Page 23 - Cyber Defense eMagazine July 2024

regulations. The act of sharing data unlocks collaborative growth opportunities with external partners and
supply chains, catalyzing economic gains.

To mitigate data-related risks, companies must transition from traditional tools to innovative solutions that
meet industry compliance and enhance data accessibility. For instance, strategically leveraging third-
party vendors is essential for harnessing cloud-managed data warehouses, applications, and analytical
tools, allowing for the responsible extraction of business value from data.

Further, the industry needs to radically shift their thinking in the way they approach the sensitive data
problem. Two questions, do I have high risk data like social security numbers? More importantly, how
many people in your company should see that data in clear text?

The first question is a security question. The second question is a data consumption one. If the answers
to the questions are “yes” and “very few” then why protect data at every request by the 99.9% of users?
Invert the security model and the natural security state for this type of data is protected. Using tokenization
techniques obfuscates the value for a reader but maintains 100% of the data utility for analytics. By
implementing this model, only .1% of the requests require transformation to clear text. It markedly
improves security posture, widens access to high value customer data, and accelerates it to the teams
thirsty to innovate.

Harnessing Data Responsibly

Organizations must judiciously select solutions that not only comply with legal standards but also
safeguard sensitive data types such as Personal Identifiable Information (PII), Protected Health
Information (PHI), Payment Card Industry (PCI), and Intellectual Property (IP). Tokenization is a
recommended approach by the regulatory bodies because it is an effective, principled approach that in
the case of PCI renders systems out of scope for audit.

Zero trust principles applied to applications, users, and servers is a growing trend in security because
when executed well it is particularly effective for cloud environments. Microsoft summarized the three
principles of Zero-Trust as Assume Breach, Verify Explicitly, and Use Least-Privilege Access. By
implementing tokenization, organizations are applying Zero-Trust directly to data. Minimizing risk
throughout the data’s lifecycle from collection to its final application. This proactive approach to data
security is essential.

In 2023 the security industry was $185 billion and grew 14% year-over-year yet data compromises are
up 78%. It maybe is stating the obvious, but those numbers don’t add up for consumer privacy. Accenture
estimates that by 2030 businesses will unlock $3.6T in data value. The value of data for businesses
cannot be overstated. By investing in data security, embracing transparency, and adopting a Zero Trust
approach, companies can protect sensitive data and maintain the loyalty of their customers.

Cyber Defense eMagazine – July 2024 Edition 23
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