Strategies for Managing Non-Personal Data

Non-human identities (NHIs) — think API keys, service accounts, automation credentials — are silently taking over: in many orgs, they now outnumber human credentials 50:1. With 46% of companies confirming, and another 26% suspecting, NHI compromise last year, the risk is real and escalating . These machine-based credentials are often over-provisioned, poorly tracked, and rarely audited. That makes them prime targets for attackers seeking undetected, long-lived access. To tackle this hidden threat: • Inventory & Rotate: Identify every non-human credential and enforce regular rotation. • Apply Least Privilege: Grant each NHI only the exact permissions it needs. • Monitor Usage: Log and analyze abnormal behavior around service accounts and API keys. • Automate Governance: Use CI/CD checks and IAM tools to enforce security policies. It’s time to step beyond standard identity controls — because when your machine creds are at risk, your entire stack is too. #IdentityManagement #DevSecOps #CloudSecurity #APIKeys #AutomationSecurity 🔗 https://lnkd.in/dGpNfyqk

Many SMBs suffer from data hoarding tendencies - indiscriminately collecting and retaining any data they can get their hands on.  But this mindset is proving increasingly hazardous and expensive from a cybersecurity standpoint.  Over-retention of data exponentially increases your risk surface for breaches and compliance violations. The reality is that sometimes less is more when it comes to data.  Data minimization - limiting collection to what's required - is an underrated security best practice every organization should embrace. Think about it: The more data you hoard, the more avenues you open up for threat actors to steal sensitive info.  Plus, excess data complicates regulatory compliance regarding data handling. Data minimization starts with a thorough data-mapping exercise. Define clearly what data is genuinely required for your business processes versus what's superfluous. Establish strong access controls over essential data. But it doesn't stop there.  You must institutionalize continuous data pruning - systematically deleting outdated or unnecessary records. Implement data lifecycle policies with provisions for secure disposal. Kick that pack rat mentality.  Embrace a leaner data posture through minimization to reduce breach risks and costs.   Protecting a business is about knowing when to hold data and when to let it go. 

On a near weekly basis, I read about breaches where much of the exfiltrated data was old data that the organization had no real reason to retain. See, e.g., https://lnkd.in/eaX53AWQ and https://lnkd.in/e4pVA6bT. According to IBM's 2023 Cost of a Data Breach Report, breaches cost organizations an average of $165 per record breached. Report at 2. That means that purging 100,000 records of unnecessary data could save you $16.5M in the event of a breach. Here are five tips: 1. PRACTICE DATA MINIMIZATION: Organizations should practice "data minimization." This means only collecting data that you have a good business reason for collecting and purging unneeded data when it is no longer needed. 2. ARCHIEVE DATA OFFLINE: In one recent example, the breached company apparently "ceased operations in December 2022 but, to comply with legal obligations, . . . maintained an archived copy of data previously stored on its computer systems." See https://lnkd.in/e4pVA6bT. To the extent you are only retaining old data is to satisfy regulatory requirements or just "in an abundance of caution," consider storing the data completely offline, so it is less likely to be breached. 3. CONDUCT A DATA MAPPING: These days it is common for data records to be duplicated in many places across an organization. Thus, consider conducting a regular "data mapping" to ensure that you know where all of your sensitive data is located, that you are adequately protecting it, and that you are purging it when appropriate. 4. IMPLEMENT A WRITTEN POLICY: Be sure to document your data retention and destruction policy in a written policy, and train your employees on the policy regularly. Remember to update the policy to reflect the changing realities in your organization. 5. OVERSEE THE DESTRUCTION OF DATA: Finally, when you destroy data, take reasonable steps to ensure that the data is actually being destroyed. One bank was recently fined $60M for failing to properly oversee a vendor responsible for purging personal data from digital devices. See https://lnkd.in/eutKzpU7.

