Shrink The Blast Radius

Automate Data Minimization with DSPM

Author

Aman Razi Kidwai

Security Researcher at Securiti

Listen to the content

This post is also available in: Arabic

Recently, DaVita disclosed a ransomware incident that ultimately impacted about 2.7 million people, and it’s already booked $13.5M in related costs this quarter. Healthcare and financial services aren’t just targets; they’re stockpiling far more data than they can secure, turning yesterday’s files into today’s risks. Incidents like this don’t just reflect perimeter gaps; they’re made costlier by what sits inside: years of redundant, obsolete, and trivial (ROT) data spread across clouds and SaaS. Let’s define ROT and why it multiplies risk. (HippaJournal)


 


Cost, Risk & AI: the ROT Trifecta

Increasing Costs

  • ROT data drives year‑over‑year storage, backup, and scanning spend. Many large organisations waste $10–30M/year on ROT storage alone.

Security Risks

  • The global average breach cost hit $4.88M (2024). IBM also notes that over one‑third of breaches involved “shadow data,” where ROT often hides. (IBM Newsroom, cdn.table.media)

Compliance Violations

  • GDPR’s storage limitation principle: don’t keep personal data longer than necessary for the stated purpose; retention controls (e.g., HIPAA documentation retention ≥ 6 years; SEC 17a‑4 multi‑year recordkeeping for broker‑dealers). (eCFR, FINRA) (GDPR)

AI Efficacy

  • Outdated/irrelevant inputs pollute the output of AI Agents; new IBM research spotlights growing AI security gaps as adoption outpaces controls. (CPO Magazine)

4 Key Drivers for Data Minimization

  • Cut costs by eliminating ROT before it hits storage and data management budgets.
  • Reduce the attack surface so incidents touch less data and cost less to contain.
  • Ensure compliance with policy-driven data retention and auditable deletion.
  • Maintain AI Efficacy by curating current, relevant, high‑quality fine-tuned data.

How Securiti Automates Data Minimization

Phase 1: Powered by Data Discovery & Metadata Scanning

  • Discover shadow & cloud‑native data across hybrid multi‑clouds & SaaS (including self‑managed systems that never appear in cloud consoles).
  • Flag obsolete data by age & activity criteria. Why start here? To actively fine-tune policy scope through metadata attributes & cut cost and risk instantly.

Phase 2: Powered by Data Classification Scans

  • Detect duplicate content using AI; by flagging duplicates via checksums & near-duplicates using advanced cluster analysis.
  • Accurately detect sensitive data to policy violations using hundreds of predefined AI/ML Classifiers & define custom policies using metadata.

Eliminate ROT Data with Auto-Remediation

  • Automatically remediate via federated systems (Slack/ServiceNow/Jira); delete or archive; orchestrate workflows & ensure compliance.

Want to know more about ROT Data Minimization?

  • Deep dive: Read our full blog on Data Minimization - Link.
  • See the infographic: Download the ROI of Data Minimization: Save Millions in Cost, Risk & AI With DSPM - Link.
  • Get the Whitepaper: Say Goodbye to ROT Data: A 6-Step Automation Guide - Link.

Analyze this article with AI

Prompts open in third-party AI tools.
Join Our Newsletter

Get all the latest information, law updates and more delivered to your inbox



More Stories that May Interest You
Videos
View More
Rehan Jalil, Veeam on Agent Commander : theCUBE + NYSE Wired: Cyber Security Leaders
Following Veeam’s acquisition of Securiti, the launch of Agent Commander marks an important step toward helping enterprises adopt AI agents with greater confidence. In...
View More
Mitigating OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025
Generative AI (GenAI) has transformed how enterprises operate, scale, and grow. There’s an AI application for every purpose, from increasing employee productivity to streamlining...
View More
Top 6 DSPM Use Cases
With the advent of Generative AI (GenAI), data has become more dynamic. New data is generated faster than ever, transmitted to various systems, applications,...
View More
Colorado Privacy Act (CPA)
What is the Colorado Privacy Act? The CPA is a comprehensive privacy law signed on July 7, 2021. It established new standards for personal...
View More
Securiti for Copilot in SaaS
Accelerate Copilot Adoption Securely & Confidently Organizations are eager to adopt Microsoft 365 Copilot for increased productivity and efficiency. However, security concerns like data...
View More
Top 10 Considerations for Safely Using Unstructured Data with GenAI
A staggering 90% of an organization's data is unstructured. This data is rapidly being used to fuel GenAI applications like chatbots and AI search....
View More
Gencore AI: Building Safe, Enterprise-grade AI Systems in Minutes
As enterprises adopt generative AI, data and AI teams face numerous hurdles: securely connecting unstructured and structured data sources, maintaining proper controls and governance,...
View More
Navigating CPRA: Key Insights for Businesses
What is CPRA? The California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) is California's state legislation aimed at protecting residents' digital privacy. It became effective on January...
View More
Navigating the Shift: Transitioning to PCI DSS v4.0
What is PCI DSS? PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) is a set of security standards to ensure safe processing, storage, and...
View More
Securing Data+AI : Playbook for Trust, Risk, and Security Management (TRiSM)
AI's growing security risks have 48% of global CISOs alarmed. Join this keynote to learn about a practical playbook for enabling AI Trust, Risk,...

