Solving the biggest Information Governance challenge: knowing what to look for and where

Impacted by loss of knowledge and resources

As a national critical services operator, maintaining compliance with the Security of Network & Information Systems Regulations (NIS Regulations) remains a top priority as the UK looks to increase cybersecurity and systems resilience.

However, the organisation had experienced major change with considerable loss of knowledge and resources, a situation not helped by unexpected redundancy and furlough schemes introduced by the pandemic.

“Over the last few years we’ve seen significant increase in big data, compliance pressures, and cyber and security threats,” said a company spokesperson.

“At the same time, our workforce has almost halved creating gaps in organisational structure and process. So, we began looking for an information governance specialist to help identify areas of potential weakness that posed the biggest risks, as well as those that were performing well.”

Managing the complete totality of information

Information Governance (IG) is a subset of corporate governance, which describes how well an organisation manages the totality of its information – from creation, retention and disposition to robust policies and technologies.

IG extends right across the business including disciplines such as information security, data privacy and protection, records and information management, litigation readiness, regulatory compliance, long term digital preservation, analytics and infonomics. “It was an opportunity to take a close look at information, access policies and internal processes,” the spokesperson added. “And, to do that objectively through the eyes of an impartial expert.”