Managing sensitive data in SharePoint

Without adequate data management, business collaboration tools such as Microsoft SharePoint can present a significant data security risk. In this post, we’ll explain how businesses can effectively manage their sensitive and critical data when using SharePoint.

SharePoint and the sensitive data risk

According to Origami, around 80% of Fortune 500 companies use SharePoint — Microsoft’s document collaboration platform. Now with both server (on-premises) and online (cloud-based) editions, SharePoint is used by businesses for document storage and collaboration. It is also frequently used as a platform for corporate intranet deployments.

On-premises installations represent just 14% of deployments, with 86% using SharePoint Online or hosted versions offered by Microsoft Hosting Partners.

SharePoint is a storage system for unstructured data — data that doesn’t follow a formal schema — including documents, images, presentations and more. Increasingly, organizations use SharePoint in place of file-server-based storage. As a result, almost all types of company data end up stored within it. This includes customer and employee personal information, payments information, business confidential information, intellectual property and other types of critical or sensitive data.

The collaboration, ease-of-access and sharing benefits of tools like SharePoint can also present the greatest risk to businesses when it comes to these sensitive data types.

Without effective methods to identify and manage this data within SharePoint, businesses may be in violation of privacy legislation such as GDPR or HIPAA, or noncompliant with security standards like PCI DSS. Further, data may also be at risk of unauthorized disclosure or even theft.

Managing sensitive data risks with Enterprise Recon

Ground Labs’ Enterprise Recon supports scanning for both SharePoint Server and SharePoint Online, including deleted sites or collections stored in the site recycle bin.

Enterprise Recon is packaged with over 300 pre-defined data types covering 50+ countries, as well as supporting scanning for custom data patterns. The solution offers comprehensive data discovery for SharePoint, enabling businesses to identify and manage their sensitive data risk within the platform.

To find out how Enterprise Recon can reduce your sensitive data risk, book a workshop with one of our experts today.