EPISODE 24: DATA, DATA EVERYWHERE, BUT HOW DO WE MAKE IT SAFE TO SHARE? EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DATA, CYBERSECURITY AND OUR DESIRE FOR CONVENIENCE

Compromising Positions - A Cyber Security Podcast

This week we are joined by Jenn Calland, a seasoned Data Analyst, Analytics Engineer, former Platform Engineer and Full Stack Developer with expertise spanning Google Cloud, Looker, BigQuery, and many other technologies.

In this episode, Data, Data Everywhere, But How Do We Make It Safe to Share? We are going explore the relationship between data, cybersecurity and our personal and organisational desire for convenience which can sometimes lead to insecure and risky behaviour.

Jenn warns data analysts about working under the assumption that by the time they get their hands on the data, that it’s all ‘safe and secure.’ She cautions the data team that they shouldn’t think they don’t need to be ‘secure’ because it has been taken care of either by the cloud providers, compliance or the security team themselves - but in fact, we all need to be accountable in our data/security journey.

We also discussed the challenges around anonymising data and the handling of medical data, how AI is changing things and what security teams can do to make sure we collaborate with the data team in a way that works for all parties involved.

Key Takeaways:

Data Security is a Journey, Not a Destination: Just like data travels through a lifecycle, so too should your security measures before any data hits the databases.

In Cloud we Trust?: Can we ever be certain our data is secure in the cloud? It’s crucial to scrutinize who is looking at the data and how it got there.

Data Security is a Team Sport: From GDPR compliance to the psychological impact of data breaches, understand the human side of data security and why it matters to your business through communication and collaboration.

Security vs Convenience: The trade-off of security for convenience is a real risk to data handling.

Links to everything we discussed in this episode can be found in the show notes and if you liked the show, please do leave us a review.

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We hope you enjoyed this episode - See you next time, keep secure, and don’t forget to ask yourself, ‘Am I the compromising position here?’

Keywords: cybersecurity, data, cloud security, GDPR, AI, data privacy

SHOW NOTES

Darknet Diaries (a fantastic cybersecurity podcast) did a brilliant episode on the VTech Hack

Learn more about Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s data project, Inrupt

ABOUT JENN CALLAND

Jenn Calland is a seasoned Data Analyst, Analytics Engineer, former Platform Engineer and Full Stack Developer with expertise spanning Google Cloud, Looker, BigQuery, and many other technologies. Not only recognized for her technical acumen, Jenn is a fervent advocate for Diversity & Inclusion in tech. Her leadership and mentorship have made significant strides in promoting supportive work environments especially for Women in Tech, emphasizing the balance between career and personal responsibilities.

LINKS FOR JENN CALLAND

Jenn’s LinkedIn

Jenn’s X (aka Twitter) account