The 5Vs of Big Data

Currency of Knowledge: Understanding the Data Organisations Need to Protect

Modern organisations generate, process and store increasingly large and complex volumes of data. The 5Vs of Big Data provide a useful framework for understanding this environment:

• Volume: the amount of data generated and stored
• Velocity: the speed at which data is generated, transmitted and processed
• Variety: the different forms and sources of data
• Veracity: the accuracy, reliability and trustworthiness of data
• Value: the benefit organisations can generate from using data effectively

From a cybersecurity perspective, the 5Vs raise an important question: as organisational data becomes larger, faster and more diverse, how do organisations protect its confidentiality, integrity and availability whilst still extracting value from it?