Ipsip Group – Expert en Cybersécurité, SOC 24/7, solutions IT
cartographie des données sensibles
IPSIP - March 2024
Mapping of Sensitive and Confidential Data.
Did you know? 53% of French companies feel ‘not very’ or ‘not at all’ prepared for a cyberattack. More than half do not have a formal IT security strategy in place.
In this article, we present a simple methodological approach to understanding, evaluating, and securing your company's vital information.
By following our advice, you will be able to:
- Identify sensitive data of your company
- Assess the risks involved
- Implement an appropriate protection strategy
- Minimise the risk of cyber attacks
- Protect your reputation and your revenue
Panorama de la Data : Analyser pour mieux protéger
This first step involves compiling a comprehensive inventory of all the data you possess. This means identifying all the data stored by your company, regardless of the medium: servers, cloud, laptops, etc.
Please note that it is important to collect the most accurate information possible about each piece of data, such as:
The type of data.
Personal data, financial data, sensitive data, etc.
Data location.
Internal data storage, storage by a third-party service provider, etc.
The level of data criticality.
Importance of data for the company's business.
Persons with access to the data.
Persons assigned or not assigned to view, modify or delete the data.
Data hierarchy: Evaluate to prioritise
This overview of your data will now enable you to move on to the second step. You have analysed your existing data and know exactly what type of data your company has. You now need to prioritise your data according to its criticality.
To prioritise your data, you can ask yourself the following questions:
Is the data vital to the company's business?
Am I exposed to legal risks in the event of loss or theft of this data?
Could the loss of this data damage the company's reputation?
Could a data breach affect the trust of customers and partners?
This prioritisation will enable you to focus your efforts on the most at-risk data.
The threats you face: Understanding to prevent
When discussing risks, you need to be aware of the threats to which your data is exposed. Be as specific as possible, as this step is crucial in determining whether you are adequately equipped and identifying any potential shortcomings.
In most cases, sensitive data is exposed to numerous threats, including:
Data theft
Data theft, also known as data leakage or data breach, is the unauthorised acquisition of sensitive or confidential data.
Some examples:
Phishing: fraudulent emails/text messages encouraging users to disclose information or download malicious software.
SQL injection: exploiting vulnerabilities in websites to access databases.
Ransomware: encrypting data and demanding a ransom to unlock it.
Internal data leaks: disclosure of sensitive data by disgruntled or negligent employees.
Brute force attacks: use of tools to guess passwords and access accounts.
To protect yourself, you can use (non-exhaustive list): strong passwords, two-factor authentication, vigilance against suspicious emails/SMS messages, security software, software updates.
Data loss
Data loss is the temporary or permanent disappearance of digital information stored on a computer medium. It can be caused by computer failures, human error (accidental deletion of files, poor backup management, etc.) or malicious acts such as hacking, theft or espionage.
The consequences of data loss can be very significant: financial damage, damage to reputation, loss of productivity, legal risks, etc.
It is therefore necessary to put measures in place to prevent data loss and to be able to recover data in the event of a disaster.
Data corruption
Data corruption is the alteration or destruction of digital information stored on a computer medium. This can render the data inaccessible, unreadable or unusable.
Industrial espionage
Commercial espionage is the illegal acquisition of sensitive or confidential information from a competing company. This may include information about the company's products, services, customers, finances, strategies or technologies.
Implementing solutions to address these threats: Protect to reassure
Finally, once you have identified your sensitive data and understood the potential threats, it is time to implement appropriate security solutions.
Among the most effective solutions are cryptography to encrypt sensitive data, anonymisation to mask personal information, and regular audits to detect and correct vulnerabilities.
To give you an idea, IPSIP steps in to help you see things more clearly and support you in protecting your infrastructure at all levels. We offer a cybersecurity audit to help you better understand your digital environment.
As an example, below are some cybersecurity solutions you can integrate to protect yourself and understand what is happening on your network:
To sum up:
By understanding and assessing your sensitive data, and implementing appropriate security solutions, you can significantly reduce the risk of data breaches and strengthen customer trust and your relationship with your business partners.