Organizations know that the ability to innovate is the key to success. But as your team hashes out everything from product plans to company strategies, the security of that information deserves just as much emphasis.
According to a recent Forrester trends report, 22% of enterprise security decision-makers identified improving data security as a priority for the coming year. However, executing those security measures is a different challenge.
Strict security protocols can be rigid and clunky, restricting the collaboration, creative thinking, and innovation leaders want to encourage. In a separate Forrester report, 37% of organizations say balancing innovation and security is one of the biggest challenges they face.
Here’s the good news: It’s possible to walk this tightrope. Below, we’ll dive into modern approaches and solutions that’ll help you secure your confidential information without sacrificing the creativity and collaboration your teams need to bring your dream innovations to life.
More data, more danger: Current challenges in data security
One of the reasons why data security is increasingly difficult is volume: There’s simply so much data that organizations need to collect and manage.
The rise in remote work led to an explosion in the amount of data shared and discussed in collaborative platforms. Gone are the days when sensitive company information was housed on an on-premises server or addressed during an in-person meeting. Now, this information is swapped back and forth using a variety of digital tools.
While the sheer avalanche of confidential information is a major challenge, there are several other complicating factors. For starters, data exists in varied formats and locations. There’s structured (data consisting of numbers and values that fit into tables) and unstructured data (data in assorted formats including audio, video, and sensors) spread across cloud environments, AI models, collaborative platforms, and IoT.
Cloud environments themselves — while convenient for remote and distributed teams — are seeing major data sprawl and proliferation when they aren’t well managed. An alarming 44% of organizations are adopting cloud environments faster than they can properly secure them. That unintentional data creep exposes organizations to even more security risks from misconfigurations and third-party access and also increases costs through operational inefficiencies and governance challenges.
Finally, exactly what counts as sensitive data is rapidly changing. While personally identifiable information (PII) and intellectual property (IP) have long been recognized as confidential, many organizations fail to keep pace with emerging forms of sensitive information like virtual meeting transcripts, IoT sensor data, and AI outputs.
Put simply, organizations are trying to secure more data in varied formats across different locations — and it often feels like trying to hold water in a leaky bucket.
Out with the old, in with the optimal: Rescoping data security for today’s risks
When data itself has changed so dramatically, antiquated security measures don’t cut it.
So, how do you bring your organization’s data security into the modern age? It starts with recognizing your risk. For most organizations, the most pressing risks include data breaches, inadequate data lifecycle management processes, and insider threats. Let’s take a closer look at each of these and how you can address them:
Data breaches
Data breaches are becoming more common, largely because data is increasing in both quantity and complexity. To combat potential breaches, many organizations turn to essential controls like Zero Trust and encryption. However, those measures alone are no longer enough to adequately protect data in all its forms. Recent innovations like rights management, automated data discovery, and data security posture management keep your data secure with automated and targeted controls that don’t inhibit collaboration.
Inadequate data lifecycle management
As data changes, so does its value and potential risk. For example, a financial report transitions from confidential to public following an earnings call. Organizations need to understand the data lifecycle and reclassify its security measures accordingly throughout that journey.
Insider threats
Insider threats occur when somebody with authorized access to data either maliciously or unintentionally misuses that information in a way that harms the company. 70% of security leaders say they’re concerned about insider risks. Access governance tools can regulate access and reduce risk, yet less than half of organizations have deployed them. Implementing stronger access controls, creating detailed incident response plans, and offering security awareness training to employees can keep your data safe.
Of course, security is about protecting data. But today, it’s just as important to enable secure and efficient business processes. Modern security protocols need to recognize and safeguard data in all of its different forms without disrupting your team’s collaboration and creative flow.
It might seem like an impossible balancing act, but Miro’s native data security features can help you minimize risk while also unlocking innovation. Miro Enterprise Guard automatically finds, classifies, and secures sensitive data and content being created on MIro and then applies native, risk-adjusted controls and automations to protect it.
You get the peace of mind of top-notch data security without disrupting your team’s creative and collaborative workflows.
Security without slowdowns: The ever-changing role of security in innovation
Intellectual property is no longer the only asset at risk. Business-critical data has gone through a major evolution and now includes algorithms, AI models, and technical diagrams.
Plus, sensitive information is no longer relegated to on-premises servers and internal drives. Today, teams are hashing out confidential corporate strategies and technical diagrams in remote work environments that contain an ever-growing roster of tools and platforms.
For those reasons, more granular controls and clear visibility into data usage are more important than ever. Miro Enterprise Guard allows you to control security at the content level (rather than the user role), pinpoints data to the exact board it lives on so you can protect it accordingly, and automatically discovers data using keywords or predefined categories. Features like these allow organizations to mitigate specific risks without throwing endless wrenches into teams’ creative workflows.
Ultimately, data security isn’t just a compliance issue. It’s essential for long-term business success. With a modern strategy, security doesn’t have to compromise innovation and vice versa. The two can work together to support your team in generating their best ideas and protecting them.
