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Geese at the ISMG Cybersecurity Summit in New York? It’s all about teamwork!

Work as a team for unstructured data securityLast week, Fasoo sponsored and participated in the ISMG Cybersecurity Summit in New York City.   It was a great event, well attended and in the Theater District and the ISMG folks were awesome to work with!

As part of our sponsorship, Fasoo had a 10 minute Tech Spotlight where, rather than providing a “death by powerpoint” tech dump, we thought it would be good to get everyone thinking about working together as a team with respect to their data security initiatives by following the example of geese. Below is the recap for the greater audience.

When geese fly south for the winter or are moving from one pond or lake to another, they do so in a V formation.  There is a bunch of science around this, but to make a long story short they:

  • Flap their wings to ensure better lift and a more efficient flight
  • They take turns leading the way to ensure each have had a break
  • They stick with each other in times of trouble

Geese are sensible in that they share the responsibility of working together as a “team” to help them get to their destination efficiently and meet the goal of the journey!  For the purposes of this post, we equate the journey to better data security across all businesses.

Many organizations’ stakeholders (C-Level, business unit leaders etc.) don’t talk to one another with respect to how they need to handle data security. Each has their own agenda, process, budget, ideas and such, but much more can be accomplished when working together.  Understanding each others’ goals and coming up with a plan on which to execute.  And so, think about the flock of geese and their relocation journey (to the south, from body of water to body of water) the way you should think about your data security projects and initiatives.  Work as a team.  Talk to one another and get on the same page. Talk about your data and make a plan with the goal toward protecting it and creating a stronger data security strategy that, as a company, you can achieve.  Understand each other’s goals and ensure that you reach them.

Now, some geese –  you may or may not know – get what is called “angel wings” – they are little tufts of feathers sticking out of the side of the wings.  It is usually caused by a poor diet (i.e. bread – please don’t feed geese bread – it is no good for them) – so for the purpose of this blog, an incomplete or non existent data security strategy – but it leaves them unable to fly and vulnerable to attack from a predator (much like data to a hacker or thief without a good strategy), and ultimately –  left behind.

Like the geese, work together and make sure that your journey toward stronger data security is attained. And keep in mind, things don’t happen overnight. There will be disagreements and things might feel as if they are going nowhere.  But don’t give up!

The upside?  There are many, but great things can come of working together as a team because, you will find that by talking to one another, you’ll discover commonalities across the organization about how data is collected, handled, and used making the journey simpler than you think.   And if you feel that your organization is NOT talking?  Be the thought leader or pioneer for your company or business unit.  Start the conversation.  I’ll help you!

Bring your ideas to the table and don’t let your business be the goose that wound up with angel wings, left behind and vulnerable to attack.

Photo credit Vivek Kumar

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