But, no matter how intelligent and sophisticated the technology, it is still subject to the whims of users. It’s much harder to change human behaviour than it is to install systems. Ignoring the other two elements of the policy – the people and the processes – will inevitably compromise the capability of the technology to protect stored documents, databases and other information. Any policy must therefore take into account the way that employees currently work and should not constrict their ability to carry out their day to day tasks by introducing overly complicated procedures, and unnecessary red tape. People will simply find the easiest route to carrying out their job: and if that means bypassing the security policy then that is what the majority will do. If major behavioural changes are required, then these need to be carefully planned and gradually introduced.



Consider this scenario: a busy senior executive gives his PA his password to check his email, and with it all his access privileges to stored data. It’s not an uncommon event, but it does present a potential security risk. Even if a policy forbids this, the chances are it will still happen, simply because it is the most convenient way for the senior executive to fulfil his role.

When it comes to writing the policy and considering the procedures required, the business needs to answer several questions. First of all: what gets stored? Clearly it is impractical to store everything – indeed it runs the risk of breaching either the Data Protection or the Human Rights Acts. So choices need to be made. Organisations also need to ask themselves where the information will be held? If only the essential documents are stored the implication is that they will need to be retrieved at some point. Accessing it in the future is going to be much more time consuming and inefficient if their whereabouts isn’t planned and recorded – not knowing where corporate knowledge is held is just as dangerous as not having good data security policies.


Which leads to the next question: what happens to the data once it has been stored? Who is going to look at it? And, equally important, who is not? Security is all about maintaining the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information and proving non-repudiation. All the security technology in the world come to nothing if there is no way of controlling who can access the archives. And, with the increased need for reliable audit trails in mind, the enterprise also needs to prove who has, and hasn’t been viewing saved records and indeed, who has made copies.

Organisations need to address this issue from two angles: classifying the information, and identifying the user. Document management and identity management technologies are therefore two of the most crucial elements for any storage security policy. Most businesses underestimate how much data they produce: technology, especially email, has enabled unprecedented levels of duplication and filing anarchy. Unless a company has been exceptionally meticulous in its IT use there is usually little or no knowledge of what information has been created. Document management procedures will identify which records, files, and data need to be secured, and how long they need to be saved for.