Oil and gas companies collect, work with and store a wide range of sensitive business data in the course of everyday business. Depending on the oil and gas sector, sensitive data can include plant maps, production trends, revenue forecasts and much more. Energy and utilities businesses don’t always consider just how much malicious hackers, company insiders, nation-states and other bad actors value that data. As a result, they don’t prioritize developing a data protection program or create one that is comprehensive enough.

This article outlines the scope of data protection in the energy and utilities industry and provides steps for creating a sustainable data protection program.