Mitigate Privacy Risks with
Data Analytics

Why Unstructured Data?

In the traditional data space, structured data is what most have dealt with and are comfortable with. Not only is it easy to identify and understand what data elements you have based on your database schemas, but you also typically have a fairly good idea of where your data resides, because that data is managed. Additionally, there are tools today that help you to manage and catalog your data in the structured world.

Unlike this structured world, where information is stored in a predefined data model, unstructured data:

• Does not have a predefined data model and is not organized in a predefined manner
• Comes in many unrelated forms, such as documents, text files, spreadsheets, presentation files, video files, audio files, and pictures, which are the more common formats
• Is typically stored in individual files without an organizational application organizing and managing the relationships between those files

There is currently no easy way for us to understand what is really stored in the unstructured space without physically opening the files and looking. There are, of course, machine learning and artificial intelligence tools available to help you parse some of the unstructured world, but those type of projects require time, money, and the right data science team to train and productionize the model.

Mitigate Data Risk with Insight AnalytiX – Privacy Risk Classifier

Insight AnalytiX is a platform that runs Privacy Risk Classifier, which recognizes files containing Personal Identifiable Information (PII). It processes more than 200 file types, including:

• Known file formats, such as XLSX, CSV, PPT, DOCX, and DOC
• Image formats like BMP, JFIF, or JPEG
• Scanned documents, as in PDF files

Privacy Risk Classifier recognizes 49 different types of personally identifiable information, which include names, email addresses, mobile numbers, social security numbers (SSNs), and addresses.

This application is built on top of pattern recognition technology, keyword recognition technology, and artificial intelligence (AI). It comes with AI models, a pattern dictionary of 500+ advanced patterns, and a 200,000+ keyword dictionary. Role-based access (RBAC) is also part of the functionality, as Privacy Risk Classifier has a built-in authentication mechanism that can integrate with an Active Directory server.

How Does it Work?

As a prerequisite, Insight AnalytiX requires StorageX to be installed in the same environment. A user creates an analysis set in StorageX before they can start using Insight AnalytiX’s Privacy Risk Classifier. Privacy Risk Classifier works in coordination with StorageX and fetches lists of analysis sets from the StorageX server.

Once a user initiates data discovery, Privacy Risk Classifier connects to the network-attached storage (NAS) devices included in the selected analysis set and streams the files of that analysis set. It uses NFS (v3) and SMB (v2 & v3) protocols to stream files from NAS devices.

Privacy Risk Classifier reads the file content of supported file types, as well as the file metadata for unsupported file types, with the help of various file readers. It also uses the built-in Data Science Engine to find out if any scanned file contains any personal identifiable information. The complete analysis is recorded in the application, and the user can see view the results in various graphical formats.

1. Analyze & Classify your Unstructured Data

After an analysis set is processed, the user can select a template within Privacy Risk Classifier and view the data analysis. Each template includes a set of specific PIIs that are grouped for different types of use. Privacy Risk Classifier analyzes file data using the below metrics: 

2. Search

Insight AnalytiX has full text-search functionality. It allows a user to search a processed analysis set or all processed analysis sets in their environment. A user can also search with the help of “AND” and “OR” operators, giving the user the flexibility to search more intelligently.  For example, using the AND operator, a user can make all words in the search text mandatory in the search results; in the case of the OR operator, a user can make at least one of the search text words mandatory in the search results.

The latest version of Insight AnalytiX allows users to generate a Data Insight report on a dataset by building advanced, multi-level logical expressions using a combination of logical operators. This ensures increased accuracy in PII/sensitive data discovery, backed by deep analytics (both descriptive and diagnostic). 

Search returns the search results using file type-based filters, allowing users to see results for a specific file type. The user can export the results in CSV file format.

3. Role-Based Access

Insight AnalytiX includes three pre-defined roles and allows users to create roles based on their specific needs:

Insight AnalytiX comes with its own user authentication mechanism or can be configured to authenticate users against an existing Active Directory server.

Conclusion

The key to managing your unstructured data – and therefore optimizing your storage footprint – is knowledge. Knowing what data you have in your environment is essential to figuring out what you can and should do with that data.

Since StorageX is tightly integrated with Insight AnalytiX, users have an unprecedented ability to dig deeply into their unstructured data and find data that could be potentially sensitive or need to be organized or stored differently.

Using Privacy Risk Classifier, you can quickly and easily find and categorize your data, then use the analysis results to determine what data may need to be migrated, what sensitive data may need to be secured, and what data should be removed entirely. This information powers data optimization on existing storage and helps you make better plans for future storage usage, as well as avoid potential liabilities.

It is likely that these initiatives are now front and center within your 2023 “must haves”.

Find answers to you questions by contacting solutions@datdyn.com

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