Spotlight Talks

Spotlight 59:11
Data Controls for AI: Findings from the 2026 GigaOm DSPM Research
Watch Now View
Spotlight 1:02:06
Consent by proxy: When AI agents start deciding for us
Watch Now View
Spotlight 1:00:41
Future-Proofing for the Privacy Professional
Watch Now View
Spotlight 50:52
From Data to Deployment: Safeguarding Enterprise AI with Security and Governance
Watch Now View
Spotlight 11:29
Not Hype — Dye & Durham’s Analytics Head Shows What AI at Work Really Looks Like
Not Hype — Dye & Durham’s Analytics Head Shows What AI at Work Really Looks Like
Watch Now View
Spotlight 11:18
Rewiring Real Estate Finance — How Walker & Dunlop Is Giving Its $135B Portfolio a Data-First Refresh
Watch Now View
Spotlight
Choosing the Right DSPM: An Industry Analyst’s Perspective
Watch Now View
Spotlight 13:38
Accelerating Miracles — How Sanofi is Embedding AI to Significantly Reduce Drug Development Timelines
Sanofi Thumbnail
Watch Now View
Spotlight 10:35
There’s Been a Material Shift in the Data Center of Gravity
Watch Now View
Spotlight 14:21
AI Governance Is Much More than Technology Risk Mitigation
AI Governance Is Much More than Technology Risk Mitigation
Watch Now View
Latest
Australia’s Office of AI: Why Annual Audits Miss What Your AI Can Reach View More
Australia’s Office of AI: Why Annual Audits Miss What Your AI Can Reach
Picture this: a fictional but entirely plausible scenario. An Australian financial institution's AI systems spend six months accessing a customer data repository nobody has...
View More
A Complete DSPM Needs Classification and Context
Classification is one of the core functions a DSPM program handles, and it usually runs in tandem with discovery, since together they form the...
View More
DSPM for AI: Extending Data Posture to Prompts, Pipelines & Agents
Learn how DSPM for AI helps enterprises discover sensitive data, assess exposure, govern access, reduce risk, and secure data before AI systems and agents...
DSPM vs DLP: Key Data Security Differences Explained View More
DSPM vs DLP: Key Data Security Differences Explained
Compare DSPM vs DLP to understand how they differ in data discovery, classification, monitoring, prevention, risk reduction, and protecting sensitive enterprise data.
The Context Layer for Data+AI Security View More
The Context Layer for Data+AI Security
Discover how Securiti’s DataAI Command Graph connects data, identity, cloud, and AI findings to uncover contextual risk and toxic combinations.
View More
Privacy RFP Buyer’s Guide: 120+ Questions to Evaluate Privacy Automation Platforms
Download the Privacy RFP Buyer’s Guide with 120+ practical questions to evaluate privacy automation platforms across compliance, security, integrations, governance, and scalability.
The Toxic Combination Problem in DataAI Risks View More
The Toxic Combination Problem in DataAI Risks
Discover how siloed security alerts create hidden toxic risk combinations and how correlated context helps reduce alert fatigue and uncover compound risks faster.
The Cloud Storage Bill Nobody Reads View More
The Cloud Storage Bill Nobody Reads
Hidden cloud storage costs add up fast. Learn how redundant, obsolete, and trivial data drives unnecessary spend, expands risk, and why automated data minimization...
View More
Take the Data Risk Out of AI
Learn how to prepare enterprise data for safe Gemini Enterprise adoption with upstream governance, sensitive data discovery, and pre-index policy controls.
View More
Navigating HITRUST: A Guide to Certification
Securiti's eBook is a practical guide to HITRUST certification, covering everything from choosing i1 vs r2 and scope systems to managing CAPs & planning...
What's
New