Week 11: Clear - Data Challenge for IT and Security

Data and information is critical to any business to function and be profitable.  Data is raw facts and figures without context.  Information is data that is put into context to answer questions and support decisions.  Essentially, you cannot have one without the other.  Having data and information at your businesses fingertips brings many responsibilities and challenges.  From an Information Technology perspective, data has to be stored somewhere and be accessible to be of any value.  Unfortunately, data and information continues to grow at rapid rates and are relied upon more and more.  The storage space of data has to grow with the increased amount of data being accumulated.  In addition, business is reliant on the data and information being stored to the point that it has to be readily accessible at all times.  If businesses cannot accept any more data or the data is inaccessible, the business loses money by the minute.   There are a few headaches that come along with  

On top of the storage and accessibility of data and information, businesses now have to adhere to strict regulatory and compliance legislation of the data.  This is true in many industries including; healthcare, financial, education, manufacturing, and retail.  Even if an organization does not process financial data or healthcare data, they have a responsibility to protect the personal records of its employees.  These compliance regulations include PCI-DSS, Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, GLBA, and FISMA, to name a few.  Complying with such regulations can be costly, but now it is the "cost of doing business."  Not complying with such government standards and regulations will ultimately cost a company its business through fines, lawsuits, and lost reputation.  When scoping and researching information technology hardware and software, adherence to compliance must be thought of from the very beginning instead of the end or after implementation.  This has caused an increase in the cost of doing business, but at the same time has allowed for many job opportunities in the Security Compliance career field.