Data Security & Risk Management:
How Do You Classify Sensitive Data?
Establish clear classification levels, label data at creation, and enforce handling rules across the lifecycle. Align with regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and standards like ISO 27001 and NIST.
Classify sensitive data by (1) defining tiers (Public, Internal, Confidential, Restricted), (2) mapping impact to confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA), (3) labeling sources at creation and ingestion, and (4) enforcing controls (access, encryption, retention) based on the label. Review classifications during change events and on a set cadence.
Principles For Data Classification
The Sensitive Data Classification Playbook
A practical sequence to define tiers, label consistently, and automate enforcement.
Step-By-Step
- Inventory data & flows — Build a system-of-record: sources, fields, processing, storage, and sharing.
- Define tiers & criteria — Public, Internal, Confidential, Restricted with impact thresholds and examples.
- Establish handling rules — Access, encryption, retention, data subject rights, and breach notification triggers by tier.
- Label at creation — Mandate labels in forms, repositories, and pipelines; default to most restrictive when in doubt.
- Automate discovery — Use DLP/classification tools to scan cloud, email, endpoints, and data lakes for PII/PHI/PCI.
- Integrate with IAM — Enforce role-based access and just-in-time elevation using labels as policy inputs.
- Protect in motion & at rest — TLS 1.2+ in transit, AES-256 at rest, tokenization or format-preserving encryption for high-risk fields.
- Monitor & alert — Log access by label, set anomaly thresholds, and quarantine exfiltration attempts.
- Review & attest — Quarterly spot checks, annual policy review, and control evidence for audits.
- Retire & dispose — Time-bound retention with defensible deletion and certified destruction.
Classification Tiers: What They Mean And How To Handle Them
| Tier | Examples | Access | Protection | Sharing | Retention |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public | Website content, published reports | Open to all | Integrity controls; backups | Unrestricted | Per business need |
| Internal | Org charts, non-sensitive metrics | Employees/contractors | SSO + MFA; basic logging | Internal systems only | Policy-defined |
| Confidential | Customer PII, contracts, pricing | Least privilege; approvals | AES-256 at rest; DLP; EDR | Need-to-know; DPAs for vendors | Limited; legal holds apply |
| Restricted | PHI, payment data, secrets | Tightly controlled; JIT access | Tokenization; HSM KMS; segmentation | Exception-only; encrypted transfer | Minimal; purge on schedule |
Client Snapshot: Labels That Drive Control
A fintech mapped data flows, standardized four-tier labels, and connected labels to IAM and DLP policies. Within one quarter, unauthorized access alerts dropped 47%, vendor scope was reduced by 29%, and audit prep time fell from six weeks to eight days.
Classification makes protection actionable: when every dataset carries a label, policies follow the data—across apps, vendors, and regions.
FAQ: Classifying Sensitive Data
Quick answers for security, privacy, and operations teams.
Make Classification Work Every Day
We help define tiers, automate discovery, and tie labels to controls across your stack.
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