Isaac to fleets: Protect your data

by Abdul Latheef

MONTREAL, Que. – In the lead-up to his presentation about the importance of securing data, Isaac Instruments president Jacques DeLarochelliere urged participants to watch a trailer of the Netflix docudrama The Social Dilemma to press home his point.

The film depicts the dark side of social media, where users are exploited for financial or political gain through data mining.

Jacques DeLarochelliere
Isaac president and co-founder Jacques DeLarochelliere: Any data could affect the valuation of your company. (Screen grab)

Outlining his case for data protection at Isaac’s virtual User Conference on Thursday, DeLarochelliere said fleets must take action to secure their information.

That is because any breach could affect the valuation of a carrier, he said.

The valuation has two components, assets and activities.

Activities are the information contained in a company’s data, and they are what makes a trucking business hard to replace, DeLarochelliere said.

The information could be about clients, contracts, rates, detention times, itineraries, work compensation, systems, methods, proceeds and processes, the co-founder of Isaac said.

Jacques DeLarochelliere says data breach is like having a leaking bank account. (Screen grab)

This information must be protected to preserve the company valuation, he said.

“If that data or its copy is owned by one of your technology providers, who is free to sell it, then your company valuation decreases,” he warned.

“It’s like having a leaking bank account.”

He said the data could come from a number of sources such as GPS, barcode reader, digital cameras, document scanners, text messages or emails.

DeLarochelliere recalled that in 2014, during the launch of Isaac’s InControl mobile tablet, he had talked about a projection of 30 billion connected objects by 2020.

“I was not too far off. We are currently at 31 billion,” he said.

To put that into perspective, DeLarochelliere said, there are under 8 billion humans on Earth, including a significant number of people who do not have access to the internet.

“You must master your data flow, know where it goes, know who access them and know their purpose.”

– Jacques DeLarochelliere, president and co-founder, Isaac Instruments.

But he expects the number of data generating objects to double over the next five years.

“In your trucking company, objects and systems generate and share data 24/7.”

 He said if a business is getting an equivalent or higher benefit from sharing its data, then that could be useful.

“But you must not lose company valuation. You must keep your data in sight. You must master your data flow, know where it goes, know who access them and know their purpose.”

Conference Logo
(Source: Isaac Instruments)

He said fleets should anonymize their data, which is the process of removing identifiable information from data sets.

“I am sorry, but there is no such thing as anonymization of data in the (Canadian) transport industry.”

And, DeLarochelliere insisted that Isaac never shares client data.

“No anonymization, no monetization… Isaac does not use your data to boost its own company valuation at your expense. You pay the right price for the service.”


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