Data Security Posture Management is an emerging security trend that was first introduced by Gartner in 2022 and quickly gained momentum as one of the most critical practices in the cybersecurity space.
DSPM deals with the complex problems arising out of data proliferation in this post-modern, remote working, metaversal world. As more organizations move towards hybrid work and a Web3-slash-metaverse-presence, colossal amounts of personal and sensitive data are shared on the cloud. This makes both organizations and employees susceptible to cyber attacks.
DSPM’s primary goal is to reduce the risks of cyber attacks and ensure robust security of all cloud data. It does so by mapping all the data stored across different cloud environments and classifying them by type, sensitivity level, and user access.
DSPM is all set to take center-stage in organizations’ security efforts. In this article, we have collated all the best tools for Data Security Posture Management that you can use in 2024 to fasten your cloud security.
Since DSPM is an emerging trend, many readers may still need some help familiarizing themselves with the concept. With that in mind, we’ve also created a list of the burning FAQs about this novice industry to help you understand the why, what and how of data security posture management.
1. Sentra
Sentra is a great data security posture management tool to integrate with your cloud data security stack. Sentra is designed in such a way that it can follow sensitive data or information through the cloud. Sentra has a cloud-native data classification system. Meaning, when your data is traveling through cloud environments, the tool discovers, classifies, and monitors the data. It leverages machine learning and metadata clustering to detect misconfigurations, compliance violations, encryption types, PHI, PII, PCI, and other developer secrets.
Key Features:
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An agentless tool with an API- only approach that can connect to your multi-cloud environment quickly.
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No disturbance to the workload performance due to the 100% discovery of data stores.
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Transparency and visibility into data security.
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Seamless integration into security automation platforms.
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Security policies can be customized.
Cost:
You can contact them through their website for pricing details.
2. Flow Security
Flow Security is a DSPM tool that protects data inside and outside app environments. The tool can identify sensitive data flowing to third parties and Saas from the application environment. This helps in detecting harmful data flows caused by human errors.
Key Features:
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Control access and change privileges based on the usage of the application.
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Automatically detect data-centric risks with full context or remediation.
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Customizable and easy-to-use interface.
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A complete integration suite enabling smooth collaborations and remediations.
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Map data stores and flows inside and outside the cloud, on-premise, and external services.
Cost:
You can request a demo. For cost details, contact through the website.
3. Dasera
Dasera empowers organizations to manage risk across their entire data lifecycle, from creation to deletion, ensuring compliance with evolving data privacy regulations. By automating data discovery, classification, and access control, Dasera mitigates shadow data, reduces the risk of data breaches and streamlines data governance, allowing businesses to focus on innovation without compromising security. The platform's comprehensive analytics and reporting capabilities provide actionable insights into data usage and vulnerabilities, enabling proactive data security and enhanced decision-making.
Key Features:
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Automatically finds, flags, and fixes data security risks.
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Continuously prevents and detects data compliance violations throughout the data infrastructure.
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It's an open platform with flexible deployment and broad integrations.
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Performs at scale for cloud, hybrid, or on-prem
Cost:
Request a demo through the website for cost details.
4. Polar
Polar is a data security posture management tool specifically designed to help security, compliance, and governance professionals. It carefully maps hordes of chaotic and unmanageable data across different cloud platforms and classifies them into actuarial and potential risk categories.
Once done, it also provides realistics insights on how to mitigate such risks in the future.
Key Features:
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Automatically maps cloud-native data stores and Saas data.
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Continuous visibility of data across regions and cloud accounts.
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Automatic data labeling to reduce manual work.
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Agentless and non-intrusive leaving no impact on performance.
Cost:
Contact through the website for cost details.
5. Saasment
Saasment is a Saas-based DSPM tool for E-Commerce, Startups, Consulting Firms, Retails and Law Firms. It maintains detailed records of all user activities, highlights excessive permissions to data, and abnormal data queries. With this information, it provides full coverage against threats targeting online stores like Shopify and Wix.
What sets it apart from other DSPM tools, is that it also helps companies build a security strategy that fits their business needs based on the risks found in your environment.
With Saasment, you can achieve enterprise-grade security best practices with zero knowledge.
