Proactive risk management: FabMob Qc's essential and ongoing commitment to responsible data governance

La Fabrique des Mobilités Québec (FabMob Qc) is actively involved in the promotion of mobility data, and develops and manages an open source application called Ma mobilité. The app offers users the opportunity to explore their mobility by collecting data on their modes of travel. This data also plays a crucial role in improving transit planning, as well as in making informed decisions regarding eco-friendly modes of travel.

Managing data efficiently and ensuring its security is a priority for FabMob Qc, which is resolutely committed to protecting the app’s users. The team is well aware of the sensitivity of the data it collects and the vulnerabilities associated with apps. FabMob Qc has undertaken a thorough review to create a digital experience that is reliable, secure and respectful of privacy.

Identify, assess and manage risks to support mobility thinking

For six months, Open North helped La Fabrique des Mobilités Québec strengthen its risk management strategy. The main objective was to identify the risks associated with the Ma Mobilité app, as well as solutions to mitigate them.

"Since we didn't know where to start and how to approach risk management with regard to the app, the targeted coaching helped us to break down the work and define an implementation roadmap. We're now in a position to identify what can and should be done to minimize risk, but also to communicate to the organization what needs to be done and convince them to work on it." The FabMob Qc team

Concretely, FabMob Qc drew inspiration from the Center for Internet Security's (CIS) matrix of critical security controls, adapting it to its own context in order to assess the risks associated with the app. 

FabMob Qc's use of the risk management matrix has been invaluable in identifying and managing risks. The list of controls drawn up by the Center for Internet Security (CIS) makes it possible to identify and assign risk levels, therefore facilitating prioritization. This is a crucial first step towards risk management and mitigation, because we can't prevent what we don't know about!

To find out more about risk management, take a look at this detailed case study: Risk management: FabMob Qc focuses on prevention and proactivity

About the Montréal in Common Data Governance Workstream 

As the lead of the Data Governance Workstream within Montréal in Common, Open North proposes a data governance journey to the innovation community in order to progressively operationalize the principles of the City of Montreal's Digital Data Charter. The program explicitly focuses on collecting, sharing and leveraging data to inform collective and individual decision-making.

Montréal in Common brings together an innovation community led by the City of Montréal, whose partners are experimenting with solutions in food access, mobility and municipal regulations in a desire to rethink the metropolis. Thirteen projects are being implemented as part of Montréal in Common thanks to the $50 million prize awarded to the city by the Government of Canada as part of the Smart Cities Challenge.

Did you like this blog post? Would you like to know more about data governance? Not sure where to start? Find other resources, free training courses and more on our website: https://opennorth.ca/ 

Author : Open North
Research and editorial contributions: Jérémy Diaz, Judith François-Langevin and Raouf Sadeddine (FabMob Qc)
We extend our thanks to all our partners and clients, whose work continuously expands and evolves our understanding of data governance and its best practices.