InfoRiskAwareness Blog

Taming the Wild West

Howard Sklar, Senior Corporate Counsel, Recommind – Mon 30 Apr 2012 @ 9:41

One statistic leaps out when discussing data governance we create more information every few days now than was created from the beginning of time to 2003.

But information governance is not just about dealing with the volume of data it involves effectively and efficiently managing the growing amount of unstructured data (email, social media, telephone conversations), especially in the face of an increasingly strict global regulatory environment.  Against that wider backdrop, two issues immediately arise: current information governance is in its infancy, and current document management systems are cumbersome at best and unusable at worst.

Despite being in its infancy, information governance will quickly gain visibility w …[MORE]

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So the new cookie law sucks – get over it already!

Phil Lee, Senior Associate, Privacy & Information Group, Field Fisher Waterhouse – Wed 25 Apr 2012 @ 10:36

As has been much publicised in recent weeks, the ICO’s ‘grace period’ for complying with the UK’s new cookie consent requirement expires towards the end of next month (25 May, to be precise).  Across the EU, cookie consent requirements are already in force in a number of territories.

What I’ve found surprising in the run up to the UK deadline is the number of news articles that still complain about how ‘stupid’ this new law is.  While I have a lot of sympathy for these views – from both a practical implementatio …[MORE]

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Big Data hits the big time

Nick Patience, Senior Market Analyst, Recommind – Tue 17 Apr 2012 @ 9:49

Having read that six US government agencies will spend more than USD 200million helping the government to better organise and analyse its mass of digital data this year, it’s fair to say that the concept of Big Data – or Total Data, whatever you prefer – has not only established itself as a serious business concern, it has reached the mainstream.

Announced by President Obama’s administration a few weeks ago, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s (OSTP’s) Big Data Research and Development Initiative will focus on building sta …[MORE]

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Controlling eDiscovery spending sprees

Mike Hamilton, Senior eDiscovery Market Analyst, Exterro – Mon 16 Apr 2012 @ 16:21

Electronic discovery is expensive.  Identifying, collecting, processing, analysing, and finally producing electronically stored information (ESI) to opposing counsel is time consuming and resource intensive.  Besides the costs of producing data, expenses are multiplied by the current adversarial nature of litigation.  “In some cases, discovery becomes a tool with which to bludgeon the other side into submission,” wrote Judge Joe Brown in a recent ruling.  “Rather than monitoring and moderating the process,” parties are in many cases simply “throwing gasoline on the fire.”

Judge Brown’s pointed r …[MORE]

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You're hired. Now what? - Part 2

Howard Sklar, Senior Corporate Counsel, Recommind – Thu 12 Apr 2012 @ 15:57

In my first blog I discussed the first 30 days after you’ve been hired as a compliance person, for the next 30 days, it’s all about learning the business.  Your mission is to dig into business processes.  You need to learn everything there is to know about how the business does business.  You need to learn their metrics, their language, their processes.  You need to engage with the business and let them get to know you.  Your travels should have introduced you to many of the key players.  Use those relationships—as new as they might be—to learn what their concerns are.  What keeps them up at night?  What are their pressures?  How are they measured?  Don’ …[MORE]

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You’re Hired. Now What? – Part 1

Howard Sklar, Senior Corporate Counsel, Recommind – Wed 11 Apr 2012 @ 14:07

One of the pieces of advice I regularly give to compliance people wanting to know “where do I start?” is to pick a place and start.  The act of starting brings its own momentum.  And there’ll be enough to do that you can start anywhere.  Like in military parlance, any action is better than none.

But that’s advice for the curious.  Advice for the serious is slightly different.  It’s not that my advice isn’t good, it’s just that, for serious people, more specifics are necessary.

So, let me pretend for a moment that I’m a new compliance officer at a new company, and tell you how I would approach things.  Here are my requests to the Chief Compliance Off …[MORE]

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Nationwide electronic surveillance plan revived in UK: report

Eric Sinrod, Partner, Duane Morris – Tue 10 Apr 2012 @ 14:26

The UK is working on proposals for national electronic surveillance that could monitor every electronic message sent and received by its citizens.

This follows the 2008 abandonment of a gigantic government database that would have tracked UK phone and email communications, the AP reports. It appears that the UK government is back at it now, but perhaps with a somewhat different approach.

Recent plans were reportedly disclosed to the Internet Service Providers' Association by Britain's Home Office. …[MORE]

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