Data Security Everywhere: Tame Dark Data with Discovery and Classification
Many organizations have adopted a cloud-first mentality, primarily due to the flexibility that it offers employees who need to access data from anywhere. But there’s a downside. Depending on public, private or hybrid clouds and countless cloud applications means your organization’s data gets scattered across multiple locations.
Gaining visibility and control over sensitive data is critical, especially when you consider that up to 80 percent of data stored by a typical organization is so-called “dark” data that is unused and usually unknown. Organizations commonly operate under the assumption that holding onto old data is the responsible thing to do, but leaving “ROT” (Redundant, Obsolete, Trivial) data lying around actually increases your attack surface and elevates your level of risk.
Shine a light on dark data with advanced discovery and classification
Data security begins with gaining good visibility into your data. Our DSPM solution offers high-speed, comprehensive discovery both in the cloud and on-premises, allowing you to sort through massive amounts of unstructured data to find where sensitive information resides and who has access to it. This procedure also makes it possible to separate the ROT data from what you actually need.
Forcepoint Data Classification works in tandem with your discovery efforts to accurately classify data—allowing you to apply consistent policies and reporting and simplifying automation. Effectively classifying your data helps you to focus data security efforts where they are needed, and Forcepoint provides the capability to continue classifying data at scale and with great accuracy on an ongoing basis, providing the foundation for real-time monitoring and risk assessment.
Forcepoint’s discovery and classification solutions employ cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technology, using a 50-dimensional AI model trained by hundreds of millions of real customer files to optimize automation. This allows us to discover and classify data with industry-leading rapidity and accuracy. As an example, a major financial institution recently needed Forcepoint to scan 2.5 TB of raw data, including 9 million emails with attachments in five different languages – all in only five days. With the advanced capabilities of our AI-powered solutions, we were able to accommodate the customer’s needs in half that time!
Watch the following video for an overview of how Forcepoint modernizes discovery and classification efforts:
Modernize and automate the data security lifecycle with AI-powered technologies
Our data classification and DSPM solutions work together to provide seamless viability and control of your organization’s critical data. Here are some of the benefits that come with our holistic data classification and visibility approach:
- Increase productivity by enabling faster, safer data access and sharing for better innovation and collaboration
- Cut costs by using automation to reduce time and resources spent on data security investigations and remediation
- Reduce risk by preventing breaches through uncovering and taking care of sensitive data not being used properly
- Streamline compliance by gaining true visibility and control over sensitive data throughout your organization.
Data discovery and classification are both part of our broader Data Security Everywhere approach. They’re also key components of our Digital Security Posture Management (DSPM) solution that you’ll be hearing more about very soon.
Update: Forcepoint DSPM is now available to customers. Check out the Forcepoint DSPM blog post for more details.
If you’d like to understand more, download the Practical Guide to Data Security Everywhere, or talk to an expert today to set up a demo
