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By Alisa Fetic
Data discovery tools and software are crucial elements of any PII risk mitigation strategy. PII (personally identifiable information) refers to data used to identify an individual, such as their name, birthdate, home address, and phone number, among other details.
In recent years, companies have been increasingly concerned with managing their privacy and security risks by mitigating their PII exposure. It has led to an increase in regulatory enforcement actions from federal agencies like the FTC and state governments. But why?
This is due to increased threats from hackers.
For instance, data breaches in the U.S. reached 1,001 in 2020, which was a decrease from 1,473 in 2019. However, the largest data breach occurred in 2013 (exposing the records of 3 billion user accounts).
Hence, it is crucial to invest in data discovery software to ensure compliance with data protection regulations and minimize potential risks.
Why Having a Data Discovery Software Is Important
The benefits of data discovery software include the following:
1. Automated Identification of Sensitive Data
Automated identification of sensitive data is an enormous benefit of leveraging data discovery software. It allows organizations to identify PII at scale without requiring manual review of each record.
This reduces the amount of time and resources required to conduct this important task.
2. Centralized Data Management
When you centralize all PII risk mitigation efforts on a single platform, organizations can track progress more effectively and make adjustments as needed. This enhances efficiency in handling compliance issues better than having multiple systems or programs that are not integrated with one another.
3. Improved Data Security
Improved data security is another benefit of leveraging data discovery software for enhanced PII risk mitigation. When using automated tools for identifying sensitive data and automating remediation efforts, organizations ensure they are complying with strict government regulations (like GDPR). In addition, they protect themselves from potential breaches or fines due to noncompliance.
4. Compliance Management
Compliance management is the process of ensuring the organization is in compliance with all applicable laws, regulations, and standards. Data discovery software helps you achieve compliance with PII risk mitigation by helping you identify and resolve gaps in your processes that do not meet the requirements.
5. Risk Assessment and Mitigation
The risk assessment phase of a data breach is critical in:
● Determining how much damage has been done
● Who was affected
● What information was exposed
● How best to mitigate any potential damage
Data discovery software helps you perform this assessment quickly and effectively. Therefore, you make informed decisions about how best to mitigate future risks.
Use Cases of Data Discovery Software for PII Risk Mitigation
These discovery tools and software are applicable in the following ways:
● Financial services
● Healthcare
● Retail and E-commerce
● Human resources and more
Conclusion
Investing in data discovery software is essential for organizations to effectively manage sensitive PII and mitigate long-term compliance risks. That's where iDox.ai Data Discovery offers solutions. We offer comprehensive tools to help you manage sensitive data throughout its lifecycle (from extraction to analytics to remediation).
Our solutions are built on a foundation of advanced machine-learning technology. This enables our customers to quickly identify and remediate sensitive data in their environments with minimal manual effort required by IT staff.
We empower businesses to easily search their sensitive unstructured data for complete privacy compliance. The technology allows users to quickly and easily discover, redact, and eliminate sensitive information within their data ecosystems. This enables you to take control and protect sensitive information within all files before it's too late.
So, don't hesitate to start your journey with the iDox.ai Data Discovery platform for your data protection and compliance