Key Features:
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Works across 40+ applications
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Agentless data security with zero knowledge
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Continuous monitoring and mitigation of risks
Cost:
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Free
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Business package: $89/month
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Enterprise package: Request quote
6. Cyera
Cyera is holistic DSPM tool that gives you a landscape view of all your data, so that you know where your sensitive data is, how it’s being used, when it is exposed, and which configuration to adjust to secure it. helps security teams to protect and manage sensitive information.
Key Features:
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Quick 5-minute set-up
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Works across IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS environments
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Contextualized data risk assessment based on the specifics of the data, access, and identities.
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No agents and no overhead
Cost:
You can get a demo. For cost details, contact through the website.
7. Securiti
Securiti is another DSPM tool recognised by the likes of Forbes and Gartner. The tool enables enterprises to safely harness the incredible power of data and the cloud by preemptively controlling the complex security, privacy and compliance risks.
Key Features:
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Works across data clouds, Saas, and IaaS.
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Granular data intelligence to drive prioritization and remediation policies.
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Centralized dashboard to monitor and control data assets.
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Customizable alerts.
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Hundreds of built-ins that align with privacy regulations.
Cost:
Contact their website for cost details.
8. Dig
Dig is a data security posture management tool that offers an end-to-end data solution for data security. Dig is the only vendor to combine critical capabilities for data security posture management (DSPM), cloud DLP, and data detection and response (DDR) in a single platform.
Key Features:
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Data context on each data asset along with the level of sensitivity, data classification, access auditing, privilege analysis, and data flows.
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An extensive threat model based on the database of real-life attacks.
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Quick issue of alerts on security violations.
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Generation of reports for stakeholders and external auditors.
Cost:
You can book a demo. For cost details, contact them.
9. Laminar
Laminar is a powerful DSPM tool to analyze, categorize and eliminate risk to all types of data. In addition to doing the routing DSPM tasks, Laminar also eliminates data you don’t need to better protect the data you do. The tool continuously finds all abandoned, orphaned, and redundant data, along with all the context you need to make deletion an easy decision. With Laminar, you can stop paying storage fees for unknown and unused data.
Key Features:
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Autonomous and continuous discovery of native cloud data.
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Detection of data in unmanaged and managed assets, shadow data, pipelines, big data, and in embedded virtual instances.
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Data-centric risk model that provides risk-based prioritizations of notifications and controls based on data security posture, sensitivity, and volume.
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Specific posture improvement recommendations.
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360-degree data access monitoring.
Cost:
Contact their website for cost details.
10. Concentric
Concentric is an agentless DSPM tool with an API-based solution that assists teams in governing access to data from anywhere. It is easy to integrate and use.
It uses sophisticated machine learning technologies to autonomously scan and categorize data. It used the MIND™ deep learning-as-a-service capability for fast, accurate discovery and categorization.
Key Features:
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Quick and easy identification of privacy and business-sensitive information without policies for security teams.
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Semantic-based discovery to understand data with context.
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No complex configurations needed.
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Can process structured and unstructured data on-premises in the cloud.
Cost:
Contact their website for cost details.
11. Normalyze
Normalyze is a modern cloud-based DSPM tool. It is an agentless and machine-learning scanning platform that generates a graph of access and trust relationships between data and users and prevents information leakage in real time.
Key Features:
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Quick visualization and discovery of cloud data attack surfaces.
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Real-time visibility and control of security posture.
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Agentless and works on machine learning.
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Continuous scanning and discovery of sensitive data and access paths across all cloud areas.
Cost:
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Free
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Premium: $995/month
12. Wiz
Wiz is a DSPM tool that helps in keeping data secure and integrates with third-party services without any hassle. Wiz scans every layer of your cloud environments without agents to provide complete visibility into every technology running in your cloud without blind spots. It connects via API to AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, Alibaba Cloud, VMware vSphere, Openshift, and Kubernetes across virtual machines, containers, serverless functions, and data stores like public buckets, data volumes and databases.
Key Features:
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Scans public buckets, RDS, Google SQL, and data volumes to classify the data.
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Conducts a deep cloud analysis and correlates the data risks with other cloud risks to focus on important security threats.
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Schema matching to understand the data lineage and flow.
Cost:
Contact them through the website for cost details.
