Data Security Posture Management

DSPM stands for Data Security Posture Management, which is an emerging trend in the cloud security category. Gartner defines DSPM in its Hype Cycle™ for Data Security 2022 report as a process that offers “visibility as to where sensitive data is, who has access to that data, how it has been used, and what the security posture of the data store or application is.”

CSPM and DSPM are two different approaches to cloud security. CSPM allows teams to identify and resolve misconfigurations associated with cloud infrastructure or resources, such as compute resources, data stores or databases, etc. However, CSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management) does not understand data. DSPM (Data Security Posture Management), on the other hand, is a data-centric approach to cloud security. It gives complete context around data across public clouds, which is then used as a basis to optimize controls around sensitive data access, governance, and compliance.

A Security Posture review is an overall assessment of an organization’s security measures, policies, and controls. Organizations conduct the review to examine risks and vulnerabilities to improve the security posture of their networks, resources, assets, and sensitive data.

There are several areas of cloud security that organizations should consider when safeguarding their cloud environment and data. However, the following are the common yet essential components that organizations must consider: data security posture management, data risk management, data access governance, and breach management.