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Day: January 23, 2021

Data governance framework key to analytics success

A data governance framework is critical to any organization that uses analytics as part of its decision-making process.

An organization’s data governance framework is a documented set of guidelines designed to ensure the proper use of its data. Among the guidelines are policies related to data quality, security and privacy, and who has access to what data and who can do what with that data.

For example, while an end user might have access to an organization’s sales figures, only its system administrators can work with that data and make any changes to reports or data models.

In addition, a data governance framework includes implementing the guidelines and making sure they’re followed.

Without that framework, organizations risk noncompliance with government regulations and data breaches that could sacrifice an enterprise’s competitive advantage or reveal private personal information.

“Data governance is, first and foremost, about addressing responsibilities and risks,” said Doug Henschen, principal analyst at Constellation Research.

The risks for unregulated or lightly regulated organizations are less than those for organizations that operate in more highly regulated environments, but they’re significant nonetheless, Henschen added.

For unregulated or lightly regulated organizations, the misuse of data or a data breach could result in

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Could Your Fitbit or Apple Watch Detect Early COVID-19 Symptoms?

Fitbit and other wearable devices typically linked to exercise are being studied as ways to identify people who are potentially infected with COVID-19 before symptoms appear, when they can unknowingly spread the disease.

Changes in heart rate, respiratory rate, and other biometrics measured constantly by the devices may flag the early stages of virus infection, so an otherwise healthy-looking person knows to self-isolate and seek a COVID-19 diagnostic test, researchers say.

“When you get ill, even before you know it, your body starts changing, your heart rate goes up,” said Professor Michael Snyder of Stanford University School of Medicine.

Stanford researchers are among several groups examining whether wearable fitness devices such as the Fitbit or Apple Watch can provide an early warning. Snyder’s team enrolled 5,000 people in the study and studied historical smartwatch data from 31 users who tested positive for COVID-19.

Of those 31, all of their data indicated infection before symptoms appeared. Wearable devices picked up the signals of infection early – before symptoms appeared – in an average of three days.

In one case, Snyder’s team found that a smartwatch was able to spot the first signal of potential COVID-19 infection nine days before more obvious

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Linux 101: How to copy files and directories from the command line

Jack Wallen continues his Linux 101 series, with an introduction on how to copy files and directories from the command line.

Are you new to Linux? If so, you’ve probably found the command line can be a bit intimidating. Don’t worry–it is for everyone at the beginning. That’s why I’m here to guide you through the process, and today I’m going to show you how to copy files and folders from the command line. 

Why would you need to copy files and folders this way? You might find yourself on a GUI-less Linux server and need to make a backup of a configuration file or copy a data directory. 

Trust me, at some point you’re going to need to be able to do this. Let’s find out how. 

SEE: Linux: The 7 best distributions for new users (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

First we’ll copy a file. Let’s say you’re about to make changes to the Samba configuration file, smb.conf and you want a backup copy just in case something goes wrong. To copy that file, use the cp command to copy the source to the destination like so:

 cp /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf.bak

You’ve probably already encountered your first problem. Because the smb.conf

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