An accomplished auditing professional with more than 15 years of experience, Brenda Roberts most recently served as the City Auditor for Oakland, California. As a career auditor, Ms. Roberts is a member of several professional organizations, including the Institute of Internal Auditors (The IIA). Ms. Roberts is a Past President of a Bay Area Chapter of The IIA, and a former member of an IIA International Committee supporting internal audit curriculum in colleges and universities world-wide.
The IIA advocates for internal auditors and regularly identifies emerging trends and issues auditors and management should consider in their risk management strategies. The "Tone at the Top" is a monthly newsletter, providing senior management, boards of directors, and audit committees with concise information on governance-related topics. The February 2020 issue highlights data and data bytes. The article notes that ninety percent of the world’s data was produced in just the past 2 years. This trend shows the escalating speed of data generation. Management and oversight boards should pay attention to this staggering increase because the capacity to store and the ability to categorize and use this data will impact operations, compliance risks and likely profitability.
Privacy concerns from the public and new legislation mean management must view data and the constraints surrounding Big Data in an altogether different way. Data no longer represents information that companies can collect, use and retain without regard to consent, source or content. Compliance can be expensive and an analysis of the cost to retain and utilize it to align with privacy regulations should be compared to the benefits of the underlying information.
For more information on privacy, visit the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics at www.corporatecompliance/privacy.org.
To view The IIA’s February issue of "Tone at the Top", see www.theiia.org/AECPublic/Tone-at-the-Top-February-2020.pdf.
