Data Security Posture Management (DSPM): Guide & Best Practices

What is Data Security Posture Management (DSPM)?

Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) is a cybersecurity technology and is based on the principle that data is the most valued asset within an organization.

With today’s cloud technology, where your systems, networks, and applications are all connected, it is even more crucial to keep sensitive data safe. Data security posture management (DSPM) plays a significant role in this challenge, overseeing where your data is stored, how it’s secured, and who accesses it. DSPM facilitates the management of data across the cloud, monitoring it for risks, enforcing security policies, and ensuring that compliance mandates are met.

Why DSPM is Important

Most security technologies protect sensitive data by preventing unauthorized access to the network, or by detecting and blocking suspicious or malicious behaviors by authorized or unauthorized users. But the fast adoption of cloud computing, agile cloud-native development and both artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), has led to data security risks and vulnerabilities that these technologies don’t always address, which in turn can leave organizations at risk of data breaches and regulatory compliance violations.

Chief among these data risks is shadow data. This is data which is backed up, copied or replicated to a data store but is not monitored, managed or governed by the same security teams, policies or controls as the original data.

The demand for data for AI or ML modeling also contributes to shadow data, as organizations expand access to data to more users who possess less understanding of proper data security procedures and data governance. Alongside this, the increased adoption of multi-cloud environments – which is the use of cloud services and applications from multiple providers – and hybrid cloud which is infrastructure that combines public and private cloud environments – further spreads the risk.

How DSPM Works

Data Security Posture Management solutions discover where an organization’s sensitive data is stored, detect any at-risk data and remediate its vulnerabilities aligning with the organization’s security goals and compliance requirements. Safeguards and monitoring are implemented to stop any identified vulnerabilities occurring again.

DSPM generally consists of four main components, and these are described in detail below:

1. Data discovery
2. Data classification
3. Risk assessment and prioritization
4. Remediation and prevention

1. Data Discovery

To be able to protect an organization’s data, a DSPM solution needs to know where the data is located. DSPM solutions will automatically perform data discovery and classification to identify sensitive data within the organization. They also can perform data flow mapping to understand how data moves.

Data discovery functionality continuously scans for sensitive data wherever it might be. This includes scanning across the following:

• on-premises and in cloud environments (for example public, private and hybrid clouds)
• all cloud providers, for example Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, as well as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers
• all cloud services, for example Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS)
• all types of data and data stores – this includes structured and unstructured data, cloud storage (file, block storage and object storage), and storage services associated with specific cloud services, cloud apps or cloud service providers

2. Data Classification

Usually, data classification categorizes data based on predefined criteria. In terms of DSPM, data classification categorizes data according to its sensitivity, by assessing the following for each data asset:

• The level of data sensitivity for example is it PII, confidential, related to trade secrets, or others
• Who can and should be authorized to access the data
• How the data is being stored, handled and used
• Whether the data is subject to regulatory frameworks for example, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other data protection/data privacy regulations.

3. Risk Assessment and Prioritization

Data Security Posture Management identifies and prioritizes vulnerabilities associated with each data asset. Primarily, DSPM looks for the following vulnerabilities:

• Poor Configuration Management – This is where there are missing or incomplete system security settings that leave an organization’s data vulnerable to unauthorized access. This can result in unsecured cloud data storage but can also create weaknesses such as unapplied security patches. Poor configuration is widely considered to be the most common cloud data security risk and is a fundamental cause of data loss or leakage.
• Excessive Permissions – Excessive permissions mean that users have more data access privileges or permissions than they need to do their jobs. This can be the result of mistakes in granting access privileges but can also occur if the privileges are intentionally escalated maliciously or when permissions, which are given on a temporary basis, are not later revoked when they’re no longer required.
• Data Flow – Data flow analysis tracks all the places where the data has been and who has had access to it at each point. Along with information on infrastructure vulnerabilities, data flow analysis can reveal potential attack paths to sensitive data.
• Security Policy and Regulatory Violations – DSPM solutions map the data’s existing security settings to the organization’s data security policies and to those mandated by any regulatory compliance. This will identify where data is inadequately protected and where there are vulnerabilities which could make the organization run the risk of non-compliance.

4. Remediation and Prevention

Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) solutions provide reporting and real-time dashboards identifying vulnerabilities according to severity. This enables security and risk management teams to focus on resolving the most critical issues. Some DSPM solutions will automate modifications to system configurations, to improve protection against potential data exposure.

All DSPM solutions continuously monitor the environment for new data resources and continually audit data for any potential security risks.

Key Capabilities of DSPM Solutions

Data Security Posture Management solutions are designed to manage and protect an organization’s data so to achieve this, they need the following capabilities:

Data Discovery and Classification: DSPM solutions need to be able to identify and classify sensitive data within an organization.

Access Management: DSPM solutions provide insight about an organization’s access controls. It assists with the identification of excessive permissions that expose the organization to additional data security risks.

Vulnerability Detection and Remediation: DSPM solutions offer a number of risk detection and remediation capabilities. Vulnerability scanning, the monitoring of configurations and user behavior, and behavioral analytics all support the detection of potential security risks and insider threats within an organization.

Compliance Support: DSPM solutions assist with maintaining regulatory compliance by monitoring access to sensitive customer data.

How to Deploy DSPM in your Organization

The look of the deployment will depend on your DSPM provider, your system configuration, and the needs of your organization. However, the following few basic steps will be required whatever your solution involves:

Identify the security requirements for your organization. You need to understand the types of data which need to be protected and any data governance regulations or industry standards which need to be followed.

Choose the best solution for your business needs. As well as security, consider cost-effectiveness, scalability, ease of use, integration with your existing technology, and reporting.

Enable your security team to work successfully with the DSPM. Ensure that there are clear policies and procedures, and make sure everyone understands their responsibilities.

Once the DSPM is implemented and configured, it needs to be monitored. As it learns about your environment and data flows, your DSPM will automatically start assisting you in adapting your security policies. During initial deployment is the best time to integrate the DSPM with your existing security tools.

DSPM Use Cases

Data Security Posture Management can be used to address various use cases within a business. These include:

Data Management and Compliance: DSPM solutions can identify, classify, and manage access to an organization’s data. This ensures that a company is able to more effectively manage and protect its sensitive data, together with maintaining compliance with regulatory requirements.

Attack Surface Management: Data is commonly the target of cyberattacks and vulnerabilities and excessive permissions are exploited by cybercriminals to access a company’s data. Data Security Posture Management (DSPM), in combination with Effective Risk Management, helps to manage an organization’s data attack surface by identifying and helping to remediate potential attack sources.

Least Privilege Enforcement: The principle of least privilege is fundamental to the zero-trust security model. DSPM helps to enforce least privilege by identifying instances where a user or application is granted more access than is needed for its role.

Simplified Data Protection: DSPM solutions work across cloud-based environments enabling an organization to more effectively manage data security across its entire environment.

DSPM vs. CSPM

Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) and Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) both manage aspects of an organization’s security posture. However, they have different areas of focus.

DSPM solutions focus on data and manage security across an organization’s entire IT environment including both on and off-prem. However, CSPM is focused solely on the security of an organization’s cloud environments.

How Lepide Can Help

If you’d like to see how the Lepide Data Security Platform can help give you more visibility over your sensitive data and protect you from security threats, schedule a demo with one of our engineers.