How to Implement a Robust Data Security Framework

Part of operating in a digital realm is acknowledging that your data security posture is always at risk. However, you can significantly minimize that risk by implementing a robust data security framework that strengthens your organization’s digital defenses.

In 2024, there were over 5.5 billion breached accounts, up from more than 730 million in 2023, which translates to nearly 180 compromised accounts every second. Additionally, the global average cost of a data breach in 2024 increased to $4.88 million, with nearly one in three breaches involving shadow data, indicating that the proliferation of data is making it more challenging to track and safeguard.

Explore what a data security framework is, how to implement a robust data security framework, and how Securiti helps organizations implement a robust data security framework.

What is a Data Security Framework?

According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), data security refers to the process of protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of an organization’s data in a manner compatible with the organization’s risk strategy.

On the other hand, a data security framework refers to a comprehensive set of processes that secure sensitive data throughout the organization. The framework encompasses data security principles, policies, and best practices meant to secure sensitive data against data breaches, loss, and unauthorized access, effectively manage cybersecurity risks, and maintain compliance with relevant laws and regulations.

A data security framework can differ from one organization to another, as not all organizations have data residing on-premises, in the cloud, or hybrid cloud environments.

How to Implement a Robust Data Security Framework

Implementing an effective data security framework isn’t a one-step approach.  It incorporates a combination of security-centric actions and practices that work together to achieve optimal security.

A. Discover and Classify Sensitive Data

First and foremost, you can’t safeguard something you can’t see. This relates to data assets that an organization is unaware of or has not identified. Begin by conducting a comprehensive data discovery and classification exercise, which involves:

Scanning structured and unstructured data sources

Initiate comprehensive scans of data sources to determine structured and unstructured data.

Identify sensitive data

Identify sensitive data elements, such as PII (Personally Identifiable Information), PHI (Protected Health Information), and PCI (Payment Card Industry) data, as well as other regulated data available within the organization.

Determine the sensitivity level

Label data based on its sensitivity, such as:

• Public: Information that, if exposed, poses no risk (e.g., public-facing website content).
• Internal: Information not available to the general public but presenting minimal risk if disclosed (e.g., internal policies).
• Confidential: Information about customers or employees that, if disclosed, might represent a moderate risk.
• Restricted: Highly sensitive information, such as social security numbers or trade secrets, that, if disclosed, might have serious consequences.

How Securiti Helps:Sensitive Data Intelligence automation leverages Knowledge Graph, enabling organizations to discover, classify, and label hundreds of sensitive data elements in multicloud and self-managed structured and unstructured data systems at a petabyte scale.

B. Establish Strong Data Access Controls

Establishing data access controls enables companies to manage and limit user access to network resources, data, or physical areas based on a specified set of rules and regulations, ensuring that access or privileges are granted only to authorized personnel.

Once sensitive data is discovered and classified, organizations must assess their business requirements and impose a least-privilege access control architecture. This involves imposing role-based access controls (RBAC), data minimization, and purpose limitation, as well as other measures to ensure that data is only available to authorized personnel.

How Securiti Helps: Data Access Intelligence & Governance enables organizations to enforce least privilege data access by continuously discovering and classifying sensitive data, mapping entitlements, and providing deep insights into who has access to what and why. It helps identify overexposed or unnecessary access, revokes excessive privileges, and enforces access controls at scale through flexible, policy-driven automation, reducing the risk of data breaches and ensuring secure, compliant data usage.

C. Conduct Risk Assessments

A robust data security framework shifts your strategy from merely responding to threats to actively recognizing and mitigating them. Through risk assessments, organizations can assess the health of their networks, systems, and infrastructure, identify vulnerable access points and sensitive data, assess the security of third-party vendors, detect misconfigurations, and determine if systems are up to date with the latest security patches.

How Securiti Helps: Risk Assessment automates an organization’s records of processing (RoPA) reports, privacy impact assessments, and data protection impact assessments, aligning with global privacy regulations. With integrated regulatory knowledge, flexible templates, and progress tracking, organizations can swiftly identify and mitigate privacy risks.

D. Establish Security Controls

Implement data security controls, including preventive, detective, and remedial measures, to secure data throughout its lifecycle. Security measures include data encryption in transit and at rest, data anonymization techniques to minimize data exposure, access restrictions, firewalls, and endpoint security.

How Securiti Helps: Data Security management enables organizations to leverage granular insights and discover the security posture of data assets across on-premise, IaaS, SaaS, and data clouds. Secure data sharing and AI copilot adoption across hybrid multi-clouds and SaaS prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data, monitor data risk, and analyze whose data may be impacted by a data breach and which regulations apply.

E. Develop a Comprehensive Privacy Policy

Without a policy, there’s no ordered structure. A privacy policy should outline how the organization collects, uses, and retains personal data and how it implements data protection standards. This document contains critical information, including the methods of data collection, storage policies, security measures, and the objectives for which the data is used.

How Securiti Helps: Privacy Policy Management enables organizations to rapidly build and deploy privacy notices, automate updates, and easily manage hundreds of privacy and cookie policies and notices via a unified privacy dashboard.

F. Establish a Data Breach Incident Response Plan

With the worldwide cost of cybercrime estimated to exceed $10.5 trillion by 2025, it’s evident that data breaches are on the increase and show no signs of slowing down. Organizations should implement proactive procedures rather than reactive ones to resolve data breach situations in a timely manner, as failing to do so risks incurring noncompliance fines.

How Securiti Helps: Breach Management offers incident response workflows that enable organizations to respond to privacy incidents in a timely and effective manner. This is important because, under data privacy laws, organizations are required to take reasonable steps to protect personal data from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, misuse, or deletion before processing it.

Organizations must also employ a Data Protection Officer (DPO) to monitor data privacy, security, and compliance operations. This is in addition to fostering a culture of data privacy and responsibility, honoring data subject access requests, maintaining records of processing activities (RoPA) in accordance with privacy laws, conducting privacy impact assessments, and, most importantly, training employees, as they can be a strong defense or a significant vulnerability.

Bottom Line

Data is here to stay, and the statistics surrounding data development, collection, processing, sharing, storage, and, worse still, breaches are only going to rise each year. In this data-driven world, creating a robust data security framework is not only a recommended practice but also a legal requirement.

Protect your data today! Request a demo to learn more about how Securiti can help you.