Today data storage is cheap. When I bought my first laptop in 1991, I splashed out and bought the 40 megabyte hard drive model (Computing History, 2021) – for a similar price to the 500 gigabyte SSD Laptop I bought last summer (Dell, 2020). Sitting here writing this blog on my iPhone, when I come to save the Word file I am attached to 2TB of Octagon Technology storage and a further 3TB of personal cloud storage and two 4TB internet attached NAS devices. Oh yes, my phone has 256GB of storage and I have an iPhone/USB memory stick with another 256GB of portable storage. That is a lot and the cost, especially the cloud storage, is incredibly cheap. (My first IBM type PC did not have any built in storage, it used two removeable 5 1/2 inch floppy drives/disks – real bendy disks!)
Let’s consider the 2TB of Octagon Technology Ltd storage – that is subject to a variety of laws and regulations – as is all storage belonging to any company or organisation across the UK – whatever their size. At Octagon we have a set of policies and procedures that address the security, compliance and governance of this data. The highlights described in these documents are:
- The way our team use this information
- How and with whom they can share this information
- Use of their devices including any BYOD
- The data structure to control authentication and authorisation
- Mandatory use of MFA
- Incident response plan
All of the programme has been created to be in line with our business goals and operational requirements, but still meeting the compliance (legal and company) and security targets. This is an important point as security that forces too many changes and so costs, cannot be in line with your business goals.
I put together this programme using this framework and the associated documents, presentations and training:
One more point to consider – data storage, particularly in the cloud, does not come at ‘no cost’. This article on The Conversation – The world’s data explained: how much we’re producing and where it’s all stored – shows that cloud data storage is spiralling, for instance 720,000 hours of YouTube videos added every day (The Conversation, 2021).
Make sure that the data your business stores is data you require. If the volume of your information grows too much there in an increasing likelihood of you losing control of it, with the possibility of unlawfully giving away PII and having to report it to the ICO. (Yes, even a one-person company that contravenes the Data Protection act has to report it and face the consequences.) The programme I develop for companies using the above framework addresses these issues.
Octagon Technology’s 365R “one-stop” solution for SMEs embraces this type of programme from the moment our engineers work with you to set things up and then keep you compliant and secure through the ongoing support. Whenever needed you can book time with me to discuss the particular security, compliance and governance issues relating to your circumstances.
One more thing. Who watches all those YouTube videos?
Clive Catton MSc (Cyber Security) – by-line and other articles
References
Computing History, 2021 – http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/16710/Amstrad-ANB-386SX40/
Dell, 2021 – https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/laptops/new-xps-15-laptop/spd/xps-15-9500-laptop
The Conversation, 2021 – https://theconversation.com/the-worlds-data-explained-how-much-were-producing-and-where-its-all-stored-159964
BYOD – bring your own device
Approximately – sufficient to understand we are dealing with large amounts of information:
1 byte is equal to 1 character
1 megabyte is 1,000,000 bytes
1 gigabyte is 1,000,000,000 bytes
1 terabyte is 1,000,000,000,000 bytes (accurately 1,099,511,627,776 or 240 bytes)
