Everything You Need to Know About Data Security Posture Management (DSPM)

Data security is a critical aspect of modern security, yet many organizations lack effective data-centric protections. Instead, they rely on traditional cybersecurity methodologies—firewalls, access management, and endpoint security—which focus on protecting systems rather than data itself.Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) is a data-first approach to cybersecurity that enhances existing security initiatives while strictly focusing on data protection by providing continuous visibility, classification, and risk assessment of sensitive data across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments.According to a 2024 Forrester survey, 81% of global organizations say security is the top factor in cloud infrastructure success. However, 47% state that human error and negligence remain their biggest data security risks in the cloud. How do you bridge the gap between negligence and proactive data security? DSPM enables autonomous data discovery, classification, and category-based protection to protect your entire data estate.Here’s what you’ll learn in this post:

• What is DSPM, who needs it, and how it differs from CSPM?
• How secure your data is in the cloud and on-prem?
• Common cloud risks you need to be aware of
• The core pillars of a DSPM program
• Key features to look for in a DSPM solution

Read on to explore how adopting a data-first security approach can enhance your security strategy.

What Exactly is Data Security Posture Management (DSPM)?

DSPM is a security approach and technology category that provides continuous visibility, classification, and risk assessment of sensitive data across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments.  The focus is firmly on data rather than relying on other security measures to protect data effectively.Unlike Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM), which focuses on cloud infrastructure configurations, DSPM ensures that data remains secured, classified, and monitored at all times.

Key Capabilities of DSPM:

We’ll explore these in greater detail later on, but for now, the key capabilities of a comprehensive DSPM solution are:

1. Autonomous data discovery to identify where sensitive assets reside across cloud, on-prem, and SaaS environments
2. Automated data classification of sensitive data (PII, PHI, financial data, etc.)
3. Real-time risk analysis to identify shadow data, overexposed data, and misconfigurations
4. Remediation workflows to enforce security policies and compliance requirements, strengthening your security posture over time

DSPM doesn’t replace your existing security strategy—it enhances it by ensuring that data remains protected at all times.

Who Uses DSPM?

Organizations handling sensitive data across complex cloud and on-prem environments need DSPM to ensure data visibility, protection, and compliance. DSPM is already put to work by a variety of organizations across different industries to enhance key security practices. Industries That Benefit from DSPM:

• Large Enterprises: Managing vast multi-cloud environments with sensitive intellectual property
• Highly Regulated Industries: Finance, healthcare, and insurance require strict data security compliance
• Technology & SaaS Companies: AI and analytics platforms must secure training data and prevent data leakage
• Retail & E-commerce: Must protect customer payment data from breaches
• Government & Defense: Handling classified and mission-critical data

Without DSPM, security teams lack comprehensive visibility into where sensitive data resides and how it's accessed—leaving critical assets at risk.Taking a data-first approach to security ensures that your most valuable and sensitive assets stay protected. As the risk landscape continues to evolve, the value of DSPM will appeal to every organization—including small and medium-sized enterprises, allowing them to proactively safeguard data assets. Related: The Ultimate Guide to Data Mapping: Basics, Terms, Best Practices, & More

DSPM vs CSPM: Understanding the Key Differences

Both Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) and DSPM play essential roles in security, but they address different security challenges:

• CSPM primarily deals with the security of the cloud infrastructure itself by ensuring that misconfigurations, compliance violations, and security gaps in cloud services are found and fixed. CSPM helps organizations enforce best practices in cloud security by monitoring access controls, network configurations, and identity management.
• DSPM takes a data-centric approach that protects sensitive data regardless of location. While CSPM aims to secure cloud infrastructure, DSPM continuously discovers, classifies, and monitors data to ensure it is properly protected and compliant with regulatory requirements.

These two approaches complement each other, as CSPM secures the cloud infrastructure and DSPM protects data within it. It’s worth noting that some CSPM tools also offer DSPM utility.FeatureCSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management)DSPM (Data Security Posture Management)Primary FocusCloud infrastructure securityData security & complianceRisk MitigationDetects cloud misconfigurationsIdentifies exposed, unprotected, or shadow dataCompliance CoverageEnsures cloud infrastructure complianceClassifies & protects sensitive data for regulatory complianceProtection ScopeCloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP)Cloud, SaaS, and on-prem

Is Your Data Truly Secure in the Cloud?

Over the past two decades, organizations have migrated to cloud computing to meet a wide range of needs, from telecommunications to data storage. While the benefits of the cloud are undeniable, many organizations still have security blind spots that can lead to costly cyberattacks or compliance violations.Below, we explore some of the most pressing security challenges and the role of DSPM in mitigating these risks.

