What is a Data Risk Assessment & Why You Should Take One>
Varonis Blog – Lexi Croisdale
A Data Risk Assessment is important for several reasons:
1) Compliance: Many regulations and privacy laws require organizations to conduct risk assessments.
By knowing where sensitive data is located and who has access to it, organizations can comply with audits and minimize the likelihood of a data breach.
2) Discovery and classification of sensitive data: Organizations, regardless of size, may have large amounts of sensitive data that need to be located and classified.
This process involves considering factors such as confidentiality, importance, and usability of the data.
Manual classification can be time-consuming and prone to accuracy issues, so it is beneficial to have an automated data security solution that can accurately and continuously classify data.
3) Identification and remediation of exposures: Critical data is at risk every day, and a single misconfiguration or high-risk permission can lead to a breach.
Conducting a risk assessment helps identify potential threats and vulnerabilities that could compromise data security.
This includes identifying weaknesses in existing security measures and addressing compliance issues.
4) Prioritization of risk levels: Implementing the same level of data protection for every file and folder can be costly and impractical.
A risk assessment allows organizations to evaluate which data is most at risk and prioritize privacy and security issues accordingly.
By focusing on high-risk factors first, organizations can mitigate severe consequences for their operations.
5) Assessing regulatory compliance: Organizations need to evaluate whether they are compliant with relevant regulations and industry standards, such as GDPR and HIPAA.
A risk assessment helps identify areas of non-compliance and prioritize measures to achieve and maintain sustainable compliance.
Performing a Data Risk Assessment can be approached in several ways, including hiring a consultant, using built-in tools provided by data storage platforms (which may lack comprehensive assessment features), or using a specialized Data Security Platform (DSP) tool like Varonis.
Varonis offers a free Data Risk Assessment that provides organizations with a detailed report on potential vulnerabilities and a roadmap for improving data resiliency.
The assessment helps pinpoint misconfigurations, exposure of sensitive data, stale files, compliance issues, third-party app risks, and more.
It also provides actionable insights to prioritize and remediate critical threats.
The assessment is fully customizable to meet specific needs, regulations, and configurations, allowing organizations to turn insights into an immediate action plan.
By conducting a Data Risk Assessment, organizations can enhance their data security posture, comply with regulations, and minimize the risk of data breaches.
Link: https://www.varonis.com/blog/what-is-a-data-risk-assessment