Running head: PURPOSE OF DATA CLASSIFICATION 1

Purpose of Data Classification

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Institution

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PURPOSE OF DATA CLASSIFICATION 2

Purpose of Data Classification

Data is one of the most important assets for all organizations. Due to the value of

information in organizations, the three most prevalent needs to classify data are; the need to

protect information, the need to retain information and the need to recover information. These

needs are very crucial for organizations because data plays a significant role in the organization's

decision making and facilitating various organizational activities. It is important for

organizations to protect their information against any threat be it from within the organization or

from external threats. There are many levels of classifying information depending on the

importance, confidentiality and the need to know. Depending on the type of industry,

organizations such as the military, legal and business organizations have different ways of

classifying information. For instance, in a business organization, data can be organized into

highly sensitive, sensitive, internal and public. All these types of details except public

information requires some levels of privacy.

Therefore protecting information is very crucial in ensuring that the organizational

information can only be accessed by those who are authorized to access them. Information

protection serves the purpose of ensuring that the information is safe from any damage,

manipulation and unauthorized access. The need to retain information is also crucial for

organizations. Normally information is stored by organizations as a way of keeping records for

the purpose of referencing during the decision making. Therefore the information stored in

various organizational storage facilities should be accessible whenever there is a need, and

therefore it is important for organizations to retain information for a long period. Information

recovery is important also for organizations because sometimes information can get lost or can
PURPOSE OF DATA CLASSIFICATION 3

be tampered with. Therefore, organizations need to recover information if they are lost or get

tampered with.