We work in an age of collaboration and integration,connecting seamlessly with customers, partners, and colleagues.Through cloud services and mobile devices, we transmit infiniteamounts of data, and we do so ceaselessly. While such connectivitymakes possible information sharing—and, ultimately, innovation—on ascale the world has never seen before, it also demands thatcompanies pay more attention to managing and securing the flow ofdata.

Information management may sound like a challenge that wouldnormally be assigned to IT. However, because of the disastrousimpact a data breach can have on profitability, governing the flowof data has to be a key concern for all C-level executives.According to the Ponemon Institute's “2014 Cost of Data BreachStudy,” the total average cost of a data breach rose 15 percent, toUS$3.5 million, in 2013.

Organizations simply can't ignore a risk of this magnitude, andit is not wise to burden the IT function with the fullresponsibility for mitigating this risk. IT does not have the sameknowledge of business operations as do the people generating thecompany's financial performance data, namely, the CFO, corporatecontrollers, and treasurer.