New research recommends firms make information governance a priority.
Master data management (MDM) could become a primary issue for businesses wanting to achieve effective information governance, a survey from Gartner has suggested.
Research from the organisation pointed out that failure to manage information correctly has resulted in several security incidents in recent years, such as the leak of sensitive data to Wikileaks, eWeek.com reported.
Ted Friedman, a vice president at Gartner, explained that data management storage has become a significant issue in the last few years because of the economic climate.
"The recent global financial crisis has put information governance in the spotlight. Information governance is a priority of IT and business leaders as a result of various pressures, including regulatory compliance mandates and the urgent need for improved decision-making," he commented.
Fellow vice president Debra Logan agreed that growing interest in information governance-related topics shows no sign of slowing.
"Information governance is the only way to comply with regulations, both current and future, and responsibility for it lies with the CIO and the chief legal officer," she pointed out.
"When organisations suffer high-profile data losses, especially involving violations of the privacy of citizens or consumers, they suffer serious reputational damage and often incur fines or other sanctions. IT leaders will have to take at least part of the blame for these incidents."
Gartner’s report advised that firms in highly regulated sectors should invest in archive document storage systems now to bring email and files under control if they have not done so already.
Some companies may also have to allocate resources to set up a role that deals directly with information governance, the research said.
"Organisations will have to increase their investment in related tools and technologies, both to facilitate the development and refinement of policy, and to distil policies into executable rules that tools can apply to information," added Mr Friedman.