Misinformation and data breaches spark IT backlash.(on IBM Data Governance Council's proposals for data management)

Misinformation and data breaches spark IT backlash

Michelle Perry

An industry group has outlined developments in data management to reshape corporate behaviour and to ensure the credibility of market-sensitive information.

The IBM Data Governance Council issued five recommendations including the regulation and automation of data governance, putting data value on the balance sheet as an asset, giving chief information officers responsibility for data and risk, and identifying risk more transparently.

In the light of events leading to the credit squeeze, some countries will force companies to reveal their data governance practices as part of regular audits.

The council predicted that risk calculation would be automated and the IT function would take over responsibility, allowing companies to examine their past exposures more easily, to forecast risk and to set up risk contingency budgets.

The IBM council proposed that data should be a technical reporting metric and key IT performance indicator, and its value entered as an asset on the balance sheet.