The sensitive data discovery and classification are integral parts of the information security lifecycle. They assist security teams in complying with legal obligations, safeguarding sensitive information, and avoiding breaches or leaks of sensitive information.
Sensitive data discovery tools help organizations locate unknown sources of data within an organization and categorize each one according to its risk level. This helps organizations maintain data compliance while minimizing sensitive data storage expenses.
What is Sensitive Data Discovery?
Sensitive data discovery is the process of locating and identifying sensitive information within your organization. It helps you abide by regulations, safeguard the business’ and employees’ privacy rights, as well as avoid data breaches.
Consolidating data stores allows your security team to consolidate, reduce costs and minimize risk. This enables them to be agile and responsive when faced with changing data needs.
Data discovery tools related to business intelligence (BI) typically combine disparate sources for collective analysis; sensitive data discovery identifies data specifically and helps you secure and manage it.
Sensitive data discovery helps identify and locate sensitive data, such as personal identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI), across file shares, NAS/SAN storage, network drives and SharePoint sites. It also gives you the capability to take remediation actions such as quarantining, deleting or revoke access to sensitive information. Moreover, it assists your security team in recognizing abnormal or malicious file access activities which could expose or compromise sensitive information.
How Does Sensitive Data Discovery Work?
Sensitive data discovery is an essential step in protecting sensitive information. It helps businesses guarantee they’re compliant with privacy regulations like GDPR and helps them remediate breaches in real-time.
Data discovery is a process that uses auditing tools to scan applications, networks and endpoints for specific types of data. It plays an essential role in information security because it helps organizations determine what kind of information they possess and where it resides.
Data discovery involves classifying various types of information according to different criteria. Some classification methods take into account content, while others depend on context.
During the discovery phase, data is classified into categories according to how sensitive it is or who should have access to it. This classification process is particularly critical for regulated sensitive data types like PII and PHI that must adhere to stringent regulations.
What Are Some Use Cases for Sensitive Data Discovery?
Sensitive data discovery is a process that helps you locate, identify and classify instances of sensitive data stored on your systems. Doing this helps maintain data compliance while avoiding damage due to breaches or loss.
Additionally, it can help mitigate risk – something particularly crucial given new data regulations like GDPR and HIPAA.
Sensitive data discovery is commonly employed by businesses that collect or store personally identifiable information (PII), payment card data (PCI) and electronic protected health information (ePHI). These companies must know where their PII resides to meet regulatory standards.
These tools are useful for finding Personal Information (PII) data stored in files or on servers, as well as locating it on cloud storage services like Dropbox or Google Drive. While this data has immense value to a business, it must remain protected from unauthorized access or disclosure.
How Can Sensitive Data Discovery Help You?
Sensitive data discovery is a necessary step to help protect sensitive personal information. It can safeguard your business against breaches and leaks, guarantee compliance with regulations and laws, as well as maintain the privacy of customers and employees.
By consolidating sensitive data into one location, you can reduce data storage expenses and minimize your organization’s digital footprint. Furthermore, this enables security teams to optimize their spending on data security initiatives.
Sensitive data can be stored in a variety of places, such as files, databases and images. Unfortunately, it often ends up in unexpected places and becomes difficult to locate and monitor. A sensitive data discovery solution will detect it and notify you if it is saved or moved around your network.
