What is a data security policy?
A data security policy is a document outlining an organization's guidelines, rules, and standards for managing and protecting sensitive data assets. It aims to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data by defining roles, responsibilities, and high-level security procedures for all things data (data handling, storage, transmission, access, retention, and deletion).
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Why are data security policies important?
Like the foundation of a house, your data security policy establishes core principles and guidelines for securing sensitive information such as…
Framework: The overall structure and approach to data security
Rules: Specific regulatory requirements and standards to be followed
Responsibilities: Who is accountable for different aspects of data security
A data security policy is somewhat abstract. It doesn’t outline exactly who does what in which types of situations. Instead, it outlines general principles to refer to when you’re creating procedures for team members to follow.
Based on your organization’s data security goals and strategies, your data security policy will also help you comply with data protection regulations and mitigate data risks. Another benefit? A good data security policy communicates expectations to guide employees, contractors, and others toward a culture of security awareness.
Let’s take a look at some of the important elements you need to include in your data security policy, the biggest challenges to putting a data security policy in place, and some tips for simplifying the entire process.
What elements should you include in your data security policy?
Obviously, the elements of a data security policy will vary somewhat from organization to organization, but here’s some of what you’ll want to include:
Objectives: An explanation of your strategic goals for creating the policy
Scope: Who it applies to and which assets it will cover
Security tools: Third-party tools you’ll use to support implementation
Inventory: A list of your organization’s data, ideally in a visual form like a map, showing who manages or maintains data assets
Stakeholders: Stakeholders involved in creating and enforcing the policy
Roadmap: Timeline for policy rollout, including regular policy reviews
As a shortcut, you might want to base your policy on a number of industry-standard frameworks (e.g., GDPR, NIST CSF, ISO 27001, and CERT). The framework you choose will depend on your compliance requirements. Another simple solution is to start with a sample policy or policy templates, such as from the SANS Institute and Quick Start Guides from NIST.
What’s the best way to create a data security policy?
Here’s a bird’s-eye view of some of the steps you’ll need to follow to put a data security policy in place at your organization.
1. Identify your assets
Catalog all your data assets, including physical and digital formats and classify them based on sensitivity. Standard classification levels include:
Confidential, such as intellectual property (trade secrets, proprietary algorithms)
Private, such as employee personal information or customer PII
Public, such as marketing materials, website privacy policies, or general business information
2. Assess risks
Identify potential threats (e.g., cyberattacks, human error, natural disasters), evaluate vulnerabilities in your systems and processes, and analyze the impact of potential data breaches to help you establish priorities for your data security policy.
3. Develop your policy
Clearly define the policy’s purpose, scope, and responsibilities. Avoid specifics, which will be defined as part of your procedures later on. Determine necessary security measures (such as multi-factor authentication) and data handling procedures (think storage, transmission, and disposal).
4. Train your employees
Educate employees on phishing attacks, social engineering, and other threats, and conduct regular security awareness training. After a security incident, think about how you’ll sit down with employees and others to talk about lessons learned and future prevention.
5. Implement technical and physical controls
Select data security controls including strong encryption, firewalls, and intrusion detection. One shortcut to understanding the types of controls you may need is to start with a ready-made framework such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) or NIST 800-171. Both provide comprehensive lists of data security controls.
Here are the key security controls that should be included:
a. Administrative Controls
These are policies, procedures, and organizational measures to manage data security.
Governance & Policies
Data classification standards
Access control policies
Acceptable use policies
Incident response plan
Training & Awareness
Regular employee cybersecurity training
Awareness campaigns about phishing and social engineering
Risk Management
Third-party/vendor security reviews
b. Technical Controls
These are technological measures to secure data.
Access Management
Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
Role-based access control (RBAC)
Least privilege access principles
Data Protection
Encryption (in transit and at rest)
Data masking and anonymization
Secure backups and disaster recovery
Network Security
Firewalls and intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDS/IPS)
Virtual private networks (VPNs)
Secure API gateways
Monitoring and Detection
Continuous logging and monitoring
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tools
Threat intelligence and analytics
c. Physical Controls
These are measures to physically secure data and infrastructure.
Facilities Security
Controlled access to data centers (e.g., key cards, biometrics)
Surveillance systems (CCTV)
Environmental controls (e.g., fire suppression, HVAC systems)
Device Security
Secure disposal of hardware (e.g., shredding hard drives)
Locked cabinets for sensitive documents and media
6. Monitor and review
Regularly monitor network traffic and system logs, conduct security audits and reviews, and keep your policy updated to address new threats and evolving technologies. (For example, any data security policy today needs to consider risks associated with AI.)
