Manage Data Risks Head On
Protecting information is critical to ensuring trust and meeting compliance requirements.
As data environments across all industries become increasingly complex, it has become easier for information to be mishandled. This mishandling of information stored on the cloud has led to 80% of corporate data being considered "dark," meaning that it's not classified, protected, or governed, which leaves your organization vulnerable to compliance risks as well as security breaches. Individual organizations must assess the information that exists within their systems. Many organizations lack a consistent procedure for moving their data to the cloud, leading to inefficiencies in archiving, retention, and eDiscovery processes. The first step to ensuring that data has not become redundant, obsolete, or trivial is to gain a full understanding of the data your organization owns, where it is being stored, how it’s used, and any and all compliance risks associated with its existence.
When it comes to compliance, you need an experienced partner. Epiq was the winner of Microsoft’s “Top Microsoft 365 Compliance Partner” award for its work in FY20. Epiq helps organizations easily migrate data to the cloud and begin using the advanced built-in security and compliance features within Microsoft 365. Through these efforts, Epiq works alongside clients globally to help them overcome their biggest information governance challenges: ever-expanding data sources, increasingly rigorous compliance and privacy regulations, and the need to reduce costs.
Understand the Hidden Compliance Risks of Dark Data
Participants in Epiq's Data Risk Management Workshop will meet with our expert team three times over two weeks for an in-depth engagement experience in partnership with Microsoft. Faced with ever-expanding data sources, increasingly rigorous compliance and privacy regulations, and the need to reduce costs, participating in this workshop is a step toward securing your organization’s data environment whether you're just beginning to consider information governance or already have a mature program in place.
After discussing and understanding the associated liabilities with stale and sensitive data respectively, Epiq's team will launch our discovery process across all areas of Office 365 where data may be stored, including both Exchange Online and SharePoint Online. The workshop concludes with a presentation on insight into our clients' data across the Microsoft Cloud, and we provide an analytic report of the findings — calling attention to the most impactful data. Clients will not only leave with an understanding of their data risks but also an action plan to efficiently address and mitigate all potential threats.
Discovery Process
Data typically becomes stale and unused immediately after creation, posing a range of hidden compliance risks as it becomes outdated and unprotected, especially if the files contained include sensitive personally identifiable information. Our automated discovery process leverages Office 365 tools and services including data loss prevention, content search, and audit and alert to analyze data stored across the cloud that could pose a compliance risk. This includes not just sensitive information, such as stale data, but also suspicious activity.
In our discovery process, Epiq will monitor for any activities that could lead to unauthorized data disclosure, unusual usage of organizational data, and irregular volume of file deletion. To maximize data privacy, the search can be configured to only analyze specific locations, and access to these discovery results are governed through Role-Based Access Control as defined by our clients, and all PII will be removed before sharing findings.
Strategy for Success
After the discovery process is completed within two to three weeks, clients receive a detailed assessment of their organization's unique objectives, influences, and priorities for compliance. Following the opportunity to experience the benefits of integrated compliance through the utilization of industry-best technology, Epiq works to not only highlight the potential threats associated with clients’ current data environments but also builds a list of recommendations and actionable next steps to mitigate the identified compliance risks. These long-term recommendations are built using the clients’ compliance strategy, featuring key initiatives and tactical next steps that will help them to complete their unique objectives in the long-term.
Utilizing eDiscovery for Compliance
As a global leader with over 30 years in the legal services industry, Epiq’s team is experienced in handling some of the most complex data environments with efficiency, clarity, and confidence. Our extensive suite of data solutions not only helps organizations to migrate their data to the cloud utilizing advanced built-in security and compliance features available through Microsoft 365 but the data-driven insights we provide help our clients across all industries to make better business decisions to achieve their long-term objectives.
If your organization is ready to take the next step in data compliance and security, Epiq’s workshop and best-in-class legal and compliance technology solutions are here to help.