What are the Common Data Classification Types

Types of Data Classification

Understanding the different types of data classification can help organizations maintain the security of their data and improve their risk management strategies. While there are no strict rules regarding the naming convention and the number of categories that can be used, a typical data classification schema is as follows:

1. Public Data

This type of data is harmless and can be shared freely with anyone. It doesn’t require any access control or special protection. Examples of public data include:

• News articles
• Public directories
• Marketing collateral

2. Private Data

This category includes information that should be protected, but can be shared with a specific group of people within an organization. Examples of private data include:

• HR records
• Employee reviews
• Financial reports
• Internal memos

3. Internal Data

This refers to data that is specific to an organization and is used for internal operations. It can be shared within an organization but not with external entities. Examples of internal data include:

• Customer management systems
• Inventory databases
• Accounting software

4. Confidential Data

This type of data is highly sensitive and should be protected from unauthorized access, disclosure, and modification. Access to this data should be strictly controlled, and it should only be shared with those who need it to perform their duties. Confidential data includes:

• Trade secrets
• Intellectual property
• Personal health information (PHI)
• Payment Card Information (PCI)
• Personal Identifiable Information (PII)

5. Restricted Data

This category includes data that is highly sensitive and subject to legal and regulatory requirements. Access to this data should be strictly controlled, and it should only be shared with authorized personnel. Examples of restricted data include :

• Defense secrets
• Law enforcement records
• Financial account information

You are free to define your own categories to suit your specific business needs. Below are some examples of different category names:

• Restricted, Confidential, Secret, Top Secret
• Personal, Sensitive, Proprietary, Intellectual property
• Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4
• Unclassified, For Official Use Only, Confidential, Secre
• Low, Medium, High
• HR, Finance, Sales, IT
• Open Access, Employee Access, Managerial Access, Executive Access.

How Lepide Helps with Data Classification

With more data breaches occurring each year, and Governments across the globe rolling out their own data privacy laws, data classification has become a top priority. This is where the Lepide Data Security Platform can play an important role. Our solution can discover and classify a wide range of data types across a wide range of platforms, including both on-premise and cloud-based platforms. Below are some of the most notable features of the Lepide Data Security Platform.

Sensitive Data Discovery: The Lepide Data Security Platform comes with hundreds of pre-defined schemas, which can help locate unstructured sensitive data across all data repositories, whether on-premise or cloud-based, and can map it to compliance mandates, such as HIPAA, SOX, PCI, GDPR, CCPA, and more.

Incremental Scanning: Our solution is able to scan a wide range of different file types, including word and text documents, PDF files, and Excel spreadsheets to locate sensitive data. Following an initial scan, data can be classified incrementally at the point of creation and/or modification, resulting in a solution that is fast, scalable and less prone to errors.

Add Context to Classification: The Lepide software can show where sensitive data is located, who has access to it, and how it is being used. This visibility enables organizations to apply the appropriate access controls.

Automate Threat Response: Once sensitive data has been identified and classified, our solution can automate a response to threats based on a single event or series of events that match a pre-defined threshold condition.

Reduce False Positives: The Lepide software uses proximity scanning to discover patterns that provide greater context, helping to accurately predict what data is truly sensitive, and what is a false positive.

Govern Access More Effectively: Our data classification solution helps organizations gain an understanding of which users are permitted to access sensitive information. This tool allows companies to identify individuals with excessive permissions, enforce suitable access restrictions, and maintain access governance within the system.

Spot Risky User Behavior: Having visibility over an organization’s most sensitive data helps organizations determine which user behavior puts them at risk. With the help of real-time alerts and reports on user behavior, our solution can determine how users interact with regulated data.

Prioritize Data Based on Risk: By assessing the level of risk associated with the content, our software categorizes and assigns scores to it. This prioritization empowers organizations to concentrate their efforts on the data that is most important through access control and user behavior analytics.

Data classification software has become an essential tool in today’s data-driven world. It helps protect an organization’s sensitive and regulated data by providing visibility, security, and risk analysis capabilities. Organizations, particularly those with a high volume of sensitive and regulated data, can benefit from data classification software to help mitigate the risks associated with data breaches.

If you’d like to see how the Lepide Data Security Platform can help you classify your sensitive data, schedule a demo with one of our engineers.