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FCPA Compliance Report

FCPA Compliance Report: Data Defensibility: The Foundation of AI Readiness with George Tziahanas

In this episode, Tom Fox welcomes George Tziahanas, VP of Compliance and Associate General Counsel at Archive360, who brings a practical legal and governance perspective to the challenges of AI and data governance.

George argues that organizations must go beyond simply storing data and instead prove their integrity, lineage, provenance, and accountability so the data is defensible for compliance and AI use. He also believes AI governance should follow the model of mature security programs, with clear ownership, governing councils, and risk frameworks that make responsibility visible to regulators. For him, the path to compliant, defensible data starts with strong inventories, governed environments, and risk-tiered oversight that protects sensitive uses while still enabling innovation.

Key highlights:

  • Walking Upstream: Defending AI Data and Systems
  • Who Is Ultimately Responsible for AI Governance
  • Zubulake rulings reshape e-discovery compliance playbook
  • Dark Data Risks in DOJ Compliance Programs
  • Mapping data inventory back into legacy systems
  • Simple risk tiering for AI compliance oversight

Resources:

Archive360

George Tziahanas on LinkedIn

Tom Fox

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Categories
Innovation in Compliance

Innovation in Compliance: Data Defensibility: The Compliance Foundation for AI Governance with George Tziahanas

Innovation occurs across many areas, and compliance professionals need not only to be ready for it but also to embrace it. Join Tom Fox, the Voice of Compliance, as he visits with top innovative minds, thinkers, and creators in the award-winning Innovation in Compliance podcast. In this episode, host Tom visits with George Tziahanas, VP of Compliance and Associate General Counsel at Archive360.

Tom interviews George Tziahanas on why organizations must move beyond data storage to providing data integrity, lineage, and accountability as a foundation for AI readiness. George defines “data defensibility” as the ability to defend how AI systems were trained and operate when AI decisions are not easily explainable, such as in rules-based automation, emphasizing upstream data provenance, monitoring, and audit trails. They discuss increasing regulator and stakeholder focus on authority and accountability and how litigation can shape compliance, citing early e-discovery practices influenced by the Zubulake v. UBS Warburg decision and enforcement context involving former New York AG Elliot Spitzer. George uses the Mercor breach to show supply-chain and confidentiality risks in AI training data and notes that regulators and plaintiffs may rely on existing laws. He highlights risks from weak data governance, dark data, and legacy archives. He recommends asset/data inventories, migrating data off insecure legacy systems, risk-tiering AI use cases, extending ISO/NIST frameworks, and building observability to enable faster, responsible AI adoption.

Key highlights:

  • What Data Defensibility Means
  • Litigation Shapes Compliance
  • Weak Data Governance Risks
  • Managing Legacy Archive Data
  • Governance Accelerates AI
  • Dark Data Explained
  • What Success Looks Like

Resources:

George Tziahanas on LinkedIn

Archive360

Articles by George Tziahanas

Beyond Retention: Why AI Governance in 2026 is a Defensibility Problem

Keeping Data in Check: The Importance of Data Defensibility