Get Your DSPM Up and Running: Common Deployment Challenges and How to Fix Them

DPSM is here to change the game when it comes to managing, understanding, and securing your data. Once fully implemented, it can seek out and identify every byte of your data. This means finding shadow data, duplicate data, and outdated data. Better yet, it processes that data in real time.

Think of a system that can automatically sort the data it finds by its sensitivity by using simple identifiers like names or credit card numbers to help you quickly find and secure your business’s most sensitive data.

That’s what a DSPM can do (and more). The issue, however, is that setting up a DSPM properly requires a bit more effort than simply installing it and letting it run wild. If you want it to be effective, you need to know the common challenges that come when trying to deploy DSPM in your business, and how to fix them.

Your Data Inventory Is Incomplete

DSPM meaning data security posture management can automatically find, sort, and secure data. What it can’t do is search through non-linked datasets. This means if you forgot about the information you have in one cloud-based tool or SaaS system, then the DSPM simply will not process that data.

The Fix

• Use an iPaaS to ingest data from all your datasets into a single repository.
• Create a comprehensive list of your past and current data repositories.
• Check your billing to identify all third-party systems you pay for and that might have your data.
• Ensure the DSPM platform you use has API access, IAM roles, and OAuth scopes to help identify data sources.
• Use file system crawlers to detect legacy systems you may have forgotten about.

You’ve Misconfigured the Classification Policies

DSPM works to automatically classify your data based on rulesets and pattern recognition based on your needs. If the rulesets you use are too broad or even too niche, then you may run into issues. Your data may not be sorted in a way that’s useful for your security system, or it may be overclassified, which can cause a lot of noise (for example, if everything is marked as “high sensitivity”).

The Fix

• Improve classification templates so that they align with regulatory scope.
• Start small with sandbox environments so you can tweak and adjust the system’s approach before you roll it out to your entire network.
• Establish a data governance process that establishes classification rules and steps clearly, and update it often.

Poor Identity Access Management Architecture

DSPM works to map who has access to the data it finds, allowing you to identify gaps in your access restriction security strategy. To do this effectively, however, it needs to integrate with your identity access management architecture to provide effective entitlement analysis.

The Fix

• Centralize your IAM so that every user and the datasets they can access is located in a single repository.
• Normalize user identities, especially across platforms, so that they follow the same rules and format. You’ll also want to merge duplicate accounts.
• Add service accounts or other non-human identities that also need access to select datasets.

These are just a few of the challenges you may face when setting up your DSPM system. The good news, however, is that fixing these issues also makes all other automated (and manual) processes more effective. In short, use these fixes, and you’ll improve the effectiveness of your business all at once.