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Guest View: Take a 3D view of your vital data

By Michael Gabriel

March 15, 2011 — (Page 1 of 3)
Unstructured data in particular is a thorn in the side of data security and can benefit from three-dimensional insight. When someone in the organization runs a report, extracts information from a secure database into a spreadsheet, or transfers a file to an outside business partner, none of the internal and perimeter security controls we may have set up follow the data. The data no longer has the benefit of these protections and can now proliferate without even an audit trail.

Two-dimensional data loss prevention tools can look for specific types of sensitive data and tell us where it is located. We can add a third dimension to DLP by attaching metadata tags to the data when it leaves a structured data source (e.g. a database) and becomes unstructured data (e.g. a report file). This digital data tag could include information on who requested the report, when it was produced, what system it was produced from, and other useful information that helps “tell the story” about the intended purpose of the file.

By using DLP to track these digital data tags, and parsing the information they contain, we can track these files over time and identify where any proliferation of the files (copies made or sent) has occurred. This then gives us the ability to determine how unstructured sensitive data moves and gets used within our systems, illuminating any business processes that may be putting our sensitive data at risk.

Using a 3D DLP system adds new layers of data intelligence and can be used to track sensitive data over time. For example, while traditional 2D DLP might identify six files that contain 1,200 social security numbers distributed over six laptops, 3D DLP can tell us that the file was requested by Joe on Wednesday, and that Joe then sent the file to Larry on Thursday, who then sent the file to four other people the following week. To find out when this file was shared by authorized users, rather than searching for it by the social security numbers, it can be searched by metadata tags that are programmed into the files.

Related Search Term(s): data modeling

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David Gerrold asks: Are we losing our data as time goes on?
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