Data Protection in a Hybrid War: Why Data Minimization Is Your Last Line of Defense

Any EU CISO worth their paycheck knows we are at war. Malicious requests bombard our infrastructure, while our colleagues are targeted by social engineering and misinformation. The attack vectors that keep us up at night range from the now-legendary phishing emails to AI that sounds exactly like your terrified daughter asking for help.

The terrible truth is that sooner or later, your defenses will fall and your data will be breached. I don't need to quote statistics; you already know this. So, imagine the threat actors have breached your firewall. They have access to your email, file shares, and SharePoint.

They are literally staring at your data...

In this scenario, proactive data minimization is your last line of defense.

You MUST ensure the invaders don't find the passports and driver's licenses we all know are sitting in mail servers. Or the pen-test reports, infrastructure diagrams, and active passwords hiding in plain sight. I know that personal data and security info are lurking in your unstructured files. I've seen it far more times than I care to remember.

The risk caused by this "dark data", the unmanaged personal and security information in your unstructured sources, can be mitigated. But you need to mobilize your organization now.

This is what you need to do

1. Classify your unstructured data. Shed some light on your dark data.

2. Verify that you need the data by giving every employee an exact overview of the data they are responsible for.

3. Delete all data that can be deleted and move the rest to a highly secure location.

You can search for Data & More if you need a tool for this.

Remember we are only caretakers of the personal information people entrusted us with.

Take care out there

/D