In a digital age teeming with vulnerabilities, managing unstructured data has become a linchpin for cyber resiliency. Unfortunately, this critical security frontier is often overlooked in traditional data security strategies.

Congruity360 InfoGov Inc. is reversing that trend by leveraging data classification to shine a light on unseen and hidden data assets, according to Mark Ward (pictured), chief operating officer of Congruity360.

Congruity360’s Mark Ward talks about data security posture management with theCUBE.

“The Congruity in the 360 is really about taking all the values acquired from servicing both the data center and the major data apps to a company that is focused specifically on unstructured data management,” he said. “At a 30,000-foot level perspective, we’re leveraging the promise and the capabilities of data classification.”

Ward spoke with theCUBE Research’s Christophe Bertrand at the Cyber Resiliency Summit, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed Congruity360’s approach to data security posture management, compliance and the critical intersection of data protection and cost optimization. (* Disclosure below.)

Unstructured data represents a hidden frontier in cyber resilience

Congruity360 draws expertise from the collective experience of data experts, deploying novel techniques and tools to provide a snapshot of an organization’s unstructured data, identifying redundant, outdated and sensitive information. With that newfound visibility, data teams can then act on the subsequent recommendations to improve security and process efficiency, according to Ward.

“For example, are there files that exist in open shares with open read rights?” he asked. “Is there data in that environment that has [personally identifiable information] or sensitive or risk data? Is there data that hasn’t been accessed in over 10 years? It’s that understanding of what you currently have and giving you very tangible items to act on, integrating those items with an actual remediation workflow, and automating the cleansing and the overall data security posture of your environment.”

Data security posture management is rising in importance as it intertwines with cybersecurity, storage, backup and compliance. However, DSPM is about more than protection; it’s about understanding and securing data at its core, according to Ward.

“What we’re able to do is give you a snapshot of your current state of security posture management in a week,” he said. “And what that allows the customer to do is focus on their most risk-averse applications and the business entities that they care the most about. We come in and do this very lightweight scan of their unstructured data, and yield for them based upon their priorities or characteristics of what they care about, ‘Here are the most compelling data points for you to take a remediated action on.'”

Compliance challenges and cyber threats are two sides of the same coin in data management. Non-compliance with regulations can lead to hefty fines and reputational damage, while unchecked cyber risks expose organizations to encryption, data leaks or insider threats. Proactive measures, such as tagging sensitive documents and using hidden tags to track access discreetly, are immensely important. This dual approach of combining compliance with proactive security addresses both external threats and unintentional employee behaviors that could jeopardize data security, according to Ward.

“You need to identify data before you classify it, and then you need to hand it off to a smart system,” he said. “And that’s exactly what we’re doing for the Fortune 1000 and the [small-to-medium business] marketplaces. We’re giving them the ability through our SaaS data delivery to consume the benefits of artificial intelligence and data security posture management.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE Research’s coverage of the Cyber Resiliency Summit: 

(* Disclosure: Congruity360 InfoGov Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Congruity360 nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE