The CISO’s Guide to Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) 

Data security posture management (DSPM) can seem like another tool designed to add functionality, but also complexity, to an already heavy toolbox. In this article, we’re breaking down its benefits and how it has carved a unique space in modern cybersecurity — and looking at how (and whether) it can be combined with other security tools for complete coverage.

What is DSPM?

According to Gartner, by 2026, 20% of organizations will deploy a dedicated DSPM solution as the need to protect critical data grows even more urgent.

DSPM identifies and provides visibility into sensitive data in the cloud and on-premises, showing who can access it, how it has been used, and how securely it is stored. DSPM manages that data by assessing data security, identifying and prioritizing potential threats, automating some facets of remediation, and feeding a continuous improvement cycle to keep data safe. 

That definition emerged in 2022 from Gartner in its Hype Cycle for Data Security report, which defines market categories as solutions emerging to contend with the ever-growing security needs of complicated cloud environments. While DSPM is a newcomer, it addresses more traditional problems: how to secure sensitive data, ensure data privacy, and stay compliant.

Benefits of DSPM

The average data breach cost in 2023 was $4.45 million, underscoring the crucial need for cloud security. Yet increased attention from organizational leaders hasn’t lowered the number of breaches. Instead, cloud data breaches are growing, rising to a new high in 2023 with 3,205 incidents.

Cloud use is rapidly growing, and cyberattackers are finding new ways into these distributed systems. Many companies fail to fully comprehend the landscape of their cloud ecosystem, owing to the accelerated migration to cloud computing, as well as the many “doors” built into the cloud that weren’t a part of previous architectures. Today, it’s common to find sensitive data, such as employment contracts, in multiple places, with versions stored across services and used in multiple applications. Because of the nature of the cloud, there’s little visibility into where that data is and how it’s accessed.

Companies can store data both in the cloud and on-premises, but gaining clear visibility into where it is, how it’s being used, and whether it has been or could be compromised isn’t always simple. DSPM fills that need, locating data risks and vulnerabilities regardless of where data exists.

Let’s unpack the benefits of a dedicated DSPM solution:

Data Discovery

An advanced DSPM can scan to discover sensitive data across environments in near real-time, integrating with various data sources and environments to account for data stored across platforms. That means discovery is up-to-date in an environment where new data is constantly being created, moved, and modified. It also solves visibility challenges in complicated architectures, where data spans apps like Snowflake, cloud platforms, on-premises file systems, and SaaS apps like Salesforce.

Data Classification

DSPM identifies different types of data, including structured (databases), unstructured (documents), and semi-structured (JSON, XML). Once discovered, DSPM solutions classify it based on sensitivity, labeling personally identifiable information (PII), protected health information (PHI), or sensitive financial or intellectual property data.

Proactive Risk Assessment

DSPM solutions can create context-aware risk analysis based on data sensitivity, access controls, infrastructure and configurations, compliance requirements, or attack paths to sensitive data, assigning risk scores and helping security teams focus on critical issues first. 

Automatic Response

Building on DSPM’s ability to identify and classify sensitive data, DSPM can automatically revoke excessive permissions, adjust access controls, enforce security policies, such as encrypting data that is discovered unencrypted, and correct misconfigurations. If secrets are exposed, DSPM can proactively protect them before a breach happens.

Compliance Assurance

With policy enforcement and automatic remediation, organizations can show they comply with regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, or CCPA. DSPM’s near-continuous approach to monitoring prevents compliance gaps and ensures violations are managed quickly. Recommendations help teams prioritize and remediate critical issues, and audit trails are maintained with less manual input. DSPM also allows for configuration that aligns with industry-specific compliance requirements for a custom solution.

Comparing Features: DSPM vs CSPM vs DLP?

Cloud security posture management (CSPM) was made for cloud posture, while DSPM was designed to protect data, so their primary goals differ.

However, the tools a CSPM provides and those of a DSPM complement one another in a security workflow where teams need to validate policy and ensure controls are enforced. They both improve security posture with visibility, insights, and automation. 

Data loss prevention (DLP)  is another competing term frequently compared to DSPM. DLP prevents sensitive data from being leaked or stolen, focusing on monitoring and intervening in the movement of sensitive data from inside and outside organizations.

DLP predates DSPM, and as such, it typically comes with fewer comprehensive and modern features. For example, DLP usually requires predefined rules to monitor data types, like credit cards or social security numbers. Additionally, DLP lacks full visibility and risk assessment into dynamic, distributed data in the cloud. 

Feature	DSPM	CSPM	DLP
Visibility	Comprehensive across cloud and on-prem, where data assets are stored, accessed, and shared	Comprehensive across clouds (e.g., AWS, Azure, or GCP).	Data in motion (across networks), and at rest (on devices/in storage). Limited visibility into cloud-hosted applications (e.g., Office 365).
Risk Mitigation	Mitigates risks related to data exposure by securing sensitive data in cloud environments (e.g., overly permissive access, shadow IT, or exposed APIs).	Mitigates risk by identifying insecure configurations (e.g., open buckets, weak IAM policies). Provides automated remediation for cloud misconfigurations.	Prevents data leakage by monitoring and blocking unauthorized attempts to share or transfer sensitive data, focusing on policy enforcement (e.g., blocking the sending of unencrypted PII). Limited risk mitigation in cloud infrastructure.
Data Coverage & Use Cases	Covers sensitive data (structured and unstructured). Supports data discovery and classification for compliance (GDPR, HIPAA). It supports data access governance and the monitoring of data usage patterns.	Covers cloud infrastructure components: VMs, containers, APIs, and IAM configurations. Reduces attack surface. Supports compliance monitoring for cloud-specific frameworks.	Covers structured data in traditional IT environments and basic cloud settings (e.g., email, messaging, and cloud storage services).

Ultimately, all three solutions for data protection aren’t just software categories: they’re a set of processes that serve as a security framework, from the discovery of assets to the mitigation of threats around data flow.

DSPM tools are the most advanced solution that focuses on data. Today, modern solutions use machine learning to identify sensitive data correctly as well as to understand behavioral patterns that lead to better anomaly detection. Elements of DSPMs can also be combined with more comprehensive CNAPP solutions to protect the entirety of the cloud-native environment beyond data security alone.

Upwind is Part of a Complete Data Security Strategy

DSPM emerged from the philosophy that partial solutions to data security, like endpoint detection and response or access control, can’t fully secure a complex cloud environment. 

For example, data can be theoretically secure, encrypted, and protected in secure cloud storage. But that doesn’t mean data always has properly permissioned access, or that a bucket isn’t misconfigured as public, exposing data. 

Data protection is entwined with cloud system security. Further, data protection alone doesn’t address broader cloud-native risks, from insecure misconfigurations to workload vulnerabilities. 

That’s where CNAPP comes in, combining DSPM features with other critical capabilities to secure the entire cloud stack. Want to see how it all comes together? Schedule a demo today.