13. Varonis
Varonis is another great DSPM tool that provides a full-range of security services. It tackles hundreds of use cases and real-life threats to build a single prioritized view of risk for your data, so you can proactively and systematically eliminate risk from insider threats and cyberattacks.
Key Features:
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Automatic classification of sensitive data.
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Suspicious access behavior alerts to teams.
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Maps and analyzes permission to see each user's blast radius.
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Quarantines sensitive files that have been exposed.
Cost:
Contact through their website for cost details.
14. Symmetry Systems
Symmetry Systems is a DSPM tool that detects current and historic anomalous data access and usage, alerting security teams in a timely manner with precision. Security teams can use the tool to investigate potential data breaches, ransomware attacks, and other cyber threats as quickly as possible.
Key Features:
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Agentless scans on all types of data on the cloud for a real-time picture or for historical comparisons.
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Identifies excessive, unused or anomalous data
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Quantifies the potential data blast radius of accounts
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Compliance audit capabilities
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Prioritization of the protection of sensitive data.
Cost:
You can contact them on their website for cost details.
15. Protecto
Protecto is a DPSM tool that provides a data-centric approach to cyber security. The tool lets the security team see who has access to the data and who is using it through mapping. It automatically scans for data structure, data content, and usage changes to reduce risks.
Key Features:
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Prioritization through risk scoring.
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Finds sensitive data assets that are over-exposed to users.
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Deletes and archives unused data assets to reduce risks.
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Integration of AI, risk modeling, and privacy engineering to understand the data environment and improve data posture.
Cost:
You can contact them on their website for cost details.
Things to Consider When Choosing a DSPM Tool
Coverage of Data Services
When choosing a DSPM tool, check if the tool is relevant to the services and applications that your teams are using. You can ask the vendor what services the tool supports.
Place Where the Data Is Analyzed
Data can be stored in multiple places - offline or in the cloud. Check if your DSPM tool covers all your data locations or if it has limitations to the number of cloud locations that can be covered.
Permissions
You will obviously need to give DSPM tools access to review your data. Ask what permissions they need and if there are certain permissions that are optional. This will help you understand for what reason they are using the permission.
Conclusion
These are the top 14 tools you can consider investing in for your firm's data security posture management. These tools will help you keep the security of your data in check without any risk. We are in a digital era; security risks are high, and you must implement these tools as soon as possible.
FAQs
What Are Data Security Posture Management Tools?
Data security tools provide visibility and protection to sensitive data. These tools inform security teams regarding who has access to data, where it is stored and how it has been used.
The tools classify data into sensitive and potentially risky categories and help mitigate these risks automatically without disrupting the performance or infrastructure of your work. DSPM tools also adhere to security policies and strategies set by you depending on the needs of your business.
When Should I Consider Using a Data Security Posture Management Tool?
Data is the most important asset for firms of any type or size. And in order to protect this data and the privacy of clients, firms must use DSPM tools on a regular basis. This is especially true for those organizations that deal with colossal amounts of data on a daily basis.
These tools will not only make data management work easy, but also help protect your data by finding threats and letting you know what actions need to be taken.
How Does DSPM Work?
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DSPM Tools start with creating a map of all the data in the organization stored across different files, folders and clouds.
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It then classifies the data based on the location, the permission levels, the user access, and actual and potential risks. It tacks data lineage to understand where the risk came from and who had access to the data.
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Then it prioritizes the data for remediation and elimination of risks.
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The last step is to take action against the risks. It can either do this automatically or by giving you suggestions/strategies, depending on the policy standards and permissions set by you.
What Is the Difference Between DSPM and CSPM?
CSPM stands for cloud security posture management. It focuses on protecting the infrastructure rather than the data. CSPM has policies aligned with reviewing data replication rules, finding weaknesses, and tuning access control in the cloud infrastructure without scanning the data.
DSPM scans and classifies the data of a firm. It helps the firm see where its data is located, and it is being used.
What Are the Benefits of DSPM Tools?
These are the benefits of DSPM tools:
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You gain better visibility of your data, especially your sensitive data. You will know who and how it is being used and where it is being transferred to or copied.
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They help you identify data risks quickly.
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DSPM tools provide a policy engine that a data threat model supports. The model can detect real-time risks and allow instant remediation.
