Data privacy: using data classification to identify and protect unstructured personal data.

Using classification to identify and protect unstructured personal data

With the strengthening privacy and data protection laws, the safeguarding and handling of personal data has become a key challenge for all organisations. In particular, the advent of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and more recently the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), has required organisations to place a stronger emphasis on protecting the personal data they hold about customers, citizens, staff or other individuals.

To adequately mitigate the risk of a data breach or non-compliance with privacy requirements, protecting information from compromise, loss of integrity or unavailability must be factored in to decision-making at every level.

However, while this may be relatively straightforward when the data is structured, in the case of unstructured data – such as the information held in staff-generated documents and emails – protection is much more difficult without a systematic approach to managing information security.

By categorising information based on its sensitivity, data classification enables personal information to be identified in unstructured data, so the appropriate information security controls can be applied.

How Janusnet’s Data Classification Solutions Can Enhance Privacy Compliance

A data classification solution provides a systemised method of identifying sensitive information contained in unstructured data, in order for it to be appropriately managed and controlled.

  • Information, records or systems can be categorised according to the level of damage their unauthorised disclosure would cause.
  • Each classification level will have a set of information security controls, appropriate to the escalating level of damage.
  • Once data has been identified and classified, the appropriate information security control can easily be applied.

Janusnet’s data classification solutions can act as a standalone to reduce the risk of accidental information loss, or work in conjunction with other systems to help prevent data breaches and protect corporate information.

WHITEPAPER - How data classification enables privacy compliance