With the unauthorized release today of some 250,000 top-secret documents related to the U.S. Government’s foreign policy, a 21st Century game of old school international intrigue has emerged. While Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, has assured the world that the disclosures will not affect U.S. relations and interests abroad, the resulting damage control has undoubtedly left our government with the proverbial “egg” on Its face. In a twist of irony, or what conspiracy theorists might say – government intervention, while WikiLeaks was busy publishing the formerly top-secret documents on its Website, its servers were momentarily taken down in a denial-of-service attack.
This occurrence illustrates the damage that can happen to an organization’s reputation when there is an unauthorized release of mission-critical data. Regardless of how this all eventually plays out, the time spent trying to react to the incident has distracted the Administration from its overall foreign policy mission (i.e. War policy, Middle East Peace, etc.). Businesses should learn from this experience, and develop a proactive data governance policy that will be able to mitigate the risks associated with the release of mission-critical data. Failure to institute a proactive policy, and a business could risk more than just damage to its reputation – like loss in corporate valuation.