P2P

50 P E E R T O P E E R : I L T A ' S Q U A R T E R L Y M A G A Z I N E | S P R I N G 2 0 2 3 perspective. People want letters to be called letters, and contracts to be called contracts. So often systems can't distinguish a lease agreement contract from an employment contract that includes time limited PII. That's why firms need to do some data mapping and put the data within systems into a data retention classification structure, being mindful of the governance requirements around retention and disposition. It's also necessary to know the risk profile of data held. Mergers and acquisitions, for instance, might be privy to some extremely market sensitive information that hackers will target. Thereafter the firm might want to look at building cross-departmental teams of process, system and data owners to understand what's needed and what's possible with existing systems and what can join those two together. For example, data might not be well classified, systems functionality might not allow for you to archive data in a way which meets requirements. At this point firms should be looking at IG governance platform like iCompli that let you go into multiple different data stores and media types to manage and destroy data across systems. Data minimization for the modern firm The key in it all is for firms to be proactive in the face of what might seem at times like a blizzard of data. But keep in mind that a data minimization strategy will benefit the whole firm. It should engage the most senior levels, including the CIO, CISO, COO, and General Counsel. These postholders may not be responsible for data strategy but the fallout from a failure to minimize data will still land at their door. Data breaches incur lost productivity and possibly ransom payments, cybercrime expert fees, regulatory and professional fines, and even client and past employee lawsuits. The reputational hit impacts client retention and acquisition and future rates and fees. If your firm is considering the move to a cloud based DMS you will also reduce the duration, fees and ongoing costs of the transition by enacting data minimization. There are many strong reasons to take data minimization seriously, and many ways to regret it if you don't. ILTA Q 1 W H I T E P A P E R S Chris Giles is CEO and Director of Information Governance at LegalRM, which creates market-leading software, services and solutions for records, risk and compliance management and serves some of the world largest law firms as well as blue chip organizations from other industry sectors. Kandace Donovan is LegalRM's Vice President Operations, North America. To find out more watch our ILTA Masterclass to hear a discussion on the advantages of a data minimization strategy, and in particular why this strategy is of particular importance to a CIO, or the IT budget holder within a firm. click here to register » ILTA Masterclass

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