Threats and Opportunities in Data Leaking

Photo Credit: Kaia Gets Caught! by marcus_in_ny

Kaia, the cat in the photo above (no, she's not mine), is symbolic. If she looks like an LOLcat that's my intention. Kaia represents consumer social networks and free collaboration tools like Twitter, Facebook, Google Docs and LinkedIn. The faucet and the pipes you don't see here are your IT infrastructure. The water is the essential stream of data and information that businesses need for knowledge work. All of this combined represents a giant trend to watch - Data Leaking.

In the business world, information technology (IT) pros plays an incredibly valuable role. As geeks we may not love them all the time, but they do keep mission-critical services like email up and running to "five nines." However, corporate IT is at a major crossroads and things are about to get a lot more complicated.

In a few years mid-level knowledge workers will be dominated by Generation Y. As has been well-chronicled, this demographic has a very different view of digital tools. They grew up with the web. Facebook was part of their college and now their professional lives. They live online and use these technologies to nurture and grow both their business and personal networks.

That's where the drama begins. The pace of innovation in the consumer Internet sector will always outpace what the enterprise can do. It's a tortoise and hare scenario that's really not corporate IT's fault. As a result a lot of work - especially anything that involves collaboration - is leaking outside the workplace and CIOs are left to deal with the risks.

Employees, frustrated with the tools they are given, are simply taking
matters into their own hands. Data is leaking away form corporations
into social networks, which are becoming the new intranets and
extranets of tomorrow.

Top-tier reporters I know are using social networks to bring together their sources into working groups or simply to connect. Many others - both PR pros and journalists - are using Help a Reporter. One Fortune 500 marketer I am consulting has set up a site on Ning to bring together some of it's more digitally savvy employees. James McLaine writes that DDB Worldwide, the largest ad agency in the world, is running a private Facebook group to organize and run a mentoring program. Nielsen exec Pete Blackshaw sheepishly admits he has moved non-proprietary work to the cloud. I am sure that many other examples abound.

Corporate IT knows that Data Leaking is going to be one of their top challenges. According to Forrester Research, 79% are concerned about the risks of unsanctioned use of Web 2.0 tools by their employees (see chart below). The data also shows they know they need to lead the way. However, that's the challenge. IT pros will never be able to keep up with Google Docs, Facebook, Twitter and others who are creating tools that consumers fall in love with and integrate into their own lives. It's just not the way companies operate.

The new world of work thrives on online collaboration. The companies that continually build walls around their employees won't be around a decade from now. As the Wikinomics blog indicates, this requires a new breed of CIOs who are willing to let their employees go and tap into their innovative spirit, rather than try to shut it down (a whack a mole scenario). The more liberal an IT department is, the more likely it is they will be able to innovate using a mix of external and internal tools.

The ramifications of this trend are huge. As knowledge work moves to social networks and "the cloud," the rewards increase thanks to enhanced collaboration. However, then again so do the risks. Cloud services like Apple's MobileMe, Google Docs and Amazon S3 all have had high-profile outages in the last month. We haven't seen a massive security hole rupture in any of these systems yet, but that's always a possibility as hackers increasingly turn their attention to these super high-value targets.

PR professionals have a lot to gain from using these tools. Collaborating on multiple drafts of a press release on Google Docs or Microsoft Sharepoint is a snap, as is interacting with reporters and bloggers on Facebook or LinkedIn. However, there are laws like Sarbanes Oxley to contend with and overall risks of downtime and/or potential security issues.

Once again, it comes down to trust and everyone's own risk/reward levers. But something tells me that as Gen Y dominates, they will trust the web. And that means, like or not, data will flow away from internal servers towards open systems. That portends big things.

Comments

[Jonathon]

If you stifle innovation for the sake of security, your long-term business prospects ain't good. It's definitely going to be a tough balancing act for managers. There's an interesting post about how quickly people have made the shift to posting private info on Web 2.0 tools: What Are Strangers Doing With All of Your Information?

[Nick Stamoulis]

Loving the photo analogy... even better article. I concur!

[Steve Poppe]

Loose tips (fingertips) sink ships. It's up to the employee to use corporate discretion. But I do like where we're going and applaud you for keeping an eye on Gen Y...Steve

[Shanky Jindal]

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[Jack Payne]

Data leaking has been one of the biggest worries of all corporate managers since almost two decades now. Problem is while most employees go ahead and post data on social networks without intending any harm to their companies, there are some who completely take advantage of the internet social media for their own dark agenda and has given rise to many techno con men who have become unstopable as they are always one step ahead of the corporates. No know ones the way to block these con men without restricting freedom of their good employees.