Risk Management
Understanding Data Hoarding Risks and Mitigation Strategies
Storing massive data volumes indefinitely creates security challenges and compliance risks. Learn how excessive data accumulation impacts businesses and discover effective mitigation approaches.
What is Data Hoarding?
The practice of storing information in enormous volumes for indefinite timeframes is known as data hoarding. Companies frequently collect voluminous information to extract customer insights or business value from it later. However, the information may not be optimally utilized due to inadequate resources, tools, skills, or clear strategy. This results in excessive accumulation of redundant and unnecessary information, which can create data security challenges. If this information is compromised, it can have detrimental impact on the business, transforming information from an asset into a liability.
Dangers of Data Hoarding
Hoarding information can create various obstacles to a company's success. The major risks and hazards of data hoarding are detailed below:
1. Increased Risk of Data Breach
Unstructured, dark information in large volumes that is left unattended becomes more vulnerable to breach risks than information that is structured, frequently accessed, and stored for a definite purpose and period. The more information an organization hoards, the more targets it provides for cybercriminals. Each piece of information, no matter how trivial it may seem, can be a potential entry point for an attacker. With the increase in information volumes, managing and securing sensitive information becomes difficult. Sensitive information can get mixed up with trivial information, making it difficult to secure meaningful information.
A data breach can lead to operational downtime, loss of intellectual property, and financial damage. The average total cost of a data breach as per IBM Report on a global scale, is US $4.45 million. In addition, recovery costs and lawsuits can increase the financial burden, which for some companies might mean bankruptcy and a total shutdown.
2. Insider Threats
Employees within an organization who accumulate excessive amounts of information by collecting or retaining it without purpose or immediate use endanger sensitive information. Unauthorized access and/or usage of this information compromises the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of this information, thus increasing the chances of this information getting lost or breached. Managing a large volume of information is challenging and can pose security risks. Furthermore, accidental access to sensitive information by users without proper privileges increases the risk of data breaches.
3. Backup Redundancy
Over-accumulation of information at different locations (on a device or in the cloud) can also heighten the possibility of data leakage. According to the Veeam 2023 Ransomware Trends report, "Data stored in backups is the most common target for ransomware attackers." The sensitive information can be compromised via different access points by a malicious attacker.
4. Compliance and Legal Risk
The duration for which information is retained varies based on industry standards, the purpose of processing, data retention policies, and regulatory requirements. Unless there are exceptional circumstances, such as for historical or scientific research purposes, information is typically not required to be retained for longer than the period for which it was initially collected. Storing information beyond the retention period it was collected for, without a clear purpose, or after the purpose has been fulfilled, is a violation of data privacy regulations like CCPA, EU-GDPR & UK-GDPR. The supervisory authority under the data protection law has the power to send notices, suspend business activities, and impose penalties and bans.
5. Increased Total Cost of Ownership
As the volume of collected information increases, so does the cost of storage, irrespective of the lack of direct contribution to the organizational objective. Whether the information is being stored on-premises or in a data center, the total cost of ownership for storing and maintaining the information also increases. An increase in information means you would require more physical space for servers, consume more energy to provide uninterrupted cooling and power the servers, etc.
Further, organizations are responsible for regulating their environmental waste generation and meeting their ESG goals, both of which they risk failing due to data hoarding. The March 2023 research report "Consumer Sentiment on the Environmental Impact of Hoarding Unnecessary Enterprise Data" showed that 47% of consumers will refuse to continue investing in a business that is causing damage to the environment by storing unwanted or unnecessary information. Regardless of the priorities of consumers, if businesses do not actively make contributions to sustainable development, they lose opportunities to create a positive impact.
Mitigating the Risks of Data Hoarding
Organizations can apply the following ways to mitigate the negative consequences of data hoarding:
1
Data Minimization
The focus of any business should be on data minimization because a major cause of security risks, financial burdens, environmental damage, and reputational damage is data hoarding. It is in the best interest of organizations to collect, store, and retain information they have a clear purpose for. If the purpose of processing information is unnecessary, inadequate, or irrelevant, it must be permanently erased. This practice also aligns with Article 5 of EU-GDPR.
2
Conduct Regular Audits
Conducting audits at regular intervals helps organizations keep track of their own policies and practices related to the entire lifecycle of information. These can become opportunities to revise the steps that are harmful or irrelevant and introduce measures that can identify inaccurate and unnecessary information. Data cleansing refers to the removal of information that is incomplete, incorrect, and, hence, inconsistent. This may include the PII of a user that the organization didn't consent to store beyond a certain period.
3
Data Retention Policy
Businesses retain information and allocate sufficient resources and time so that value can be extracted from the information. However, the purposes for and conditions under which the information is retained vary according to the geographical area, data protection laws, and business requirements. A data retention policy sets a comprehensive protocol in place, providing clear guidelines on the duration for which information can be retained according to diverse types of information.
4
Data Destruction Policy
In order to keep relevant information safe and dispose of irrelevant information before the retention period gets over, a data destruction policy needs to be formed. It must define the purpose, scope, provisions, and approved standard methods of data destruction, along with the responsibilities of the people involved, such as the CIO and CISO. Whether the data destruction procedure is carried out within the premises of the organization, i.e., onsite, or an external party has been hired, such as an ITAD, there will be a detailed description of both scenarios in the policy.
Professional data wiping tools like D-Secure provide a data destruction certificate along with a detailed removal report. Empowered with automation, scalability, and remote wiping, this tool supports globally recognized standards such as NIST 800-88 Clear and NIST 800-88 Purge. It works with diverse storage devices, regardless of operating systems. The software provides 360-degree protection by making information irrecoverable.
5
Employee Training
Humans are the weakest link in information security; thus, it is highly crucial that they are equipped with the wisdom needed to handle information properly. Conducting employee training to raise awareness of how sensitive information is collected, managed, stored, and discarded can enhance data security in the organization. Regular training sessions keep employees informed about social engineering attacks and phishing emails, preventing them from unknowingly endangering business-critical information.
Conclusion
Collected information is valuable only if it is relevant, necessary, and aligned with a clear objective. Information that doesn't fulfill any of these conditions must be disposed of in time to prevent it from becoming a hindrance to business growth.
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