In today’s digital age, businesses rely on the use of data to generate valuable insights to inform decision-making. However, with the increasing demand for data accessibility comes the responsibility to secure this information. Organizations must take necessary steps to protect against unauthorized access, data breaches, theft, and loss of sensitive information. Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) is an effective approach that helps businesses manage data security risks effectively.
What is Data Security Posture Management?
DSPM is the process of assessing, monitoring, and improving the security posture of an organization’s sensitive information. It involves identifying vulnerabilities and risks associated with an organization’s data layer, infrastructure vulnerabilities, and access management. This process is repeated continuously, enabling organizations to maintain an appropriate security posture at all times.
Data security posture comprises all the controls that an organization relies on to ensure that sensitive data is secure. Typical controls might include access control, policy-based cloud access control, and infrastructure features. Effective DSPM ensures that these controls remain fit for purpose as the threat landscape changes.
Benefits of DSPM
Effective DSPM enables businesses to maintain a strong data security posture by providing visibility and control over data, reducing the risk of data breach, ensuring compliance with regulations, prioritizing risk and remediation, and secure data growth. Other benefits include:
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Mitigation from cybersecurity threats: Cyber threats come in many shapes and sizes, and the costs of a data breach can be significant. Effective DSPM minimizes the risk of unauthorized data access while helping to mitigate the risk of cybersecurity threats.
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Compliance: With data protection regulations getting tougher, businesses need to ensure that they comply with the legislation. DSPM helps businesses stay compliant by continually monitoring the environment to meet regulatory requirements.
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Least Privilege – Control: DSPM enables businesses to maintain a least-privileged access model. The model provides the minimum levels of access to personnel, helping to keep unauthorized access at bay.
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Cloud security concerns: DSPM solution offers a range of security measures to monitor cloud security concerns, such as access and infrastructure control.##Tools for DSPM
There are various tools and solutions available to manage an organization’s data security posture. Each tool is unique and offers different features to meet specific needs. Here, we have outlined some popular DSPM tools to consider: -
Symmetry Dataguard: A comprehensive tool that provides real-time data discovery and data activity monitoring, enabling businesses to continuously monitor and assess the data layer risk.
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Dig Security Platform: An effective tool for identity federation and policy-based cloud access control. It enables businesses to implement appropriate security controls and identity federation with little manual intervention.
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Sentra: A risk assessment tool that identifies vulnerabilities in infrastructure configurations and offers insights to help businesses mitigate their risk.
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Zscaler Posture Control: An agentless cloud native application protection platform (CNAPP) that ensures application security and secures cloud infrastructure, apps, and confidential data in any public cloud. Their Policy-based cloud access control and compliancy features help provide an auditable solution for DSPM for any organization.
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CNAPP solutions including Veza, Cyera Platform, Laminar and the TrustLogix Cloud Data Security Platform, Concentric Semantic Intelligence, Cyral, Securiti – These cloud-native solutions help automate data detection, infrastructure vulnerabilities, and usage. They provide policy-based cloud access control, cloud infrastructure entitlement management, and risk management, respectively.
Challenges and Best Practices
Implementing DSPM practices also comes with challenges; businesses must consider the complexity of managing data for dynamic environments. For example, data can exist in different formats and locations; hence, it can be challenging to manage. However, following best practices can mitigate these challenges:
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Regular vulnerability scanning: Regular vulnerability scanning helps businesses identify potential security threats in the infrastructure and fix capabilities in a timely fashion.
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Penetration testing: Engagement of third-party experts to simulate attacks for testing existing security controls and processes.
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Security audits: Businesses need to conduct periodic security audits to identify security weaknesses and assess adherence to policies and procedures.
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Employee training and following security policies and procedures: Organizations should train employees on data security protocols and ensure that they understand and follow security policies and procedures.
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Continuous monitoring and assessing risk: Businesses must monitor and assess risk continually to identify new risks and respond quickly to potential attacks.
Conclusion
In conclusion, businesses must take active measures to protect sensitive information from cyber threats continuously. Implementing DSPM best practices enables businesses to maintain a strong security posture, allowing them to keep data safe and protected. Furthermore, businesses should consider different DSPM tools that offer different features and capabilities to meet their specific needs and ensure that their employees are trained on data security protocols and policies. By adopting effective DSPM practices, businesses can keep their data secure and unlock the full potential of data insights, with the confidence that comes with knowing their data is safe from unauthorized access or theft.