Fortifying the Digital Core with a Data-Centric Security Framework

⇨ Organizations are leveraging technologies like generative AI and cloud computing to build a digital core that allows for real-time insights, seamless data flow, and enhanced customer experiences, which are crucial for adapting to market changes.

⇨ Implementing a Zero Trust Data-Centric Security approach is essential for protecting the digital core, focusing on safeguarding data itself throughout its lifecycle, controlling access to applications and data, and ensuring robust security against cyber threats.

⇨ A well-structured digital core and effective data-centric security can empower organizations to innovate, make agile decisions, and improve collaboration, leading to increased operational efficiency and business growth.

In a business environment that is constantly evolving, organizations are leveraging the transformative potential of technology to digitally reinvent themselves and adapt to the dynamic world. Technologies like generative AI and cloud computing are being used by organizations to rethink the way they run and accelerate growth. Central to this, is the development of a “digital core,” which enables seamless data flow, real-time insights, and automation, allowing enterprises to efficiently adapt to market changes, innovate, and deliver enhanced customer experiences.  A well-architected digital core not only allows organizations to consolidate its data and crucial functions, but it also offers the capability of generating real-time insights that enables organizations to make agile decisions.

However, while many organizations are increasingly expanding their digital core, it is equally crucial to build robust security to safeguard it. This is important as this digital core acts as a central repository for data and key business processes and a breach can not only halt operations but also lead to significant data loss, financial setbacks, and potential legal repercussions. Safeguarding the digital core is also essential for enhancing agility and competitiveness. The components of a digital core that need to be secured are AI, Big data and analytics, ERP system, and Industry 4.0 (IoT, smart manufacturing, product design, automation, etc.) including cloud computing and security frameworks that are key for reinforcing defenses against advanced threats. Moreover, it is essential that key stakeholders have access to the right set of elements of the digital core that only apply to them, at the right time.

Protect Your Digital Core Using a Data-Centric Approach

While the components of an enterprise’s digital core may vary, it is critical to establish a sustainable framework that scales with evolving requirements. Organizations should turn towards Zero Trust Data-Centric Security, a strategy that applies Zero Trust principles to focus on data, applications and their usage, location, collection, storage, and visibility.

Zero Trust Data-Centric Security takes a proactive approach to data protection by eliminating implicit trust, rigorously ensuring access controls and focusing on securing data comprehensively as opposed to securing only the network perimeter. This approach significantly enhances security by shifting the focus from traditional perimeter defenses to protecting data itself, regardless of its location. Implementing Data-Centric Security that incorporates Zero Trust principles, allows organizations to address the critical pillars for safeguarding its digital core:

Control Access to Applications & Data: Whether it be AI systems, ERP systems, data analytics, or cloud infrastructure, it is critical to control access to the system in which sensitive data resides.  Given the Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) emphasizes the principle of “never trust, always verify,” it ensures every request to access critical systems are authenticated and authorized, regardless of its origin.

With the implementation of dynamic authorization, attribute-based access controls (ABAC), and continuous monitoring, enterprises can significantly reduce the risk of unauthorized access. By ensuring that every request is verified, enterprises can prevent malicious actors from exploiting critical systems for harmful purposes.  Additionally, the use of the least privilege principle ensures that users and processes only have access to the resources necessary for their job function, minimizing the attack surface and preventing breaches.

Safeguard the Data Itself: Data is the oxygen that fuels a digital enterprise. Data related to an enterprise’s digital core, despite its diversity, serves as the engine that drives innovation within the organization. If it is not adequately protected, it becomes vulnerable to insider risks and a prime target for cyberattacks. By focusing on the data itself, as opposed to the traditional perimeter-based security measures, safeguarding data with data-centric security control provides a more effective defense against cyber threats by ensures that sensitive information is safeguarded in real-time, regardless of its state—whether at rest, in use, or during sharing.

Some proven techniques used to apply controls to protect data are data tagging, encryption, dynamic data masking, and logical segregation, which are essential for maintaining the integrity and confidentiality of data.  Data tagging helps in identifying and categorizing data based on its sensitivity, enabling tailored security measures. Encryption secures data by converting it into an unreadable format, while dynamic data masking changes the data stream so that the data requester does not get access to the sensitive data with no physical changes to the original production data.  Data segregation partitions sensitive information virtually via policy to allow only authorized users to view the data sets that pertain to them.

Protect Data Throughout its Lifecycle:  Organizations that can instill digital trust will be able to participate in 50% more ecosystems, expanding revenue-generation opportunities. Develop trust-based mechanisms that establish high levels of trust in the data source and separately in the trustworthiness of the data allows enterprises to align appropriate data use with business goals, both within and outside the organization. Hence, it is critical to protect data throughout its lifecycle – at the source, at the point of use, and on the move — during collection, use, analysis, processing, and transmission.

Fine-grained access controls and entitlement management can effectively restrict access and segregate sensitive data at its source, ensuring that only authorized users can access and share information. Dynamic data masking and obfuscation can protect data in use by rendering sensitive information unrecognizable to unauthorized users at the point of access, while encryption safeguards data in transit. When these techniques are implemented effectively, enterprises can enhance data governance and prevent the leakage of sensitive information throughout its lifecycle.

Secure information sharing internally and externally: Business leaders who share data extensively generate three times more measurable economic benefit than those who do not. Organizations that promote data sharing among employees, partners, and stakeholders have outperformed their peers on most business value metrics. To balance collaboration and security, enterprises need a solution that maintains data protection regardless of how or with whom it is shared, preventing unauthorized transfers and improper sharing.

Enterprise Digital Rights Management (E-DRM) protects sensitive information throughout its lifecycle from unauthorized access, use, and distribution. E-DRM employs attribute-based policies to dynamically grant permissions based on the recipient’s identity for specific actions—such as viewing, editing, copying, forwarding, printing, and extracting content—with options to set expiration dates, dynamic watermarks, and usage limits. Policies can be updated or revoked even after a document is shared outside the enterprise. E-DRM provides peace of mind for safe file sharing with internal and external stakeholders while mitigating risks of unauthorized access and breaches.

By implementing the four critical pillars of data-centric security, enterprises can not only protect their digital core but also maintain operational integrity, maintain trust with stakeholders, and empower the global workforce to foster innovation. A reinvention-ready digital core will simplify the adoption of new technologies like gen AI and enables companies to break through performance barriers.

How NextLabs Can Help Secure Your Digital Core

NextLabs helps Intelligent Enterprises streamline protection for their digital core by using a data-centric approach that applies zero trust principles to protect critical data, as outlined in the four pillars above. It enforces access rights and protects structured and unstructured data throughout its entire lifecycle: at rest, in transit, and in use; regardless of where data resides – whether it is in application, file, file repository, or database on-premises, or in the cloud. NextLabs Zero Trust Data Security consists of CloudAz, unified policy platform that functions as the Control Center, and three enforcement solutions to protect data at the source (Application Enforcer), persistently protect files at rest and on the move (SkyDRM), and control global data access (Data Access Enforcer).

To learn more about how to create a scalable framework to safeguard new technologies like AI, check out NextLabs’ article on the Future of Data Security for AI.  Alternatively, explore how their customers are safeguarding their digital core with Zero Trust Data-Centric Security.