is the way to go for many organizations. Such a team will be charged with the role of implementing and maintaining standards in relation to the entire processing taking place within the organization. This is particularly true for processed data which is considered an important asset for any business. Violations have often resulted in costly lawsuits

Other issues of significance relate to individual data protection. Generally one universally acceptable standard to attaining this is the data protection act. Within this enactment are provisions that carefully define the basic requirements related to personal data. The categories and acceptable ways of handling this type of data are highlighted in detail in this documentation. As such any organization that deals with personal data is governed by the provisions in this act. Generally data confidentiality and privacy are the main objectives of this enactment.

Maintaining these links is critical but requires compliance. This can be implemented through processes like information security benchmarking that will cover the different data assets of the organization. A disregard of such a process may lead to violations or lawsuits that can negatively affect the business. As such establishing these globally acceptable standards provides the business an opportunity to start and maintain new business links.




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