Introduction
In today’s digital landscape, data privacy has become a critical concern for organizations worldwide. Similar to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for the European Union, the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) and other regional privacy laws impose strict requirements on how organizations handle personal data in APAC regions. Complying with these regulations is essential to avoid hefty fines, maintain customer trust, and protect sensitive information from unauthorized access and breaches.
To effectively meet these compliance requirements, organizations need a structured approach to managing their data security posture. Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) provides a comprehensive framework for identifying, securing, and monitoring sensitive data across all environments, whether on-premises or in the cloud. This blog post will explore how DSPM principles can help organizations comply with privacy regulations and secure sensitive information.
Understanding Privacy Regulations: GDPR, PDPA, and More
Each privacy regulation generally has a different geographical application, scope, consent, and data subject rights. However, they share common grounds emphasizing transparency, accuracy, and correct use, control, and disclosure of personal data. One of the primary concerns is the collection and consent process. Organizations must only collect personal data for legitimate purposes and, more importantly, with explicit consent from individuals. Another essential aspect is ensuring data subject rights. Regulations highlight that individuals have the right to access, modify, or delete their personal data.
A significant focus of privacy regulations is data protection. The compliance urges organizations to implement strong security measures, such as encryption and access controls, to prevent unauthorized access, breaches, or misuse of personal data. Organizations are also required to notify in the event of a data breach. For example, GDPR specifies that the incident report should be made within 72 hours. The purpose is to minimize damage and maintain transparency when security failure occurs.
In short, core concerns of privacy regulations are safeguarding individual rights, ensuring data security, and holding organizations accountable for handling personal data.
Names of the privacy regulations in APAC countries:
- China – Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL)
- Hong Kong – Personal Data Privacy Ordinance (PDPO)
- Indonesia – Personal Data Protection Law (PDP Law)
- Philippines – Data Privacy Act (DPA)
- Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand – Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA)
- South Korea – Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA)
- Vietnam – Personal Data Protection Decree (PDPD)
- **PDP Law to be newly enacted in the near future
How DSPM Helps to Ensure Compliance
As described above, many countries are strengthening personal data privacy. Greater efforts from organizations are needed to keep compliant with evolving privacy regulations. Hence, organizations must adopt a comprehensive data security approach. Data Security Posture Management (DSPM), as an effective solution to discover and manage sensitive information, helps organizations with sensitive data even in massive data sets from different platforms, multi-clouds, various data types, and systems. Below are the key features of DSPM:
- Data Discovery and Inventory
The first step in achieving compliance is understanding where sensitive data resides within the organization. Privacy regulations require organizations to maintain accurate data inventories, and DSPM facilitates this by automatically scanning all data repositories, including databases, file servers, cloud storage, and endpoints. It identifies where the data is stored and keeps an up-to-date inventory of all personal data assets, along with relevant metadata that describes the data’s nature, location, and sensitivity.
- Data Classification
Once sensitive data is identified, it must be classified according to its sensitivity and regulatory requirements. DSPM classifies data based on the sensitivity level by assigning indicative labels or categories to data (e.g., public, internal, confidential, restricted). The solution also automatically tags data to meet compliance requirements, such as identifying PII (Personally Identifiable Information) for privacy regulations, ensuring appropriate handling and protection.
- Access Control and Data Protection
Regulations require organizations to implement strong security measures to protect personal data. DSPM tools enforce role-based access control (RBAC) to restrict access to sensitive data based on user roles and responsibilities. This ensures that only authorized personnel can access or modify the data. Additionally, it can encrypt sensitive data at rest and in transit to prevent unauthorized access.
- Monitoring and Anomaly Detection
Continuous monitoring is crucial for detecting unauthorized access, data breaches, or unusual activity that could indicate a security threat. The management solution monitors data access patterns and user activities across all data repositories in real-time. Anomalies, such as attempts to access large volumes of data or access from an unknown location, can be detected using machine learning or behavioral analysis
- Incident Response and Breach Management
Some regulations strictly require organizations to report data breaches within a specific timeframe. DSPM facilitates this process by providing frameworks and automating workflows for responding to data breaches. This includes identifying the breach, containing the threat, and notifying affected parties. Analysis capabilities of DSPM help organizations investigate the violation, understand how it occurred, and take quick responses to prevent future incidents.
- Compliance Reporting and Auditing
DSPM tools generate detailed reports that demonstrate compliance with privacy regulations. These reports can include data access logs, which track who accessed or modified sensitive data and verify compliance with access controls. With the dashboards visually representing the organization’s compliance status, the solution highlights areas that meet regulatory standards and require attention.
Key Features of Fasoo Data Radar for Privacy Compliance
Fasoo Data Radar (FDR) is our DSPM solution that helps organizations with effective data discovery and classification. Below are the key features of FDR that help organizations comply with privacy regulations:
- Data Discovery and Classification
FDR detects sensitive data across databases, servers, cloud platforms, and endpoint devices using patterns, keywords, file types, and attributes within customizable rule templates. It can classify, label, encrypt, quarantine, or apply adaptive access control to data, ensuring comprehensive security and management.
- Centralized Monitoring and Data Visualization
FDR offers real-time monitoring from a centralized console, allowing users to view detected PII files and understand the type of sensitive personally identifiable information they possess. The console includes data visualization graphs that help users understand data location, file types, and detected patterns. This feature aids in identifying files that may need to be deleted, archived, or immediately encrypted based on their sensitivity.
- Comprehensive Protection of Unstructured Data
FDR allows users to insert tags, move, encrypt, or delete unwanted or obsolete files based on their sensitive content, ensuring robust data protection. This feature ensures that sensitive files are protected with precise access controls, enhancing data security and compliance with privacy regulations.
Conclusion
Complying with privacy regulations like GDPR and PDPA is a complex task that requires a proactive and structured strategy for data security. Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) provides organizations with the tools and strategies needed to discover, classify, protect, and monitor sensitive data effectively. With Fasoo Data Radar, a robust DSPM solution, organizations can enhance their data security posture, minimize the risk of data breaches, and ensure compliance with privacy regulations.
Take the necessary steps today to protect your data and comply with evolving privacy regulations. Discover how Fasoo Data Radar can achieve your requirements.
