Home-based Telework During Pandemic as a Data Loss Challenge for Research Organizations
Home-based Telework During Pandemic as a Data Loss Challenge for Research Organizations

Author(s): Miglena Molhova-Vladova, Petya Biolcheva
Subject(s): Economy, Business Economy / Management, Human Resources in Economy
Published by: Университет за национално и световно стопанство (УНСС)
Keywords: data loss prevention; remote work; pandemic; risk management; intellectual property; research and development
Summary/Abstract: Тhe paper discusses the risks remote work during pandemic create for data loss in organizations. These risks are significant for research organizations in particular (universities, companies with research and development (R&D) departments, research institutes and laboratories, etc.). On the one hand the environment of openness and collaboration between people, working remotely for these organizations, is an important part for keeping the workflow as normal as possible during pandemic, however typical access of many portable devices to the organizations’ data significantly increases the risks of unauthorized use. In this paper we argue that data loss prevention policies are of high importance for such type of organizations, since they work with a variety of types of data, which are subject to different regulations and besides the necessity some of the data to be kept confidential there is also a counter need some of the data to be made available to the public (as results of research for example). Also such policies need to be adapted to the specifics of remote work and the shared use of resources and company data. The paper discusses how research organizations can define their critical data, the risks of data loss and strategies to keep their data safe. We discuss 2 main critical data loss prevention objectives, namely intellectual property (IP) protection and business partner compliance. The paper also presents a showcase of how Bulgarian universities address the issues described above.

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