Data Mapping: a Key Step to Staying Compliant with Data Security Regulations

An iBridge Point of View Data Mapping: A Key Step to Staying Compliant with Data Security Regulations

How data mapping helps organizations comply with the GDPR, CCPA, and more. 1

Data security, data integrity, and data management tasks, such as data privacy are key concerns for today’s transformation or mediation between a businesses. In particular, the GDPR in source and a destination. It also the EU and CCPA in California mandate provides database schema mapping for organizations to take the necessary pre-integration data cleansing. measures to protect data at inception, in motion, and at rest. The Importance of Data Mapping

Securing your data not only protects Data analytics is a key component in your customers’ information but also any digital transformation (DX) strategy helps you avoid hefty penalties. For in today’s data-driven business instance, GDPR fines are rising environment. Data mapping allows exponentially (up to 10 million euros), companies to have more efficient and CCPA penalties aren’t far behind. document collection to organize their business critical data. Data mapping But how can you be sure that all your also provides easy access to data is fully protected at all times? Are information for timely decision-making. you assuming that your data is protected, or do you know for certain Data mapping has greater accuracy and that everything in your system is consistency, increases the efficiency of airtight? What can you do to take the all business operations, and allows guesswork out of the data leadership to identify emerging trends. management process? Data mapping helps companies The first step to securing your data is minimize potential issues that would knowing where it is, how it travels from lead to lower profits because it allows one location to another, and who has decisions to become more data-driven. access to it. Data mapping takes the Leveraging data mapping for decision- guesswork out by providing a factual making can deliver higher quality account of the locations of all your customer experience to increase critical information so you can ensure profitability. data security while obeying various regulations.

What’s Data Mapping?

Data mapping is the process of associating data elements between two distinct data models or data fields from a source file to related targeted fields. It synthesizes information from multiple sources and is a critical step for a variety of data integration and 2

Most importantly, data mapping is an element of data integration and enhances various data management data management, such as data tasks that are critical to ensuring data warehousing. security, enforcing data governance and staying compliant Data Warehousing: the aggregation of with industry regulations. data that has already been migrated, integrated, and transformed into one How Data Mapping Helps source for comparison or analysis to Organizations Stay Compliant with improve business intelligence. Data Regulations mapping guarantees that data gets to its intended destination. Data mapping’s role in various data management tasks provides enterprises Here are the key data mapping steps you with an accurate picture of what data should incorporate in your data they hold, where it is, how it’s moved management process: throughout the organization, and what needs protecting. Data Discovery

Tracking such information will also help As data is used throughout an you set up the appropriate access organization, it may “leak” into many controls and identify where you should places—for example, in development implement measures like sandboxes, backup files, legacy systems, pseudonymization, encryption, cloud platforms, and standalone anonymization, and aggregation to databases set up by individual ensure compliance with various departments. regulations, such as the GDPR and CCPA.

Data Migration: the one-time movement of data from one system to another. Data mapping ensures that the source fields are transferred to the destination fields safely and accurately.

Data Integration: the continuing process of integrating data from different sources into a unified view. Data integration enables analytical tools to be able to produce effective, actionable business decisions.

Data Transformation: the conversion process of data from one format to a designated format. Data transformation 2 By taking inventory of every database encryption to protect data at rest, in and every instance of it, you’ll have a transit, or in use, as well as setting up full picture of all the data that’s used, role-based access control to allow only accessed, and needs to be protected designated users to view, edit, or within your organization. You can also delete specific information. map out every location and show the direction of data flow to track data Data Management movement within your company. Most regulations, including the GDPR Data Classification and CCPA, are ongoing requirements, so you’ll need to manage your data This is a process of the organization of consistently. You can leverage the data by relevant categories so that it knowledge and insights you gain in the may be secured more efficiently within data mapping process to track data your database system. Having usage and movement, as well as categorized data will allow your maintain records for future audit, database system to protect processing, or decision-making. information with automated technologies. Data classification is You can automate many of these data particularly important when it comes management tasks to increase to risk management, compliance and operational cost-efficiency while data security. It is crucial for reducing errors and delays associated companies to classify data so that with manual processes. Automation there is coverage by the GDPR so it is can also minimize human oversight easily identifiable and has proper that can lead to costly data breaches security precautions. and hefty penalties.

Surface Attack Area Reduction Data Mapping Techniques and Software After discovering and classifying your data, you now have a good idea of There are various data mapping what you need to protect and where techniques you can use based on the the security gaps are. Assessing your nature of the information, the cybersecurity risks can help focus your structure of your system, and the IT resources on the vulnerable areas objective of the process. Examples that are most susceptible for attacks include: and breaches. Data-driven mapping, which discovers By identifying where and how your complex mapping between two data data may be exposed to unauthorized sets using heuristics and statistics users, you can take the necessary evaluations. It can automatically find actions to minimize exposure. the transformations between the two Examples include masking personal data types. data for analytics purposes, using 2

An intuitive, cloud-based tool that is Instant data preview: real-time testing designed to have automated repetitive and mapping validation that lets users tasks will save time and decrease the view processed or raw data at any step risk of human error. during the process to prevent mapping errors. How to Select the Right Data Mapping Software “Smart match” functionality: the capability to resolve discrepancies in If you want to streamline your data field names to minimize issues caused mapping process and ensure its by naming conflicts. accuracy, you need to use the right data mapping software. Here are some Data visualization: the ability to key features and criteria to consider: visualize data can help you understand the relationships among various data Support for diverse data sources: the sources and the movement of data. ability to connect to a wide range of structured, unstructured, and semi- Automated data subject requests and structured data sources such as consent management: a feature that databases, web services, REST APIs, allows you to request reports on their and flat file formats. data or manage consent about how their data is used and have the Code-free user interface: easy to use preferences updated in real-time drag-and-drop graphical interface throughout your systems. empowers business users to take charge of the data management Reporting: customizable and process with minimal IT support. synchronal reporting can help you assess, identify, and minimize risks in a Automation and job scheduling: the timely manner while ensuring that you ability to orchestrate a complete generate proper records for audit database mapping workflow with a purposes. time-based and event-triggered job scheduling function. Data Mapping Is Indispensable for Today’s Data-Driven Enterprises

Staying compliant with various regulations is non-negotiable for any organization. Without data mapping, which gives you a clear picture of where your data is, how it’s used, and who has access to it, you’re shooting in the dark.

As such, data mapping is a key component of any data management system, ensuring the safety and integrity of your organization’s business-critical information. However, setting up a cost-efficient system to manage workflows, comply with various regulations, and ensure that nothing falls through the cracks can be challenging without the right experience and expertise.

Here at iBridge, our team of digital transformation experts implements data management solutions for clients in healthcare, legal, manufacturing, utilities, education, finance, and more. We work closely with our clients to understand their business structure so we can set up the best data management systems for their organizations.

Get in touch to see how we can help your organization design and implement a successful digital transformation strategy.

iBridge is a Digital Transformation Company.

We help our clients collect, manage, and analyze their data to create meaningful operational control and improved profitability. For more than a decade, iBridge has successfully distilled complex information into actionable results.