Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) does what very few tools today can do alone; it discovers all instances of data in any corner of your environment and gives you a visual on it at all times, as well as the ability to protect it wherever it goes.
It sounds pretty incredible, in the truest sense of the word. And, on face value, it is. But when you break down the technology, it becomes easier to see how such an outcome (protecting all data everywhere) could even be possible and what it looks like in the modern organization.
The Status Quo: Protecting the Box
First, it helps to dig into “business as usual” when it comes to keeping data safe. We’re way past on-premises alone, but many organizations still hold to on-premises assets (critical infrastructure, SCADA systems, Microsoft on-prem agents), along with assets in the cloud and all its various permutations: hybrid, multi-cloud, SaaS, remote, etc.
Historically, when protecting data in complex environments, the answer was always, “protect the location better.” In the cloud, that meant anything from XDR to Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) or solutions that focused on identifying security misconfigurations, active threats, unseen vulnerabilities, or other security weaknesses that could allow attackers to penetrate defenses. As long as the data resided in one of those highly protected spaces (secured by XDR, CSPM solutions, and the like), it was considered as safe as it could be.
However, this did not cover increasingly common scenarios like data being sent via messaging apps, lost in unsecured PowerPoints, downloaded onto mobile devices, or copied into text messages on a private phone.
Data Security Posture Management: Outside-of-the-Box Data Security
The above defense-in-depth approaches still apply but have been augmented with an additional layer of security that is more agile, transparent, comprehensive, and effective within a complex digital landscape.
That additional layer is DSPM, defined by Gartner as a solution that “provides visibility as to where sensitive data is, who has access to that data, how it has been used, and what the security posture of the data stored or application is.” You can already see the positive implications of such a tool in complicated modern environments.
Here’s how it works.
1. DSPM Discovers All Data
One unique aspect of DSPM is its ability to provide organizations with data lineage, or a bird’s eye view of where your data has been and whose hands it has touched along the way. As IBM states, “Data lineage tools provide a record of data throughout its lifecycle, including source information and any data transformations that have been applied during any ETL [extract, transform, load] or ELT [extract, load, transform] processes.” This is especially useful for spotting inside attacks and places in which data has not been handled compliantly or correctly.
By leveraging AI and machine learning, Data Security Posture Management tools comprehensively scan data sources like cloud storage, file systems, databases, and even social media, SaaS apps, and other services to identify all forms of data. As noted by data security firm Cyberhaven, “This process is facilitated by integrations with all cloud service providers, including AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, and involves scanning diverse cloud data storage locations and data flows to create a comprehensive inventory of data.” Once that inventory has been created, teams are ready for the next step.
2. DSPM Classifies Data
Next, Data Security Posture Management assigns a classification to all data assets based on a few key indicators of their sensitivity level:
- Does it contain Personally Identifiable Information (PII)?
- Is it considered confidential by the organization?
- Is it subject to specific legal regulations (GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS)?
DSPM can also draw from other advanced contextual factors when determining classification, such as:
- Data usage patterns
- Storage locations
- Access controls
Based on the level assigned, data will be placed in categories ranging from public (no need to protect) to internal, confidential, or highly confidential (highly protected).
3. DSPM Prioritizes At-Risk Data
Using its ability to ingest large amounts of information and draw connections, DSPM can correlate misconfigurations with other risks, such as vulnerabilities and highly permissive access. This allows DSPM to get the best picture of which data assets are most at risk and notify security teams. That way, they can use their resources to remediate the areas of weakness that will have the greatest impact on the organization if compromised.
4. DSPM Configures Security Policies
DSPM can monitor security configurations for errors and anomalies, ensuring they align with what the organization has set forth and even external compliance policies. In some cases, DSPM platforms can even automatically remediate simple security fixes, such as quarantining files, adjusting weak access controls, and even repairing misconfigurations.
5. DSPM Reports
Lastly, DSPM tools do some of their best work at the end, at the reporting stage. Part of the trouble with current solutions is that they are complex, especially when dealing with data in already complex cloud environments. Often, multiple dashboards are needed for an organization to cover every environment, and this creates unnecessary siloes.
Data Security Posture Management can pull together metadata from all your data assets across any (and all) environments – cloud, on-premises, social media, SaaS applications, multi-cloud, and more – and present it in dashboards housed under the same roof. This interconnected access to all the data information gives teams the at-a-glance overview they need, along with detailed reports that can be filtered to drill down into even more data specifics. These dashboards present the most significant threats, so the SOC knows which ones to work on first.
These powerful tools can give organizations the insights they need to make meaningful, real-time decisions without too much fear of blind spots.
Conclusion
The more supply chains grow, the more cloud complexities increase, and the more technologies constantly become connected endpoints, the more places data will evade detection and protection. DSPM’s unique “data-first” security approach places it at the tip of the spear when it comes to keeping sensitive information safe.
By identifying, mapping, classifying, and assigning protections to the data itself – rather than the myriads of locations in which the data could be transferred or stored – Data Security Posture Management simplifies the data management process and makes the most important aspects the easiest to see.
An ardent believer in personal data privacy and the technology behind it, Katrina Thompson is a freelance writer leaning into encryption, data privacy legislation, and the intersection of information technology and human rights. She has written for Bora, Venafi, Tripwire, and many other sites.