Over recent weeks I've been working with a project that’s led me into one of the shadowy side streets of privileged access, namely managing non-human identities. We spend a lot of time contemplating how to protect people like employees, admins and contractors. But what about identities that belong to applications and services? I’m referring to API keys, service accounts, certificates, things that allow systems to communicate with one another with no humans involved. It all looked good on the surface. Services were communicating with each other, data was flowing back and forth, and nothing looked broken. But when we looked a bit closer, we found a different reality. Some non-human identities had much higher levels of access than they should. Some were still running on API keys that hadn’t been rotated in months, and in some cases, nobody even knew who owned them or whether they were still needed. So now we're concerned about triage and remediation. We started with basics as one does. Building a catalog of all non-human identities we could find. Just having seen them all aggregated has been an eye-opening learning experience. From then on, we've been adjusting privileges so services only have access to what they absolutely need. We're moving away from static API secrets to temporary tokens stored in a secrets vault, and we're incorporating monitoring so we can see how these identities are being used day-to-day. What I’m learning through this process is that non-human identities don’t behave like their human equivalents. They don’t onboard and offboard, login and logout at predictable times and they don’t expire. They simply persist into the background with routinely much more power than anyone even knows about. Unless you bring them into focus they can be missed. My point is that privileged access management is about more than people nowadays. When we don't bring the same discipline and governance to non-human identities, we're leaving a huge blind spot in our security posture. How are you all thinking about this? cataloging and managing? or still trying to get your arms around this? #CISO #CTO #CIO #PrivilegedAccess #IAM #Non-human #Cybersecurity

𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 (𝗠𝗗𝗠): 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮-𝗗𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗘𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗲𝘀 In today’s world, fragmented and inconsistent data can cripple operations, misguide decisions, and erode customer trust. That’s where Master Data Management (MDM) becomes a game-changer. Let’s break down the 7 major types of MDM every enterprise should understand and strategically implement: 𝟭) 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 (𝗖𝗗𝗠) Focus: Consolidating customer data across CRM, ERP, marketing, and support platforms.  • Enables identity resolution, GDPR compliance, and a unified 360° customer view.  • Popular Platforms: Salesforce Customer 360, Oracle CX Unity, Informatica CDM 𝟮) 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 (𝗣𝗜𝗠) Focus: Managing and distributing rich product content across eCommerce, print, and digital channels.  • Supports centralized catalogs, multichannel publishing, and seamless ERP/CMS integration.  • Popular Platforms: Akeneo, Salsify, Informatica PIM, Pimcore 𝟯) 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗿/𝗩𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗿 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗠𝗗𝗠 Focus: Streamlining supplier data from procurement, finance, and ERP systems.  • Ensures better compliance checks, vendor onboarding, and spend visibility.  • Popular Platforms: SAP MDG, Oracle Supplier Hub, Informatica Supplier 360 𝟰) 𝗟𝗼𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻/𝗔𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘁/𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗠𝗗𝗠 Focus: Managing non-human and non-product data like locations, zones, facilities, and physical assets.  • Handles spatial hierarchies, asset metadata, and geospatial governance.  • Popular Platforms: IBM InfoSphere MDM, Ataccama ONE, Semarchy xDM 𝟱) 𝗠𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗱𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗠𝗗𝗠 Focus: Unifying multiple data domains—customer, product, supplier, location—within one system.  • Enables relationship modeling, data stewardship, and cross-domain governance.  • Popular Platforms: Informatica MDM, Talend, Reltio, SAP MDG 𝟲) 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝗗𝗠 Focus: Delivering real-time or near-real-time master data for operational applications.  • Integrates deeply with transactional systems like CRM or ERP.  • Popular Platforms: Oracle MDM, TIBCO EBX, SAP MDG, Informatica MDM (API-based) 𝟳) 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝗗𝗠 Focus: Enabling BI, AI/ML models, and reporting through clean, consistent, and governed master data.  • Supports golden records, external data lake/warehouse integration, and predictive analytics.  • Popular Platforms: Snowflake, Reltio (with built-in analytics), Ataccama ONE 📊 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗜𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀: Choosing the right MDM type isn’t about technology alone—it’s about aligning with business objectives: As businesses continue to embrace digital transformation, MDM is no longer optional; it’s foundational to building a trusted, agile, and intelligent data ecosystem. Follow Dr. Rishi Kumar for similar insights! ------- 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻 - https://lnkd.in/dFtDWPi5 𝗫 - https://x.com/contactrishi 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘂𝗺 - https://med