How can you identify and mitigate data security risks using governance metrics?

Data Security Maturity Essentials: a) Prevention First: Well defined access and cryptographic controls & DLP shield the sensitive data. b) Detection with Depth: EDR, UEBA and SIEM solutions combined to identify the suspicious activities targeting the data. c) Automation is the Key: SOAR facilitates in orchestrating the response, minimizing the dwell time, and speeds up the recovery from data incidents. d) Threat Intel Blends: Integrate with reputed and trusted external feeds on threat intelligence. Deploy deception technology adequately to stay ahead of ever-evolving data threats. e) Continuous Improvement: Regular testing, incident analysis, and adaptation ensure the Data Security Stack stays updated and current.

You can also use data security standards like the ISO standards to evaluate your data governance metrics and practices. Training is a must to the organisation can maintain required standards and best practices. Ensure you have data classification, policies and procedures in place. You should carry out monitoring checks and audits on access controls, incident management, entitlement reviews, backup, DLP etc to ensure the requirements are met and possibly identify gaps or failures. As the organisation continues to build on this, the data security state improves and matures.

Data Governance amongst its vast reaching scope also takes into its ambit the importance of having a process of robust data security. The foremost step towards data security would be to scope out the data in classification in terms of the level of privacy, e.g. public, confidential etc. Thereafter shall be the task of data ownership of the data. And finally the data access and privilege for the data basis it's classification. Also, audit trail of the data usage should also be monitored. All these aspects should be documented in the data Governance policy and process for overarching the data security steps.

Identification: We should Implement robust data governance metrics to identify security risks. Monitoring: Monitor access controls, encryption usage, and data integrity. Audit : Regularly audit data handling procedures. Policies: Establish clear policies. Learning/ Training: Educate teams on data security. By assessing and refining governance metrics. We would be able to proactively mitigate data security risks and enhance overall cybersecurity posture.

Having does this as a CISO before, I would recommend before going down the Data Security maturity journey, you should consider the following as this would help you assess maturity better - Do you have a Data Classification for type of data consumed/managed/processed in your organisation? - Is the Data Classification documented as a policy and actually applied in atleast 1 application in your organisation? - Are there are data privacy & goveranance e.g GDPR etc that your company needs to abide to? The above question would help you set the right foundation and tone for assessing the Data Security Maturity.

Using data security compliance is an excellent guide but remember. Compliance is not security. This is a common pitfall many fall into. In my personal experience using these compliance frameworks is a great way to measure how mature you are as an organization. This then helps also outlay a project list and roadmap for where you want to be. This is one area I will say highest score is not a winner. Understand areas against your industry where you need to be and where it’s ok to lag slightly. Everything can’t be a priority at once.

Not all regulatory compliances deal with data security, but some of the regulatory compliances help secure the data. Organizations are expected to shred the Personally Identifiable Information data after use. In doing that, organizations minimizes the possibilities of identity theft, which in turn, would increase customer trust.

Data security compliance metrics can serve as leading indicators and targets to improve for other critical areas such as incident response, service resiliency, etc. Depending on how your trending, your investment in people, programs and solutions can further be optimized ....with ... you guessed it - what the data is telling you (see what i did there :D)

Importante desmistificar o “estar compliance” do “estar seguro”. Durante minha carreira vi muitos líderes preocupados em implementar controles e processos burocráticos para estar compliance com determinada regulamentação, e isso, além de ter tornado seus processos mais complexos, também não melhorou os controles de segurança. Garantir compliance é importante mas precisa ser estruturado e pensado de forma conjunta com os especialistas e líderes de TI e Segurança, para que se tenha o resultado também alinhado com a expectativa do negócio. E não apenas para “cumprir tabela”.

Sometimes a crisis is a great opportunity to get better. Using incident data is a very reactive way of understanding the problems you have. In my experience, at this point it’s simply too late. Let’s use this as a worst case indicator of what needs to be fixed and proactively get ahead of incidents as we can.

