Sensitive data discovery tools for MySQL

List of sensitive data discovery tools

In recent years many international organizations, countries, states etc. have introduced strict regulations regarding sensitive data storing and processing (GDPR in EU, CCPA in California state or PDBP in India just to name a few) to ensure that companies and organizations handle personal information correctly. This should motivate organizations to revise their data protection policies and identify all private data they collect and process. Invaluable help with this tedious task are sensitive data discovery tools.

PII Tools

PII Tools empowers you to scan your inventory and reveal any personal or sensitive data and analyze discovered data based on its severity, content, and context. In addition, you can report, delete, or quarantine suspect personal information and keep up with regulations with scheduled scans.

Data Activity Monitoring: No
Data Classification: Yes
Encryption, blocking, masking and quarantining: Yes
Export: -
GDPR: Yes
PHI (Protected Helath Information): Yes
PII (Personal Identifiable Information): Yes
Runs on: (for desktop): -
Structured Data: Yes
Ustructured Data: Yes

Seeker

Seeker is data loss prevention (DLP) software designed to offer sensitive data detection capabilities. In addition to detecting the most common forms of sensitive data such as social security numbers and credit cards, Seeker can also flag files within scan results having file system permissions that might be of concern

Data Activity Monitoring: No
Data Classification: No
Encryption, blocking, masking and quarantining: No
Export: -
GDPR: No
PHI (Protected Helath Information): No
PII (Personal Identifiable Information): Yes
Runs on: (for desktop): Mac OS,Windows
Structured Data: Yes
Ustructured Data: Yes

Solix Common Data Platform (CDP)

Solix Common Data Platform (CDP) provides data officers with a single pane of glass view into the complete enterprise data landscape (both production & non-production). Data officers can quickly discover and report on - industry-standard sensitive information such as PII, PCI, PHI using out-of-the-box algorithms and confidential information that is unique to their organization using custom algorithms.

Data Activity Monitoring: No
Data Classification: Yes
Encryption, blocking, masking and quarantining: Yes
Export: -
GDPR: Yes
PHI (Protected Helath Information): Yes
PII (Personal Identifiable Information): Yes
Runs on: (for desktop): -
Structured Data: Yes
Ustructured Data: Yes

Somansa Server-i

Somansa Server-i is an endpoint discover solution to protect sensitive data and personal information stored in servers and databases. Using advanced machine learning algorithms and big data search technology, Server-i monitors, discovers, and secures sensitive data based on policy rules.

Data Activity Monitoring: No
Data Classification: No
Encryption, blocking, masking and quarantining: Yes
Export: -
GDPR: Yes
PHI (Protected Helath Information): Yes
PII (Personal Identifiable Information): Yes
Runs on: (for desktop): Mac OS,Windows
Structured Data: Yes
Ustructured Data: -

Spirion

Spirion empowers you to automatically and persistently discover, classify, understand, control, and protect sensitive data in a way that ensured compliance but also allowed for business agility. It automates sensitive data classification throughout the data lifecycle for optimal protection and user access. In addition, it lets you create automated playbooks with a broad, flexible range of remediation actions to save time and ensure consistent treatment of sensitive data types.

Data Activity Monitoring: Yes
Data Classification: Yes
Encryption, blocking, masking and quarantining: Yes
Export: -
GDPR: Yes
PHI (Protected Helath Information): Yes
PII (Personal Identifiable Information): Yes
Runs on: (for desktop): Mac OS,Windows
Structured Data: Yes
Ustructured Data: Yes

Discovering sensitive data can be done manually, simply by looking into each data source and identifying those with personal information inside. This solution, however, is very time-consuming and prone to mistakes. Much better is to use one of sensitive data discovery tools which does all that work automatically. Many of these solutions can work not only with structured, but also with semi-structured and unstructured data. Furthermore, some of them offer periodic synchronization with data sources, to automatically classify newly added information.

Why sensitive data classification is important? First and foremost, it is sign of care for clients and employees. No privacy data should leak, nor it should be seen by unauthorized people. Each organization should store only this information that are necessary for its’ functioning and collect them only with explicit consent (both are currently enforced by law). Not following rules can have severe consequences such as:

• Financial fines – London based pharmacy Doorstep Dispensaree Ltd was fined £275,000 for leaving medical files unprotected,
• Clients’ loss – PCI Pal conveyed a survey in which 83% of US customers claimed, they would stop spending with a business for several months in the immediate aftermath of a security breach,
• Legal prosecution – according to the Data Protection Act 2018 in UK, employee can face prosecution for data protection breaches,
• Loss of reputation – today’s more aware of cybersecurity customers may refuse to trust a company which violated data privacy rules.

Sensitive data discovery software is only part of personal information protection policy, although very important part. It is helpful especially when an organization uses many different data sources (files, databases, personal archives) or data regarding several countries, where identifying e.g., ID numbers may get complicated. However even small companies with clients from one region should be aware of private data in their systems, hence it is advised to frequently use one of listed sensitive data discovery software by organizations of any size.