Mobile usage raises information governance, data security concerns.

• Author: Lanter, Amy
• Position: IN FOCUS: A Message from the Editor

Global mobile data traffic grew 2.3-fold in 2011, more than doubling for the fourth year in a row, according to the "Cisco [R] Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update."

The report also showed that last year's mobile data traffic was eight times that of the entire global Internet in 2000.

Here are various milestones Cisco [R] is predicting:

* The number of mobile-connected devices will exceed the world's population in 2012.

* More than 100 million smartphone users will use more than 1 GB per month in 2012.

* Monthly global mobile data traffic will surpass 10 exabytes (approximately 10 billion gigabytes) in 2016.

All of this represents quite a challenge for records professionals. With the explosion of mobile technology, records are now stored across platforms, including the cloud. This makes data security one of the main challenges. At the same time the amount of data is increasing, control over it is decreasing. To succeed, then, organizations must have a plan to deter hackers, safeguard proprietary information, and keep the integrity of their information intact.

In this issue of Information Management (IM), our authors address this need for vigilance when it comes to mobile technology.

"Ready or not, the use of smartphones has thrust RIM onto a new playing field, where a radical change in game plan is mandated, but the playbook is still incomplete," writes Nancy Dupre Barnes, Ph.D., CRM, CA, and Frederick Barnes, J.D, in "Smartphone Technologies Shine Spotlight on Information Governance."

Gordon E.J. Hoke, CRM, addresses how organizations are facing an ever-increasing challenge to maintain long-term accessibility to the growing volume of electronic records. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, he writes; it requires a unique combination of tools, policies, procedures, and compromise.

Compromise also comes into play in the...