A global survey of IT leaders by Oracle has revealed a lack of confidence from IT leaders worldwide in how their organisations manage and secure data.
Increases in regulation and high-profile data breaches have affected how IT leaders see data management, with just 47% considering themselves highly confident in their ability to manage data.
Despite this, IT is the most confident department in the business. Only 43% of finance leaders said that they were highly confident in their data security, with this falling to 41% in marketing departments, and just 35% in HR.
When it comes to the behaviours that compromise people's trust in data management, the use of untrusted devices and lack of attention to data confidentiality are some of the primary reasons given.
This could be because the individual data security policies of organisations are not understood by staff, or because of confusion about who should take ownership of managing and implementing these policies.
Confidence in data management isn't evenly spread across global respondents. Decision makers in Brazil, India and Japan say they're most capable of managing the data they generate, with all three having over 60% of respondents stating their data is completely manageable. Conversely, Germany and Australia have much lower confidence, at 18% and 22% respectively.
This is likely to be because of the introduction of increasingly tough data protection rules across Europe, as well as updates in data privacy regulations brought in by the Australian parliament, meaning that the consequences for any company found mismanaging data could be severe. At present, regulation in countries like India and Brazil isn't as stringently enforced.
Recently in the UK, both British Airways and Marriott have been fined following breaches that the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) deemed could have been avoided with better data management.
Given the quantity and importance of data to organisations is only likely to increase, these findings raise questions about how IT leaders will be able to scale their use of data in the business, whilst being confident about its security.
One way of alleviating the compliance burden on executives would be to explore the use of automated technologies. Automation can help with both security and compliance procedures, and this area is a priority for 47% of businesses looking to implement automated technologies in their business.
But for organisations to flourish in a data-driven world, the focus must be on improving the confidence of leaders across the organisation in data security and management. By focusing on best practices for securely managing data, ensuring ethical use, and maintaining integrity, IT leaders can make the most of opportunities to take data management to the next level.