The Ever-Expanding Attack Surface

Every new cloud service expands an organization’s attack surface. Additionally, changes made by your cloud vendors can introduce new vulnerabilities. This constant evolution leads to a significant increase in the possible attack vectors that could be exploited for a data breach.Modern IT infrastructure also consists of a wide array of endpoints, including company laptops, mobile devices, and employee-owned assets. Securing all of these endpoints is increasingly difficult, and without a data-centric security approach, organizations may leave sensitive data exposed.DSPM  addresses this problem by focusing on securing the data itself, rather than just the systems that store it. While infrastructure security is essential, data must remain protected regardless of where it resides.Additionally, the explosion of data means an increase in data storage costs. By identifying unnecessary or redundant data, organizations can reduce their data footprint and cut storage expenses while also eliminating shadow data risks.Related: 5 Ways to Reduce Your Cyber Threat Attack Surface

Technology Sprawl and Complexity

Similarly, new and emerging technologies are continually being introduced to modern IT environments, creating new and evolving risks to data security. While security teams strive to understand and mitigate these risks, high-level security strategies may still overlook critical data vulnerabilities.For example, the rise of AI-driven platforms can bring significant benefits to organizations, but also introduce new risks. AI systems often ingest and retain sensitive company data, and if left unchecked, they may create shadow data that falls outside formal security and compliance controls.DSPM provides a unified, proactive approach to managing data protection across complex, multi-cloud environments. By automating data discovery and classification, DSPM helps security teams identify and secure at-risk data before it is exposed. It will help you proactively prevent data breaches while keeping you compliant with relevant enforcement actions.

The End of the Traditional Perimeter

In the past, IT security relied on perimeter-based defenses, such as firewalls and on-premises infrastructure. However, today’s cloud-first approach requires a shift in security strategy.Cloud environments are constantly exposed to the internet, making them vulnerable to misconfigurations and unauthorized access. Even a single publicly exposed cloud storage bucket could leak sensitive data if left unchecked.Similarly, developers often duplicate sensitive data for sandbox or testing environments, inadvertently exposing it. These risks are common in cloud-first enterprises and can result in costly compliance violations and breaches.A data-first security model ensures that sensitive assets remain protected regardless of where they reside, moving from a perimeter-based approach to a proactive, data-centric security strategy.

The Real Risks of Cloud Data

The shift to the cloud brought far-reaching benefits, but it has also introduced new security risks that organizations continue to struggle with.There are several common cloud data security gaps that DSPM aims to address, including:

• Unprotected or misconfigured storage: Cloud misconfigurations, such as open access permissions or unencrypted data repositories, create vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit. DSPM identifies improperly secured data and suggests remediation measures to bring security up to industry standards.
• Over-permissioned access to sensitive data: Excessive permissions given to employees, vendors, and third-party applications can dramatically increase the risk of unauthorized data access. Organizations should enforce least-privilege access policies to reduce exposure, giving users should have the least access they need to handle their job responsibilities.
• Shadow data assets: These assets refer to sensitive data stored outside formal security and compliance oversight, often in unmanaged or forgotten repositories. Protection measures typically overlook this type of data despite the significant risk it poses.DSPM automates the discovery and classification of these assets to ensure they remain protected.
• Inside threats and external attacks: Cloud data security threats can originate from inside and outside an organization. Malicious insiders, such as disgruntled employees, may misuse their access to steal or leak sensitive data. DSPM provides real-time visibility and monitoring to detect and mitigate both internal and external risks before they result in a breach.

The increasing regulatory focus on cloud security and data privacy requires organizations to comply with strict data protection mandates. Some of the most critical regulations include:

• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): This EU-based regulation requires strict data protection measures for every EU citizen. Every organization with EU customers must be GDPR compliant. DSPM helps organizations comply by identifying where personal data is stored, who has access to it, and ensuring proper encryption and deletion measures are in place.
• California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA): Similar to GDPR, CPRA gives California residents more control over how their personal data is used. Under the CPRA, organizations must enforce data minimization policies, ensuring they don’t collect or retain more personal data than necessary. DSPM solutions help by automating the discovery and classification of personal data to ensure compliance..
• Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA): This U.S. regulation requires comprehensive protection of electronic health information (ePHI) through strict access controls, audit logs, and encryption. DSPM assists healthcare providers and vendors in securely storing data, enacting effective access controls, and monitoring for risks.
• Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS): Any business that handles credit card transactions must comply with this standard, which mandates data encryption, access restrictions, and vulnerability management. DSPM helps organizations identify and secure cardholder data to support full compliance.

Organizations that fail to comply with these regulations may face severe fines, penalties, and reputational damage. DSPM helps businesses align with compliance standards by automating data discovery, classification, and security enforcement.

Embrace the Core Pillars of the Data-First Approach with DSPM

Cloud services offer unmatched scalability and agility, but their risks must be actively managed. DSPM provides a data-first methodology to protect every sensitive asset across your data estate.We touched on DSPM's core components above, but now, let’s explore the key components that make it tick.Related: Enable Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) for Your Entire Data Estate

Data Discovery

Discovery capabilities focus on continually answering one key question: Where does my valuable and sensitive data reside? An effective DSPM solution should be capable of discovering structured, unstructured, semi-structured, and mainframe data across the entire enterprise.A key challenge of this step is the complexity of modern cloud environments, where data is often spread across multiple intersecting cloud-based solutions. You should also be able to answer the following question: Do you have full visibility into how data is stored, used, and protected?The right platform will enable continuous data discovery, so you’ll always be aware of all data within your cloud environment. Once discovered, data should then be correctly classified.

