Most businesses handle sensitive data. Some of this information needs to be protected based on regulatory compliance, privacy mandates, and/or business value.
Sensitive data can be digital, like a file or document, or physical, such as a laptop or flash drive. Exposing this information could lead to extreme consequences for an organization regardless of the medium.
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1. Know What You’re Trying to Protect
Businesses must prioritize security measures and foster collaboration between traditionally separate departments to protect sensitive information and build user trust. However, with limited resources and ever-changing security landscapes, it can be challenging to keep up.
The first step is knowing what data you are trying to protect. The best approach is to develop a comprehensive list of the types of sensitive data that you collect, use and store in your organization. This will help you identify the data that needs to be protected and create policies for handling it.
Depending on your industry and the type of data you collect, some of this sensitive information may need to be shared with third parties. For example, a healthcare organization might share employees’ health records with outside organizations for treatment or payroll purposes. When determining what data to protect, consider the risk of exposure, theft or other security threats from sharing this information with a third party.
It is also important to remember that not all data is equally sensitive. For instance, it is unlikely that your staff will need to be able to access a credit card number or Social Security number. Limiting access to data that is considered sensitive will reduce the risk of internal breaches or theft of this information from a compromised employee account.
2. Identify the Sources of Sensitive Data
There are many ways to acquire sensitive data, such as customer information gathered through online forms and in-person interactions at stores or call centers. Additionally, a business may receive confidential information from credit card companies, banks, contractors, vendors, job applicants, etc. Sensitive information includes anything a business would not want to see fall into the wrong hands because of the financial, security or privacy impact it could have on a company, its customers, employees or the general public.
It is important to discover all the places where sensitive data lives within an organization, from sanctioned and shadow data assets in on-premises or multi-cloud environments to internal and external sources. This helps ensure that only those who need access have it while minimizing the “blast zone” of data that could be exposed by human error or negligence.
Once a list of all the potential sensitive data has been identified, it’s time to evaluate where it is stored and what steps can be taken to preserve it. This should include inventorying all the devices and files where data exists, such as servers, desktops, laptops, mobile devices, digital copiers, flash drives and more. From there, a plan can be implemented to limit access through tools such as role-based access control, the principle of least privilege and other means.
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3. Identify the Risks of Exposure
If sensitive data is exposed, it could lead to identity theft, financial fraud, regulatory penalties and loss of trust among customers or clients. Exposure can occur through various channels, including insecure storage, misconfigured databases, accidental publishing and more. It is essential to identify and understand the risk of each type of exposure to create an effective security plan for the organization.
The first step in identifying exposure risks is categorizing each dataset and determining its sensitivity. This helps ensure that the appropriate security controls are in place to protect the information. It also allows organizations to identify and address threats that may be able to take advantage of the vulnerability.
A common threat to sensitive data is a disgruntled employee who could potentially gain access to the data after leaving the company. Another example is a cyberattack that targets the database where personal information, such as financial records or login credentials, is stored.
To mitigate these types of threats, it is crucial that an organization can see what datasets are classified as sensitive and who controls them. This visibility is achieved through SDI solutions that offer the ability to discover and classify datasets, assign a risk score, and map data ownership all via streamlined workflows. This allows organizations to mitigate internal threats and build customer trust through compliance and adequate data protection.
4. Create a Plan of Action
Whether it’s stored physically in a file cabinet, digitally on local drives or cloud storage, or in an application database, sensitive data exposes organizations to severe risks of exposure, theft, and loss. These risks can lead to data breaches, fines for violating privacy regulations, and other costly data management missteps that jeopardize the trust of staff members and clients alike.
To reduce the risk of these issues, an organization needs a plan that carefully locates, classifies, and protects sensitive information. Developing this kind of plan requires a comprehensive strategy that spans an organization’s data platforms and consumption approaches. This includes data discovery tools, data access controls, and policies that enforce these controls across every platform and consumption approach.
In addition, a sensitive data management strategy should provide controls that prevent users from downgrading a dataset’s classification. The goal is to protect these sensitive data elements from unauthorized access and use, which can lead to the infamous “leaky bucket” effect.
Finally, a data team should develop repeatable processes that apply to all teams working with sensitive data to ensure proper protections are in place. This includes ensuring that all users are aware of and understand an organization’s data usage policies, as well as establishing a process for user termination. By following these best practices, an organization can effectively manage its sensitive data and reduce the risk of a costly data breach.