Breach Review - Man Vs. Machine
Akshay Misra
AVP, Head of Cyber Incident Response and Document Review
Iota Analytics
The origins of automation date back to ancient times when humans created tools to make their tasks easier. However, in the realm of data breach reviews, organizations are still stuck in a manual approach, primarily focusing on linear reviews to manually consolidate data entries and produce notification lists.
The data breach industry increasingly relies on linear reviews to extract Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and Protected Health Information (PHI) for affected individuals, often overlooking the more challenging aspects of the process. This approach increases overall reliance on manual efforts and has significant drawbacks. It is both time-consuming and expensive due to the substantial human effort required, especially when dealing with large volumes of data and consolidating multiple entities. Here are some of the key disadvantages:
Quality: Manual processes are prone to human error, which can result in missed or incorrectly merged information for entities, potentially leading to inaccurate notification lists and compliance issues.
Limited Scalability: Manual review processes struggle to scale efficiently with the growing volume of data, making them less effective for handling large or rapidly expanding datasets, and adding to the overall time required to consolidate entities for notification lists.
Inconsistency: Different reviewers may apply varying standards and interpretations, leading to inconsistencies in how PII and PHI are identified and handled.
Compliance Risks: Keeping up with changing regulations and ensuring manual processes align with the latest compliance requirements can be cumbersome and error-prone.
A blend of automation and human involvement has proven effective across industries for decades. As a result, Iota Analytics has consistently worked to identify pain points and tackle current challenges by utilizing both human expertise and automated extraction methods to produce customized notification lists.
Breach Review - Man with Machine
At Iota Analytics, we strongly believe that while AI is essential, it cannot replace humans; it can only assist and enhance their efforts.
Iota Analytics, in partnership with iCONECT, handles data breach reviews that involve Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and Protected Health Information (PHI) with an emphasis on both human expertise and automated analysis, as each is crucial for extracting sensitive information for notifications. This approach also addresses industry challenges, including entity consolidation, automatic extraction, and the customization of notifications.
We use a combination of automated and expert-led methods for PII and PHI extraction, employing a balanced approach that leverages the efficiency and scalability of automation while ensuring accuracy, contextual understanding, and regulatory compliance through manual oversight. This hybrid approach helps achieve high-quality results and effective data management.
This approach offers a synergistic benefit by leveraging the strengths of each method. Here’s a detailed overview of the benefits Iota Analytics offers by using both automated and professional-led extraction processes:
Improved Efficiency and Quality: Tools quickly adapt to processing large datasets. By managing most of the data extraction and grouping tasks, they allow our team of experts to concentrate on complex tasks or those requiring nuanced judgment, such as extracting information from images and scanned documents.
Scalability and Flexibility: Automated systems effectively scale to handle extensive volumes of data, making them well-suited for initial extraction. The experts can then focus on specific cases or exceptions, ensuring the process remains both efficient and manageable.
Cost Efficiency and Resource Optimization: Automated extraction reduces the need for extensive manual labor, leading to cost savings. Although manual reviews add some expense, they address any issues overlooked by automation, offering overall value and accurate notification lists.
Enhanced Compliance and Risk Management: Automated tools can be programmed to comply with regulatory standards concerning specific PII and PHI elements. Manual reviews provide an additional layer of assurance that compliance requirements are met, addressing any exceptions.
Increased Transparency and Trust: The synergy of automated and expert-led processes creates a clear audit trail, boosting transparency and accountability. This approach fosters trust with stakeholders and regulatory bodies.
By integrating these approaches, we achieve a balanced and robust data extraction process, enhancing data accuracy, compliance, and security. This dual strategy not only streamlines operations but also fortifies the protection of sensitive information, aligning with regulatory requirements and supporting effective data management practices.
Our Approach
In practice, Iota Analytics combines both specialist-driven review and automated analysis to leverage the strengths of both approaches. With this approach, we enhance our ability to accurately extract and manage PII and PHI, ensuring a more robust response to data breaches and more effective notifications to affected individuals.
