Where could I possibly find enough leather
To cover the surface of the thorny earth?
Yet leather on the soles of my shoes
Is as good as covering the entire earth.
Likewise it is not possible for us
To govern all content, data or Internet of Things.
But if we embed intelligence to protect our digital creations
We would rarely need to restrain all else!
Acknowledgment & smiling apologies to:
Shantideva, 8th century, Indian/Buddhist monk
The Leather Story adapted to Data and Content Governance, Provenance and Protection
Acknowledgement: https://www.margaretmeloni.com
There was once a kingdom where all the people walked barefoot. Even the monarchs did not wear shoes. When they left the palace, they were carried on a litter. One day the queen, walking herself, cut her foot on a sharp stone. Immediately she knew this must happen to her subjects too, so she asked her advisors how to prevent people from cutting their feet. They told her to wrap the entire area with leather. In this way the sharp stones would be covered.
When the queen returned to the castle, plans began to cover the village and surrounding areas. The court jester looked on, amused. There were long discussions about how much leather would be needed and how to attach the leather to the ground.
Finally, the jester spoke up. “Instead of wrapping the earth with leather, why don’t you all just cover your feet?” Stunned, they realized that the jester was right. With proper foot protection, the villagers could walk anywhere.
Think about this. You could spend your time trying to coat the earth with leather so you could walk barefoot anywhere and never cut your feet. However, that would be impossible. You can’t cover the earth with leather and protect your feet all the time. But you can protect the soles of your feet so no matter where you walk, you are prepared and protected.
Your content and data, your cyber/digital assets, are like the soles of your feet. You can try to spend your life controlling the forces (people and organizations) trying to access, steal, destroy, hijack, or tamper with them, for whatever reason, so that you never get hurt, damaged or compromised. In fact you know people who do just that. You recognize them because they (maybe they are you) keep trying the same methods packaged as next-gen this or that while hoping for a different outcome.
Trying to stop people and the expanding expertise of compromising cyber assets is as futile as covering the earth with leather.
Why not use your time and energy to strengthen your cyber creations – records, files, spreadsheets, images, presentations, or videos? Prepare for the inevitable breach, attack or hack by empowering your data and content to govern and defend itself; and meet those challenges, head on.
How? Start by finding out more about Data: Empowered, our simple, intelligence-based machine-to-machine technology based on the principle that: the only thing you can control is what you have authored, composed, created; as an individual or group.
You control your cyber/digital assets as they are used, travel, or rest stored awaiting access, anywhere, anytime.
Once you accept this and you strengthen your cyber/digital responses to the challenges that occur, it will be as if you have leather on the soles of your feet. You and your cyber/digital assets will be protected no matter where you step.