Spare no expense

It's time for CIOs to bite the bullet on the cost of protecting corporate information. Many companies remain clueless about what information needs to be protected, and it's a CIO's job to make the company understands that leaving content unprotected is asking for disaster. A survey by AIIM--The ECM Association--found that among 600 business people surveyed, nearly two-thirds said their organizations had "no appreciation" for the costs of lost data, not to mention the harm that can come from hacked data being used by criminal minds.

The business community is not really up to speed on why content needs to be secured. The top reasons for protecting data were listed in the survey as general risk avoidance, followed by regulatory compliance as well as e-discovery and litigation concerns. Less than one-third of those surveyed said they didn't know if their company had specific controls to ensure their validity and security.

CIOs are not teachers, but they are leaders. And it is becoming increasingly important to move businesses toward an understanding of what is at stake and to make the right choices in security protection. If you don't, you may be heading for a disaster. - Judi