Data Lineage in Financial Services

PJ Bradley

Preventing cyberattacks, data breaches, and other misuses of sensitive data has to be a priority for essentially all businesses. Financial services institutions in particular handle a great deal of important financial data and personally identifiable information (PII) that must be protected in order to avoid major cybersecurity incidents that could cause significant damage to a company’s finances, reputation, and business operations. While existing data governance programs and the tools they use can be adequately effective, the use of data lineage is more comprehensive, less manually intensive, and more likely to successfully prevent breaches. This rundown will help you understand data lineage—what it is, how it works, and why it can be an extremely helpful solution for financial services institutions.

What is Data Lineage?

As Cyberhaven state,Data lineage, described as “the process of tracking data as it moves within an organization,” is a method that allows businesses to visualize, understand, and catalog the data they manage. This includes keeping track of where data comes from, who accesses and makes use of it, and the various actions taken with it, such as editing, downloading, and sending files. Traditional data loss prevention (DLP) solutions scan data as it leaves the organization for known risks, whereas data lineage uses information about the data itself to help determine what behaviors put it at risk of being breached or otherwise misused.

The way that data lineage works is by tracking actions relevant to each piece of data, combining them into a graph database, and making complex connections with the information available in order to calculate risk. With the additional context provided by data lineage, as well as the lack of a need to carry out calculations manually, security teams have more information and more ability to address suspicious user behaviors. Data originating from certain areas inside the company, for instance, may be marked as PII or otherwise sensitive, and thus the misuse of this data will be understood as a risk.

Data Lineage Benefits in Financial Services

There are a myriad of reasons that data lineage is a beneficial tool for a financial services company to take advantage of. Many features—such as data access rights and sensitivity classifications—are easier to implement and maintain when data keeps its classification as it is copied, modified, or shared. Data lineage also allows those handling data governance to keep track of who has access to which sensitive data. The inheritance of these attributes means that teams do not have to expend valuable time and energy with the maintenance of access entitlement.

Data lineage is a critical tool in a number of ways that become amplified when applied to financial services. It is often a requirement for achieving and maintaining compliance with regulatory boards, which are particularly strict in industries like financial services, healthcare, and government. It helps organizations and their security teams to understand and manage risks related to their data and can improve the efficiency of processes related to data by eliminating redundant information and automating certain steps. It also allows businesses to gain a fuller view of their data in order to make better informed decisions.

Tips and Best Practices

It is important when implementing data lineage tools to ensure that the processes and the information provided are secure, accurate, and useful. Utilizing data lineage best practices, an organization can make data lineage work efficiently and effectively. First, it is vital to involve business executives and users in data lineage to obtain approval and funding and verify the accuracy and effective use of the information provided. Companies are also suggested to keep track of both business and technical data lineage—that is, high-level information regarding the origins and business use of the data as well as finer details about how the data is modified and integrated.

Data lineage should be tied to actual business needs, as opposed to an abstract information repository; the connections and insights gained through data lineage should be used to improve business strategies and solve existing problems. It is also important to keep track of all of the company’s data, rather than just some of it. Finally, it is recommended that organizations keep a data catalog containing embedded information about data lineage, so that data management teams can provide the information necessary for business intelligence and analytics users to locate, understand, and make use of the data.

Conclusion

Data lineage is an extremely useful method for keeping track of information that can be relevant in a wide range of situations. It can help to prevent data breaches and cyberattacks, achieve and maintain regulatory compliance, inform business decisions, and save security and data management teams a good amount of time and labor. The protection, organization, and understanding of sensitive and important data in financial services in particular is crucial for success. With the right data lineage tools and use of best practices, financial services companies can make data lineage work for them.

PJ Bradley is a writer on a wide variety of topics, passionate about learning and helping people above all else. Holding a bachelor’s degree from Oakland University, PJ enjoys using a lifelong desire to understand how things work to write about subjects that inspire interest. Most of PJ’s free time is spent reading and writing. PJ is also a regular writer at Bora.