Data Classification

Once you’ve identified where your data resides, the next step is to categorize and classify it. Automated tools can greatly streamline this process, provided they’re properly configured.Data classification is guided by your existing data management policies, which define data categories and protection requirements. Your classification tool will evaluate discovered data and assign it to the correct predefined category. From there, mitigation controls should be configured to protect data at the category level. For example, in a financial institution, Social Security Numbers (SSNs) would be assigned the highest level of protection. At the same time, first and last names might be protected at a lower level of security.Effective data classification requires full visibility into all possible risks, not just sample-based assessments. Relying on sampling alone creates blind spots, leading to unintended security vulnerabilities.

Access Intelligence

Access intelligence is a core component of data governance. It emphasizes the principle of least privilege: employees and partners should only have the minimum amount of access necessary to perform their roles.Granting excessive access privileges increases security risks and can lead to data breaches. Organizations must implement effective and continuous access controls, such as:

• Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) – Assigns access permissions based on job roles.
• Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) – Enforces access restrictions based on specific attributes (e.g., location, device type, or job function).

Risk Detection and Remediation

Data discovery and classification are foundational elements of DSPM, but ongoing monitoring is essential to detect shadow data, misclassified data, and other security gaps. Risk detection involves analyzing security weaknesses, such as data capture methods that fail to properly protect sensitive data. Once risks are identified, remediation actions should be taken to prevent future vulnerabilities.

Features that Maintain Compliance Requirements

Most regulatory frameworks require organizations to implement data auditing, reporting, and compliance enforcement. Most compliance requirements include some form of reporting and auditing. Without DSPM, businesses must manually compile reports and conduct audits using tools not specifically designed for data security.Fortunately, the right DSPM solution automates audit log creation, generates on-demand reports, and simplifies compliance workflows. When evaluating DSPM solutions, ensure the platform offers comprehensive logging, reporting, and regulatory compliance features.

Crucial Capabilities of an Effective DSPM Solution

Adopting a DSPM-first security approach is essential for protecting your data. But how do you choose the right platform? We’ll break down a few essential capabilities of effective DSPM solutions so you have the best chance of finding a valuable platform.

Autonomous Processes

An effective DSPM solution must operate autonomously, as organizations generate and store vast amounts of data across multiple cloud environments. The right platform will be able to automatically identify, classify, and assess every data type throughout your IT environment. Structured, unstructured, semi-structured, and mainframe data must be discovered and classified to be properly secured. Platforms like 1touch.io function similarly to antivirus solutions, continuously scanning environments to detect and classify undiscovered data. Once found, data is immediately classified and protected under existing data management policies.

Secure from the Ground Up

A DSPM platform must be secure by design. Since DSPM solutions require deep access to an organization’s data, selecting an unsecured vendor could introduce significant risks.When evaluating DSPM vendors, ask:

• Does the vendor comply with ISO 27001, SOC 2, or NIST security standards?
• Can the solution be deployed on-prem, in an air-gapped environment, or via cloud deployment?
• How does the vendor ensure ongoing security for its platform?

Organizations should prioritize solutions that offer flexible deployment options while ensuring best-in-class security protections.

Configurable Classification

Data classification must be customizable to align with your organization’s specific policies and compliance mandates. Not every organization needs the same categories and levels of protection.For example, a healthcare organization will have patient data that requires HIPAA-compliant processes, while a financial institution will have sensitive financial data. Both industries need to be able to configurable data classification both to meet compliance requirements and to reflect internal processes.The right DSPM solution should allow custom classification schemes to match internal security policies and compliance requirements.

Integration with Your Current Ecosystem

We’ve mentioned that a DSPM platform should complement, not replace, existing cybersecurity initiatives with a data-focused approach. The right solution should integrate with other purpose-built security tools you might be using, such as:

• SIEM (Security Information and Event Management)
• IAM (Identity and Access Management)
• CSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management)
• DLP (Data Loss Prevention)
• Data protection solutions

Each tool within your security stack serves a distinct purpose, and seamless integration ensures a more unified, secure environment.

Data Discovery and Classification are Critical for Effective DSPM

DSPM tools help you take a proactive, data-first approach to protecting your most sensitive assets.With the right platform and supporting processes, your security teams will always know where sensitive data resides and how to protect it through continuous visibility into data locations, classifications, and access permissions.Ultimately, DSPM relies on continuous data discovery and classification. Purpose-built platforms like 1touch.io are designed to prevent shadow data risks while protecting all data and ensuring full regulatory compliance.1touch is an industry-leading data protection platform that supports DSPM initiatives with unrivaled data discovery and classification capabilities. Our platform ensures your data estate is secured—preventing breaches, reducing risk, and ensuring compliance.Looking for a better way to detect, classify, and manage your data? Book a demo today to learn more about how 1touch can strengthen your data security posture.