Data Security Fundamentals
Understanding data security
01
What is data security?
Data security is all the practices, technologies, and policies that protect your sensitive data from unauthorized access, theft, or loss, anywhere it’s stored, used, or shared.
02
Why do you need data security?
Data breaches can hurt your brand reputation and disrupt your business. Data security ensures your information stays safe, you stay compliant, and you keep your customers' trust.
03
How does data security work?
Technologies like access controls, continuous monitoring, encryption, and more allow only authorized access to your data, and identify and stop potential threats in real time.
Benefits of data security
Putting data security to work for your organization
An effective data security platform powers success by protecting sensitive information, ensuring compliance, and enabling business growth.
Reduce the risk of a breach
Keep critical data secure with strong encryption, data discovery, access controls, and DLP solutions.
Ensure regulatory compliance
Simplify compliance through tools that uphold data privacy and governance frameworks like GDPR and CCPA.
Streamline IT workflows
Automate data discovery and risk management, reducing operational complexity and overhead.
Strengthen business resilience
Mitigate evolving risks with real-time threat detection, rapid response, and adaptive security measures.
TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES
Data security + zero trust
Perimeter-based security leaves data vulnerable to lateral movement and accidental exposure. Zero trust enforces strict access controls, continuous verification, and least-privilege policies, protecting data everywhere—in the cloud, on-premises, or in transit.
True data security requires zero trust. True zero trust requires Zscaler.
Essential elements of effective data security
Understanding key data security technologies
AI-SPM provides visibility into public and private AI/GenAI deployments, inference data, and risk factors. With massive adoption of AI tools worldwide, AI-SPM has become essential for mitigating vulnerabilities and reducing risks associated with AI-driven processes. Learn more
Access controls enforce strict policies to allow only authorized users to access sensitive systems and data according to their roles or business needs. Effective controls are the linchpin of least-privileged access, one of the core tenets of zero trust security. Learn more
Authentication helps ensure users are who they claim to be, using one or more methods such as passwords, biometrics, security tokens, etc. Strong multifactor authentication (MFA) reduces the risk of credential theft and abuse, a major vector of stealthy threats. Learn more
Browser isolation creates a secure environment for accessing web and SaaS applications. Isolating the browser session from the network prevents malware infections and data leaks, helping protect remote work and devices, including unmanaged/BYOD endpoints. Learn more
CASBs monitor and govern user interactions with cloud apps to prevent data leaks, stop malware, control shadow IT, block risky sharing, enforce security policies, and ensure compliance. In our cloud-first world, CASBs give IT teams back control over data. Learn more
Data backup systems are a failsafe against loss of valuable or sensitive data in the event of system failures, cyberattacks, or natural disasters. Backups support faster recovery, reduce operational downtime and financial impact, and help preserve trust.
DLP technologies prevent unauthorized access, transfer, or usage of sensitive data by monitoring it at rest or in motion across systems. With data more distributed than ever and breaches on the rise, DLP is essential to ensuring privacy and security. Learn more
DSPM conducts contextual analysis to identify vulnerabilities, ensure compliance, and strengthen protection around sensitive data. Its real-time risk insights help organizations safeguard data against evolving threats in today's complex environments. Learn more
Discovery and classification tools locate and tag data to help organizations understand where it resides and its risk exposure. In today's sprawling data ecosystems, these tools help prioritize security efforts and comply with data protection regulations. Learn more
Encryption converts plain data into a scrambled, unreadable format to protect it against unauthorized access, exposure, or breaches while it's being stored or moved. Even if encrypted data is intercepted, it cannot be read without use of its decryption key. Learn more
SSPM secures SaaS applications by ensuring they are properly configured and continuously monitoring their risk posture. As cloud apps dominate workflows, SSPMs reduce vulnerabilities, prevent misconfigurations, and maintain regulatory compliance. Learn more
AI tools can boost productivity, but even well-meaning users can accidentally leak sensitive data in AI prompts. Instead of blocking AI tools—and their benefits—to avoid risk, adopt an AI-powered data security platform that provides:
Deep, context-rich insights into AI usage, user activity, and risky prompts
End-to-end data loss prevention (DLP) to stop data leakage via AI apps
Granular controls to regulate AI app usage and block high-risk actions
REGULATIONS AND COMPLIANCE
Compliance in a complex regulatory landscape
Compliance requirements create unique challenges for businesses embracing the cloud and digital transformation. By adopting SSPM or DSPM to align compliance and cloud security, businesses can tackle these challenges while simultaneously building trust. Leading posture management solutions track risk against common compliance frameworks like NIST, SOC, and ISO.
DATA SECURITY USE CASES
Zscaler’s AI-powered, cloud native data security platform simplifies enforcement, enhances visibility, and protects sensitive data across all environments with zero trust.
ZERO TRUST IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES
How do you implement a data security program?
Effective data security starts with a strong foundation, from compliance to your day-to-day operations. No matter the size of your organization, start with these core steps:
Define your data goals to align your strategy with your organization's priorities
Automate data classification with AI to locate and categorize data anywhere
Implement zero trust access controls to protect data and prevent lateral movement
Adopt unified, cloud-based DLP to reduce complexity across your environments
Secure high-risk channels like web, email, SaaS, BYOD, and cloud
FAQ
Zero trust strengthens data security by eliminating implicit trust within network boundaries. Instead, it enforces strict identity verification, least-privileged access, and microsegmentation. Together, these ensure only authenticated users and devices can access sensitive data, minimizing risks like insider threats, credential abuse, and lateral movement.
Securing sensitive data in hybrid work environments requires strong identity and access management, multi-factor authentication, encryption, and centralized endpoint monitoring. Implementing unified zero trust policies, role-based access controls, and data loss prevention (DLP) is also essential to reduce the risk of unauthorized access, insider threats, and more.
Businesses can protect data against insider threats by adopting a zero trust architecture to enforce least-privileged access, implementing microsegmentation to limit lateral movement, and monitoring user activity with automated tools. Role-based access controls further minimize risk by ensuring authorized users can only access sensitive information required for their job function.
Common mistakes include relying solely on perimeter-based security, neglecting endpoint security, cloud misconfigurations, and weak identity and access management. In particular, misconfigurations and weak access controls cause the majority of breaches because they create vulnerabilities attackers can exploit to access sensitive data or disrupt operations.
Cloud-based security offers flexibility, scalability, and the convenience of managed infrastructure, while on-premises solutions provide direct control over data and infrastructure. Cloud solutions often leverage AI-driven threat detection and global redundancy. However, managing shared responsibility models and cloud configurations requires proactive oversight, while on-premises management requires direct, hands-on administration of security operations.