Behind The WikiLeaks Saga

Online, December 13, 2010 (Newswire.com) - The embarrassment and reputational damage caused by the continuous stream of material on the WikiLeaks website actually masks the real problem. Previous high profile data losses pale into insignificance compared to the sheer scale, impact and global spread of the data loss by the US authorities.

Tony Collings, Chairman of The ECA Group, gets to the root of the issue: "this WikiLeaks saga demonstrates one of the potentially largest failures of National and Corporate governance of sensitive data in living memory. There is undoubted National and Allied damage, sensitivities, political and trust fallout, where were the basic mechanisms to protect government information? ".

As Collings implies, there are important lessons for everyone to re-learn.

"The lifeblood of business, Government and society is to have appropriate collection, storage, management, use and sharing of information. The keywords are 'appropriate' and 'trust'. We trust people to keep our data secure in the appropriate way".

The ECA Group understands this very well. Trust is built on appropriate organisational mechanisms, policies and processes to govern and regulate data handling, organise, deliver and audit sensitive information. As Collings says: "it's common sense plus appropriate physical and technical protection: don't think it can't happen to me - it can, and it does."

WikiLeaks is a complete failure of Business and Operational Assurance that important and valuable information and data is safe. Reputations are lost in an instant, and we all need to take active note whether in Government or Commercial organisations.