Scratching the surface on Facebook and its problems

Richard Chambers, President and CEO of the IIA, has shared a short piece that scratches the surface (IMHO) when it comes to the issues faced by Facebook and similar organizations. I am talking about organizations that want either to use or sell data.

​Facebook Data Exposure Offers Critical Lesson for Internal Auditors makes some good points, including:

• From an internal audit perspective, Facebook’s woes offer a clear and compelling lesson: Data, once viewed solely as an asset to be leveraged, now must be viewed as a potential liability or risk, as well.
• Mining and analyzing data is a fundamental step in strategic business decisions. It helps businesses and organizations build models based on historical information to predict future behavior. But poor data management and a failure to understand what it tells us is a risk.
• Internal auditors must cultivate and maintain a keen understanding of how their organizations collect, manage, protect, use, and share data. They also must have a handle on past and current practices on data usage and storage.
• CAEs should speak candidly to boards and executive management on the value of assurance.

It is tempting to focus exclusively on the…