Play 03 - Conduct scenario planning to better understand and prepare for risks.
Technical Play for Data Stewards: Conduct scenario planning to better understand and prepare for risks.
Scenario planning can help organizations anticipate potential risks associated with data misuse, loss, and breaches. By identifying vulnerabilities and strategizing around responses early on, organizations can strengthen their resilience and uphold #trust with data stakeholders.
Identify Data Sensitivities. Start by cataloging the datasets your organization handles, classifying them based on sensitivity and potential #misuse risks. Use this classification to determine high-risk datasets that may require stringent safeguards. Consider the following:
- Personal Data: Could this data be linked to individuals, leading to privacy violations or identity theft?
- Commercially Sensitive Data: Could this information give rise to unfair advantages or economic harm if misused?
- Contextual Risk Factors: How might cultural, political, or social factors influence the potential for data misuse? For example, location data from mobile sensors could be used to track individuals from specific ethnic groups, enabling authorities to disproportionately surveil and overpolice these communities.
Map Threat Scenarios. Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to envision plausible misuse scenarios. Consider:
- Data Breaches: What if malicious actors gain unauthorized access to the data? Analyze pathways to unauthorized access such as weak encryption, insider threats, or unsecured endpoints.
- Unintended Misuse: Could the data be misinterpreted or repurposed in harmful ways? For example, if air quality data is collected primarily from sensors in wealthier neighborhoods, policies or interventions based on this incomplete data could neglect areas that experience the highest pollution exposure.
- Data Loss: How might human error, system failures, or cyberattacks compromise the availability or integrity of data?
Evaluate Preventive and Mitigative Measures. For each scenario, outline strategies to mitigate risks, emphasizing both prevention and response. Consider:
- Technical Safeguards: Implement access controls, #dataencryption, and regular audits. Use #anonymization or de-identification techniques for sensitive datasets.
- Policies and Training: Develop clear data sharing policies, ensure compliance with legal policies such as GDPR or CCPA, and conduct regular staff training on data ethics and security.
- Incident Response Plans: Establish protocols for detecting, containing, and communicating breaches or misuses. Assign roles and responsibilities to ensure swift action.
Engage Stakeholders. Effective risk management involves #collaboration with data contributors, users, and affected communities. Facilitate open dialogues to:
- Identify overlooked risks,
- Build trust by demonstrating a commitment to ethical data practices, and
- Gather insights for co-creating safeguards that align with stakeholder needs.
Monitor and Adapt. Risks evolve as data landscapes, technologies, and threats change. Continuously monitor emerging trends and update your scenario planning framework accordingly. Incorporate feedback from past incidents and lessons learned to enhance resilience.
🌱 Each play stems from a takeaway from an case study, workshop, or other learning source.
Takeaway: A strong connection between social, legal, and technical components is key to cohesive data governance.
This is an overarching takeaway that underscores all plays in this playbook. Each of these plays works to build that cohesive bond between relational and technical infrastructure, and can be employed according to the levels of capacity, interest, and need of the community generating environmental data.
Source: Community Data Playbook (Full report)