Um incidente de segurança colocará muitos de seus controles em prática. Ele te dirá que seu plano de continuidade de negócios está coerente, se foi testado de forma adequada, se está funcionando, te mostrará se seu monitoramento está coletando e analisando os logs das atividades, fontes e métricas corretas, te mostrará se sua equipe está atuando nos alarmes de forma assertiva, se seus playbooks estão atualizados, e mais uma série de coisas, que precisam ser constantemente ajustadas, no dia a dia, e que te indicarão onde estão seus pontos cegos.

Awareness of data security is the only way we can create a culture of security in the company. Help educate users on how they can use labeling, classification, retention and proper diligence of document handing to help be the front line of security for the company. Traditional security tools don’t facilitate this well. I’ve gotten very creative in helping end users learns and uses these features. Having a change manager in the company is also key to help adopt and use these tools as part of the cultural assimilation we need to achieve.

Segurança é responsabilidade de todos dentro de uma organização. Conscientização é o processo que transforma esse controle numa cultura organizacional para que cada usuário possa ser um elo mais forte na corrente de proteção de cada empresa. Quanto mais informações e conhecimento sobre segurança cada colaborador tiver, e quanto mais consciente eles forem, menor será a exposição aos riscos de segurança.

Data Security Awareness : 1.) Know thy Crown Jewels and treat thy data in that order. 2.) Lock it properly: Strong passwords, Multi factor authentication and reporting suspicious activities promptly to the competent authority in organization. 3.) Think Before You Click: Suspicious emails, attachments and downloads are red flags. Ensure to not fall victim to the lure of the click. 4.) Be Alert, Be Safe: Keep learning about the evolving cyber threats and the best practices. Awareness is the best shield. Point to ponder : Always remember that data security thrives on the collective awareness. Embrace the above essentials, spread the word and build a culture of data protection in collaboration with all.

People, process, technology. If any of these steps are missing, you’re 100% certain efficiency and effectiveness is compromised. Staff awareness is important so they know what is the process in place. Awareness training is a not foolproof way to prevent any data security incident from happening, but at least with proper nudging and repeated reminders, staff know how to identify data security incidents, how to report it, and who to escalate it to. And this is the opportunity to educate staff on the policies they should be compliant with, including data classification policy which is integral as most staff handle documents (whether digital or paper) in their daily work.

Data security controls are a paramount part of identity, protect, detect, respond and recover phases of security. The proper controls and tools in each category provide a layered security approach. The controls, responding to the signals and having a proper organizational process to tune and iteratively optimize the signals will help get better over time!

At the database level, data masking and virtual private databases (also known as row level security) can be implemented. This could be one of the steps building data security. Highly confidential data like Social Security Numbers, can be masked further viewing in databases and in reports. Row level security further prevents consumers seeing data that are not relevant to them.

Não espere somente que a auditoria, seja interna ou externa, avalie seu ambiente de controle. Faça você mesmo o teste dos seus controles, de forma pró-ativa. Esse exercício te trará clareza dos seus pontos falhos, do que precisa ser feito pra mitigar riscos e do que deve ser priorizado. Além disso, você poderá se antecipar aos problemas e definir ações de solução antes que alguma vulnerabilidade seja explorada.

Think of the Data Security controls falling into these 3 buckets: 1. Administrative - what governance is in place around policies, procedures, standards, etc? 2. Technical - what specific technology and configurations is protecting the data? 3. Physical - what physical controls are in place to protect the data (assets, backup media, site security)?

1) Think Beyond the Perimeter: Focus on data-centric security, not only just network defence. Identify what matters most and prioritize those assets. 2) Embrace the Unknown: Proactive threat hunting by red teaming and advanced analytics help detect hidden threats before they cause damage. 3) Deception is one of the important key in the stack' 4) Automate the Routine and repetitive stuff: Use SOAR and automation tools to free up the team for strategic analysis and other infosec initiatives. 5) Measure and Adapt: Track metrics, analyse trends, and continuously tweak the controls based on real-time data and emerging threats.