How do you identify sensitive data?

How do you identify sensitive data?

Data are very much critical to different kinds of organizations and users.?

Right from the beginning of its working spheres, an enterprise needs to figure out what data could be termed as? sensitive? and protect it accordingly.

Organizations rely on such kinds of data since there?s a lot of fundamentals to its working and it just can?t afford to let personal data out at any cost.

However, it’s pretty common that a lot of systems over the years have failed at this job just because there are better tools and tactics out there with hackers.

Usually, such cases can arise when there?s no proper identification as to what could be termed as sensitive data in an organization.?

There are different forms of sensitive and personal information within an enterprise. However, they generally comprise of such information types that you never intended for your organization to disclose.

Common examples of this information include:

  • Emails and passwords.
  • Credentials.
  • Personal data and addresses.
  • Financial records.

Personal Sensitive data?

If you run an enterprise (or are even a part of it), I’m pretty sure you already know what General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliances say about safeguarding personal data.

Data sensitivity has a lot of factors that it depends on. Some of these factors include regulations (as I mentioned), policies of the company along with contractual obligations.

Sensitive data can or can?t include personal data.

And for the personal data, well, it?s a self-explanatory term that refers to information revolving around a particular person or a person that?s associated with an enterprise.

It doesn’t matter if this information is credible or not, it is still considered as confidential information that, in no sense needs to be disclosed.

The protection of all the personal information (regardless of being sensitive) is important as stated by the federal legislation. It’s the duty of an enterprise an individual is associated to, to safeguard his information and prevent any breaches in the data collected by them.

Access to confidential information is also restricted to such parties that don’t have proper authorization for accessing any such kind of information.

Sensitive data on the other hand can include personal information, but there?s a lot to it as well.

In case sensitive information is mishandled in any way, it is going to have very adverse effects or could pose a risk to the privacy of an individual or a firm as well.

One of the major differences between the sensitive and confidential data is the duration and the level of harm that’s involved.

The same is recommended by the federal regulations that specify that only those parties need to have access to sensitive data who have a legitimate purpose and have the consent of the owner.

To identify sensitive data, three basic steps are involved:

Identifying the category data belong to – As per the regulations of GDPR, data is classified into a few categories that also involve sensitive data. If your data matches the characteristics of sensitive data, that?s your first step.

Accessing and responding to data risks – To comply with the GDPR policies, you need to ensure data security and be vital with your data security solutions.

Monitor Implemented security checks – Stay updated with your data security policies and ensure every data security tactic you have adopted is working with its full potential.

Protection of Data

Measures are sought to ensure the protection of your personal and sensitive data. There are regulations for protecting this information for businesses and individuals.

Here are some of the important ones:

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): Different kinds of businesses that process data belonging to EU citizens need to protect the same data and notify the parties in case a privacy breach occurs.

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS): A lot of companies that are renowned in processing the credit card information are needed to protect this data and conduct the transactions with a very secure, encrypted network.

Gramm Leach Bliley Act (GLBA): The financial institutions belonging to the US need to disclose how they are sharing the information of the customers.

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA): The health providers of the US need to take proper steps to protect the PHI of the patients.

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA): Educational institutions need to have the consideration of the students over 18 years to release the records like disciplinary information, schedules, etc.