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For any organization, the security in place to fortify its systems against attackers is the first line of defense against a data incident. But the first line of response to an incident resides in a real-time data inventory.
As its name suggests, a data inventory is a comprehensive record of all the types of data an organization collects, processes, and stores. It provides organizations with a clear view of the data they handle, its source and location, how it is used, and who has access to it. Absent this basic information, an organization cannot effectively manage its data or comply with the growing number of privacy regulations, both in the U.S. and globally.
Five Ways a Data Inventory Helps During an Incident Response
An organization’s data inventory plays a critical role in response to a data incident, helping navigate the challenges that arise during and after a privacy incident or data breach. Here’s how:
Understanding data exposure and risk
A real-time data inventory helps an organization understand the specific types of data affected when a breach or data incident occurs, which is essential to assess the scope and severity of the incident. It enables the organization to evaluate the sensitivity of the compromised data, the potential impact on individuals, and the likelihood of harm so business leaders can determine the appropriate response and mitigation measures.
Containment and remediation
A data inventory helps an organization identify the source and cause of the breach or incident. With this understanding, the organization can take action to contain the breach, close security vulnerabilities, and implement remediation measures to prevent future incidents.
External communication
When a data breach occurs, effective communication with individuals, regulators, shareholders and the public can protect an organization’s reputation. An up-to-date data inventory provides the necessary details to develop clear and accurate breach notifications, which helps maintain trust and credibility.
Compliance and reporting
Many privacy regulations and data protection laws require organizations to report data breaches to relevant authorities and affected individuals within specific timeframes. A data inventory helps with accurate and timely reporting by providing detailed information about the affected data. In addition, a well-maintained data inventory demonstrates an organization’s commitment to data governance and compliance, which can reflect positively if faced with potential legal action.
Post-incident analysis
A data inventory can be used during a post-incident analysis, reviewing the source and location of data affected to determine the steps that can be taken to improve security. In addition, if an organization has cybersecurity insurance, a data inventory can be useful during the claims process by providing evidence of the data breach and associated damages.
Additional Benefits of a Data Inventory
An up-to-date data inventory is a valuable tool for organizations to meet their privacy and data protection obligations, providing a view into their data landscape and insight to ensure appropriate safeguards. It also helps organizations respond to Data Subject Requests (DSRs), conduct risk assessments, and demonstrate compliance to regulatory authorities.
While a data inventory is not specifically required under most privacy laws, certain laws – including the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) – mandate other requirements that cannot effectively be met without a data inventory. The GDPR, for example, requires data controllers and processors to maintain records of processing activities (ROPAs), which include information about the types of personal data processed, the purposes of the processing, the categories of data subjects, and other relevant details – all of which can transfer almost seamlessly from a data inventory, depending on the data privacy management platform used by an organization.
The Relyance AI platform connects to an organization’s code repositories, infrastructure tools and third-party vendor APIs. It automatically inventories data assets across an organization’s internal APIs and third-party systems and maps the topology of data flows. Privacy leaders can drill down into department, service or vendor-specific views to identify the data flow location and root cause of any issue – no access to underlying personal data is required.
To learn more about the Relyance AI platform, book a demo here.
