Discover 3 ways to take a holistic approach to data protection

The risk landscape for organizations has changed significantly in the past few years. Traditional ways of identifying and mitigating risks simply don’t work. While traditionally, organizations have focused on external threats, risks from within the organization are just as prevalent and harmful. These risks include unprotected and ungoverned data, insiders doing or saying things they shouldn’t, as well as ever-changing regulations. Also, with more than 300 million people working remotely, data is being created, accessed, shared, and stored outside of the traditional borders of business. Enterprises need to quickly move to a more holistic approach to data protection and reduce their overall risk.

This means extending data protection across all aspects of a business: people, places, processes, and products. Risk and security practitioners will benefit from an end-to-end data governance solution to help protect data, manage risks, and satisfy regulatory requirements. Let’s explore how to introduce a comprehensive approach to data protection within your organization.

1. Identifying and protecting sensitive data

Information protection starts with data discovery, understanding your data landscape, and identifying important data across your hybrid environment. The next priority is protection, working to strike a balance between security and productivity. The third is data loss prevention (DLP). One of the biggest DLP challenges is responding to data exfiltration from within an organization. A holistic approach can detect such threats sooner, especially when coupled with an effective insider risk solution and program.

2. Identifying and managing insider risks

Investigating and remediating both malicious and inadvertent activities within your organization is critically important. In conjunction with DLP, insider risk management can offer the context necessary to better employ policies to help enforce the rules and identify risks.

3. Managing compliance

When prioritizing which data to protect, enterprises must also consider internal and external requirements that dictate how their data is handled. Not abiding by regulations could mean costly fines and increased risk. A compliance manager solution can help with everything from taking inventory of data protection risks and staying current on regulations to reporting for auditors. It should be included in a holistic solution.

Expertise from the new season of Uncovering Hidden Risks

Interested in exploring this data protection approach but not sure how to get started? Future episodes of the Uncovering Hidden Risks podcast will give risk, security practitioners, and C-suite leaders an expert resource as they tackle important questions and reduce their overall risk.

Launching in March 2022, the third season of the podcast will offer monthly episodes featuring an expert panel of Microsoft leaders and community influencers. Podcast episodes will explore: 

• Risk management and data protection.  
• Data governance.
• Industry trends.
• Customer challenges.

This series joins security-focused Microsoft podcasts Security Unlocked, Security Unlocked: CISO Series with Bret Arsenault, and Afternoon Cyber Tea with Ann Johnson on the CyberWire platform. Uncovering Hidden Risk episodes will also be syndicated across your favorite podcast platforms including iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Stitcher. Look forward to more details in a future blog post. 

Explore holistic data protection

A holistic approach to data protection can help your organization adapt to changes in your risk landscape. That approach involves discovering and protecting your organization’s sensitive data, managing insider risk, and managing compliance across departments. Our intelligent suite of products and features can make this process easier. Microsoft’s security solutions are positioned to help your organization protect data, mitigate insider risks, and address regulations and standards.

Learn more

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

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