Think your data is secure? Think again. Data has become big business in ways it simply couldn’t have been before, thanks to AI systems. Today, we can actually start to use the massive amount of data that we have produced, but that access also comes with risks.
Every business must secure its data. This means knowing where it is, classifying it appropriately, and limiting user access. It also includes deleting or merging duplicates, purging certain file types on a regular basis, and so on.
Cyberattacks in 2025: An Overview
Cybercrime is the foil to every advancement we make in technology. While businesses were off trying to figure out how to integrate AI tools into their workflows, criminals were testing new ways to personalize malware, phishing scams, and even identity fraud – and they’re getting better at it.
Every single second in 2025, an estimated 54 people fell victim to a cyber-attack. Nearly 60% of businesses suffered from a ransomware attack, and, recently, a record-breaking number of login credentials were stolen. The number? 16 billion.
If you aren’t taking a proactive approach towards protecting your data, then you’re inviting trouble. While there isn’t a single set of strategies that can 100% guarantee you’ll never be hacked, there are ways to reduce your risk and ramp up the effectiveness of your data.
Making every byte of your data secure is a mammoth project, which is why it can feel daunting to start. Don’t let the scale of the project deter you, however. Take it step by step, and use this guide to help you better manage this project by breaking it up into these key segments:
Pre-Project Production
There are dozens of data security systems out there. That’s why it’s crucial that you do your homework. Planning out your project simply leads to more effective results, and it’s a great way to get your stakeholders on board with an accurate timeline. To get started, plan a time-boxed Kaizen workshop. Use these workshops to map out the current state of your data flows and datasets. At minimum, you’ll need to create a full list of the repositories holding your data. At best, you can identify issues in flow, integration, and classification.
Tip: For best results, define a data security charter that includes objectives, scope, and success metrics. You can create multiple stages or a comprehensive project scope.
Inventorize Your Data
After planning your project and getting the approval of your stakeholders, it’s time to prepare your system by making an inventory of the data you have. Shadow data, which is data you have but aren’t aware of, is increasingly becoming a problem (along with shadow software or shadow AI, which can become a security risk if not removed).
Now, a lot of the heavy lifting to find shadow data can easily be done with a tool like a DSPM. What is DSPM? DSPM stands for data security posture management. It has many uses, but for now, the feature you’ll be interested in is its ability to discover datasets in your linked accounts.
That being said, it cannot gain access to a cloud account you have not linked to or a hard drive you have not ingested. That’s why you may want to consider centralizing your data first using an integration platform-as-a-service (iPaaS), which works to ingest datasets from multiple systems into a single overview. DSPM can do this, too, to an extent, but it’s limited to the data it has access to.
Simply put, iPaaS works to ingest your data across systems into a single data warehouse. Your DSPM can then work faster and more effectively, all while catching all the data your business has access to. It isn’t a necessary step for the DSPM to work, but this move can help improve automation features in other areas, since the data is located in one place. Centralized data is also easier to secure and manage user access limits.
A great way to improve the effectiveness of both iPaaS and DSPM is to use a Kanban board. By visualizing the discover tasks, you can help get everyone on board. Considering multiple people are likely going to need to link or ingest the data they use into your system, this can help standardize your data governance across your workforce.
Map Out Classification Metrics
DSPM can automatically classify the data it finds and sorts. This can make it infinitely easier, faster, and more effective to ensure your sensitive data is secure. To make it as effective as possible, however, you will need to ensure that the classification and sensitivity mapping that your DSPM uses matches your goals.
For example, you will want to define each of the classification tiers of:
- Public
- Internal
- Confidential
- Restricted
You may need to create custom classifications, depending on your business needs. You’ll also need to make sure that the system checks for compliance with any policy your business is required to adhere to.
Establish Access and Entitlement Mapping
By this point, your data should be centralized, sorted, and classified. What DSPN can do for you next is help you understand user access. Often, when a business has too much data, it’s overly accessible. This means that your employees may have access to data they don’t need in their day to day operations. The public may even have access to data they have no right viewing.
DSPN can help you quickly view and understand who has access to which information. This, in turn, can help you map out a more effective access and entitlement framework for both people and non-human entities like AI agents, bots, or other systems.
To efficiently establish this access and entitlement mapping, you’ll want to integrate your DSPM platform with your existing IAM platform like Okta or Azure. You will then need to create entitlement graphs that show the relationships between user, resources, and their privileges based on roles or identities, and update your IAM with the best-practice standards for 2025.
Simply doing this can help you identify orphaned identities, overprivileged roles, and third-party integrations whose access scope is far too broad. You can also create swimlanes by risk category, allowing everyone on your team to prioritize high-severity access violations first.
Create a Monitoring and Response Approach
DSPN can help you identify roles with over access, and IAMs can help you create stricter user access limits, but these steps are just the start. The next scope of your project will need to include behavior analysis tools. In short, you need UEBA, which stands for user and entity behavior analytics.
Generally speaking, most users and tools will carry out the same or similar tasks each day. This means that the data they access, how long they access it for, and how often they access it will fall within an average. UEBA tools simply flag if there is suspicious behavior from a person or tool, allowing you to quickly catch any hacked accounts.
You’ll also want to configure your DSPM to detect anomalous access or alert if there is any unauthorized data movement.
Establish Several Encryption Methods
Encryption helps prevent data from being understood or used, even if there is a breach. While encrypting data at rest is certainly a good place to start, you will also want to establish in-use encryption methods like tokenization to help protect sensitive data like credit card numbers.
Secure Your Endpoints
While UEBA and DSPN can help identify anomalous access or behavior, that does not mean you want to run the risk of endpoint hacks. A phishing scam can result in a hacker gaining full access to an employee’s phone or laptop. If those endpoints aren’t secure, then that hacker could gain access to your accounts. Yes, their access should be limited, but that only really works if they hack a lower-level employee. Even CEOs can get hacked, after all.
By adding and enforcing endpoint protection, especially with zero trust policies, you can help limit hacking risks outright.
Establish Regular Training
AI is rapidly changing the game in all sectors, including cybercrime. That’s why it’s essential that you create regular digital security training programs or workshops. Even something as simple as a monthly review on the trending scams and attacks can help every employee by teaching them what to look out for.
Review Your Approach
Data, data management tools, AI, and machine learning are all changing rapidly. That is why you will need to regularly review your setup and compare it with the latest technologies on a six-month (or more frequent) basis.
While many hackers use older tools because it’s what’s filtered down to them, there are those who are on the cutting edge of attacks. It’s never wise to assume that you cannot be hacked. Instead, adopt a constant vigilance approach. AI-powered systems like DSPN can help you monitor your data on an ongoing basis, but if a new technology is introduced, you need to react and adjust.
Source: Cosmo Politian