7. Plan incident response
Develop incident response plans for a range of incident types. There are many templates online to help you get started on this. Designate a response team and run through drills on a regular basis so you’re always ready for anything.
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8. Verify legal and compliance requirements
Stay up-to-date with relevant data protection regulations and laws (e.g., GDPR and CCPA) as well as industry standards (like ISO 27001).
Your data security policy needs to change with your organization’s shifting priorities. Review it regularly and keep it updated with any relevant changes.
What are the main challenges to data security policies?
Let’s go over three of the biggest hurdles organizations face, particularly in cloud environments, along with a few best practices in each area. As you’ll see throughout, the best way to tackle challenges is by choosing tools that take the burden off your security team’s shoulders.
Challenge #1: Complexity
Your data is dispersed across multiple locations and formats, including file shares and databases, cloud applications, mail servers, mobile devices, web applications, and third-party applications.
Each of these presents unique data security challenges. For example, shared responsibility models sometimes blur the lines of who handles which types of security.
Then there’s the problem of shadow data, which is data that’s created and stored by employees on personal devices, cloud services, or file-sharing platforms. Since it’s not managed by IT departments, it’s difficult to identify and secure.
Best practices to handle complexity
Find tools that are built for multi-cloud environments, including data security posture management (DSPM) and security information and event management (SIEM). These tools can enforce data security policies by monitoring network activity, detecting anomalies, and automating incident response.
Being able to visualize who has access to your data is key to establishing and maintaining control. The ability to drill down into connections and permissions will help you create policies that limit access to authorized users, remove excess permissions, and apply secure data retention policies.
Challenge #2: Threat landscape
The evolving threat landscape makes it challenging to keep security policies up-to-date and effective. New technologies introduce new risks, such as AI-powered attacks and vulnerabilities in AI systems themselves. Then there’s IoT devices, which also create additional attack vectors and data security challenges.
Best practices to tackle today’s threat landscape
Don’t wait—take a proactive approach to security policy management. Regularly review and update your policies to account for emerging threats and vulnerabilities. Use vulnerability scanners, penetration testing, and threat intelligence to monitor your network, detect anomalies, and identify gaps in your security posture. Consider solutions tailored to modern threats, such as AI security posture management (AI-SPM).
Challenge #3: Balancing security and usability
Balancing security and usability is a delicate tightrope act. Overly restrictive policies get in the way of your teams, but overly lenient policies increase attack risk. A risk-based approach that balances your organization’s own unique priorities (consulting with multiple departments and stakeholders) can help find the right balance.
Overcoming cultural and organizational challenges is another hurdle. It’s natural to resist change and want to do things the way they’ve always been done. That’s especially true if resources are limited (and when aren’t they?) or if employees lack proper training.
Best practices to achieve usability
Choose security controls that are in proportion to the level of risk. You might choose strong multi-factor authentication for employees accessing sensitive financial data but select a simpler password policy for general company information.
A cloud native application protection platform (CNAPP) can streamline security operations and reduce alert fatigue. With a code-to-cloud approach to security, a CNAPP combines runtime security, CIEM, IAM, and other solutions under a single umbrella.
This helps you automate routine tasks, reduce false positives, and provide actionable insights. With these tools in place, you can level-up your security posture without slowing productivity.
How Wiz supports your data security policy
Wiz enhances your data security policy by providing comprehensive visibility and control over your cloud environments. Our Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) solution enables continuous discovery and classification of sensitive data, such as Personally Identifiable Information (PII), Protected Health Information (PHI), and payment card information (PCI), across various cloud platforms. This agentless approach ensures that sensitive data is identified without disrupting operations.
By mapping the relationships between data assets and their configurations, Wiz's Security Graph identifies potential attack paths to critical data. This contextual understanding allows for effective risk assessment and prioritization, ensuring that security efforts focus on the most significant threats.
Wiz also facilitates compliance with regulatory frameworks such as PCI DSS, GDPR, and HIPAA by continuously assessing your cloud environments against these standards. It provides insights into the geographical locations of sensitive data, aiding in data sovereignty and compliance efforts.
Our Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) capabilities monitor access logs and detect suspicious activities in real-time, enabling prompt responses to potential threats. This proactive approach helps maintain the integrity and confidentiality of your data.
The Wiz data security dashboard gives you full information and clear context for data storage, access, configuration, and movement, while managing and controlling uniform data access policies.
But you don’t have to take our word for it. See Wiz in action—just click through to schedule your demo today.
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