Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1189756
5.12.19 11 INTERVIEW erasure for enterprises today organisations can streamline and optimise data erasure? e first step for any organisation is to truly understand the data in their pos- session—the reality is that most do not. It's vital to regularly review what exists in order to make key decisions about the data that truly holds value to the business, and what is a liability with no real value. e latter can – and should – be erased. e Global Databerg report found that that only 15% of the average company's data is considered business critical. Of the rest, 33% is redundant, obsolete or trivial, and 52% is unclassified and holds no value. Clearly, there is a huge amount of data in company's possession that can be erased so getting the house in order and fully understanding what's in an organ- isation's possession, should be the first step. Why should data sanitisation be on the board room agenda? It is estimated that the average cost of data breaches will reach more than $2.1 trillion globally by 2020. Regulators aren't going to become more lenient over time—if anything, they're likely to get tougher as business- es fail to protect their customers. And with fines as high as 4% of revenue, a data blunder could spell the difference between profit and loss. Data is often described as the new oil: the most valuable commodity an or- ganisation, enterprise, mobile operator or brand can own. But crude oil straight out of the ground isn't useful—refined oil is. And data sanitation is one way to refine that oil as clean as possible. It's a crucial process, which will help protect businesses. Regulation, compliance, breaches and fines all make this a boardroom consid- eration. Without making this a priority, businesses are running huge risks that could overshadow every good decision they make. Enterprises, data centres and even mobile operators are in need of education, and this problem is compounded by being buried by other priorities