If you wish to protect specific data in your company, you need to classify them first.
In the Data classification section, you can see a list of classifications you set up and when they were last edited. You can also choose from three best-practice predefined classifications prepared by Safetica: Finance, Healthcare, and Personal.
Data classifications are not prioritized, they are ordered alphabetically. Classifications are evaluated and protection is determined by linked protection policies and their priority.
Data classifications allow you to define what data is considered sensitive in your company (e.g. personal information, credit card numbers, outputs of certain applications, etc.) and help you classify files into different groups based on who, where, and how can work with them. You can use data classifications in policies to detect and secure files that contain sensitive information.
Files can be classified based on their content, origin, file type, or pre-existing classification:
- The simplest method of classifying documents involves identifying the sensitive content they contain. Each file is analyzed whenever it's altered, ensuring that classifications are continuously current. A file might lose its classified status if it no longer contains sensitive information, and conversely, it can become classified upon including such data.
- In cases where sensitive materials are non-textual (like technical drawings), their origin can be a defining factor. Files stored in specific locations, downloaded from certain websites, or exported from designated applications can be classified accordingly.
🍏MacOS devices: Exports from designated apps are currently not supported on macOS.
Learn more about the differences in features between Windows and macOS here.
3. These strategies can be further refined by incorporating a third approach: specifying the file type. This technique effectively reduces the scope of classified documents to only those likely to contain sensitive information.
4. Moreover, Safetica Client is able to recognize metadata classifications from 3rd party classification tools and apply corresponding policies to the files.
All the above-mentioned approaches can be combined within one data classification.
Example:
An HR company that needs to protect CVs of their applicants can do that by defining text patterns that determine sensitive files (most common names, typical keywords used in CVs, etc.).
Similarly, a healthcare company needs to protect personal data of their patients. Safetica can help them with built-in algorithms of many countries’ ID numbers.
On the other hand, an engineering company might need to protect drawings that cannot be defined by their text content. They can, however, classify all files stored on a shared network drive where they keep these drawings.
Read next:
Data classification: What is Safetica unified classification?
Data classification: How to create a new data classification