In the IT and information security world, the need for Information Barriers is becoming more prevalent with the explosion of collaboration tools — in particular, Microsoft Teams. The term has quickly grown beyond its origins in financial services to encompass any policies designed to prevent certain segments of users from communicating with each other or to allow specific segments to communicate only with other specific segments.
Despite the availability native Microsoft tools to address these needs, in practice they are very finite and don’t allow for collaboration outside of these groups. In this blog we explore the uses cases for information barriers, and how to design them to restrict specific collaboration, but with enough flexibility to allow other types of communication.
Traditionally an “Information Barrier” is a term used in finance for a system of controls and monitoring including, but not limited to, physical segregation of employees and restrictions on access to and flow of information to ensure that:
- Information relating to the Group and the Finance Documents (and related transactions) is not disclosed to any person who is or who is acting on behalf of either a Competitor or an investor or equity holder in a Competitor or who is engaged in any M&A or other advisory activity in relation to or on behalf of a Competitor; and
- Information available to any team or employee who is or who is acting on behalf of either a Competitor or an investor or equity holder in a Competitor or who is engaged in any M&A or other advisory activity in relation to a Competitor is not disclosed to any team or employee acting in relation to the Group or the Finance Documents (and related transactions). ....read more!
