How to Protect Sensitive Information

Companies today handle huge amounts of sensitive information, including customer data including financial records, as well as intellectual property. It is essential to safeguard this information against unauthorized access to ensure customers can continue to trust the company with their data, and to ensure that the data is legally accessible in the case of a dispute or regulatory action.

Unauthorized access to sensitive information could have serious consequences for businesses, including the look at here now loss of sales, reputational damage, and legal costs. Implementing a security policy that provides guidelines for safeguarding sensitive data can help businesses minimize the possibility of cyber attacks and also protect itself from legal risks.

Information protection is a broad category of software that assists businesses safeguard sensitive information regardless of whether it’s in the cloud or on devices like laptops. Information protection ranges from policies that define what information is deemed sensitive and the way it’s used to access it, to physical controls, such as password protection or encryption, to processes that monitor access, detect threats, and respond to them.

Microsoft Information Protection (MIP), also known as Azure Information Protection and Purview, allows the discovery and classification of sensitive information using labeling. This enables you to protect the content wherever it’s stored or travels, to keep track of who has accessed it and to block access when needed. MIP can be extended to other apps and system via the SDK. For instance line-of-business software can apply a sensitivity tag to documents when exporting them, or CAD/CAM tools can use MIP automatically encrypt files prior to saving them to the folder.