Chapter 2. Examining Your Data Environment
In This Chapter
Discovering the types of data at risk
Listing the most common types of data
Ferreting out where your at-risk data lives
Finding out who we're protecting our data from
Understanding that this is more like an arms race than you might have thought
Many companies (and people) don't know what data they have in their environment! Part of the security process is simply identifying all the valuable information that you need to protect. This chapter covers the different types of data you need to protect — and how to identify them within your organization.
Tip
If you know exactly what data you have, you can skip to Chapter 3.
Discovering the Types of Data at Risk
The types of data are many and varied. To find a way through the maze, you can start looking at the context surrounding a body of data — what it's used for, who uses it, why it was collected, what's at stake, that sort of thing. This is an effective way to start thinking like a cyber-criminal and work out whether (as a bad guy) you could use the data — within its context.
Note
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