Data Security Posture Management (DSPM)

Data security posture management (DSPM) identifies and reduces data exposure risk across cloud environments. 

A DSPM solution discovers sensitive data, classifies it, maps how it moves and flags excessive permissions or insecure configurations that could put that data at risk.

Unlike traditional data protection tools that operate in isolation, DSPM focuses on cloud-native risks. It accounts for the complexity of today’s environments: multi-cloud, multi-identity, high velocity and high exposure.

DSPM platforms help security teams answer critical questions:

• Where is our sensitive data?
• Who or what can access it?
• Is that access necessary or over-permissioned?
• Are there misconfigurations that make the data publicly accessible or vulnerable to attack?

When done right, DSPM gives you a continuous view of cloud data risk, not just snapshots. It enables proactive remediation before incidents occur and supports DSPM use cases across security, compliance, privacy and DevSecOps teams.

The cloud made data sprawl easy. Teams can spin up services in seconds, store terabytes of customer data and integrate with hundreds of third-party APIs. But this flexibility comes at a cost. It’s easy to lose track of where sensitive data is and its exposures.

DSPM addresses this by providing visibility into data locations, configurations, access paths and identities. It shines light on dark corners of your cloud data estate, where excessive entitlements, shared secrets, shadow storage or unencrypted assets are often unnoticed.

It also strengthens your cloud compliance and audit readiness by supporting frameworks, backed by evidence and controls mapped to sensitive data. 

And, as cloud security maturity evolves, DSPM facilitates deeper alignment with cloud-native security strategies like exposure management and cloud-native application protection platforms (CNAPP).

1. Automatically discover and classify sensitive data 
DSPM tools crawl structured and unstructured data across AWS, Azure, GCP and SaaS platforms for deep sensitive data discovery and classification. They use data classification models to tag regulated data and custom, sensitive data relevant to your business.

2. Map data flows and relationships
DSPM visualizes how sensitive data moves through cloud services, applications, APIs and identities. It helps you understand blast radius, lateral exposure and which data sets are most at risk if you have misconfigurations or over-permissioned access.

3. Detect excessive access and toxic combinations
DSPM solutions analyze access policies to surface issues like allAuthenticatedUsers or service accounts with admin roles. Combined with exposure from public buckets, weak encryption or open ports, these create critical risks attackers can exploit.

4. Prioritize risk
Instead of flooding you with alerts, DSPM software ties data exposure risk to data sensitivity, exploitability and business impact, so teams know which cyber threats represent actual risk for your unique needs and environments. 

5. Remediate with confidence
Top DSPM platforms offer remediation guidance based on context. That might include removing access, encrypting data, fixing an S3 policy or revoking unused entitlements. Integrations with cloud security posture management (CSPM) and cloud infrastructure and entitlements management (CIEM) tools help streamline enforcement.

DSPM follows a continuous cycle:

1. Discovery
Scans cloud environments for data stores, databases, containers, SaaS services and shadow infrastructure. Discovery includes structured, unstructured and semi-structured data, and tracks shadow data that may live in unauthorized tools or unmanaged cloud assets.

2. Classification
Automatically labels sensitive data based on compliance frameworks and business logic. DSPM may also support custom classification for intellectual property or proprietary data.

3. Access analysis
Evaluates who and what can access data, including human users, machine identities, service accounts, third-party SaaS integrations and workloads. This step aligns with CIEM capabilities.

4. Posture assessment
Scans for cloud misconfigurations like public buckets, disabled logging, open ports, overly permissive roles or unsecured data lakes. DSPM connects these configuration risks directly to the data assets they affect.

5. Risk modeling
Uses exposure graphs to map toxic combinations between misconfigured resources, over-permissioned access and sensitive data. DSPM helps security teams visualize attack paths and prioritize high-impact risks.

6. Remediation and response
Prioritizes and fixes the exposures that matter most using guided remediation and policy automation. Combining security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR), cloud-native application protection platforms (CNAPPs) or security information and event management (SIEM) tools can help you automate response.

DSPM delivers value through practical, high-impact use cases that address today’s biggest cloud data challenges. From preventing breaches to ensuring compliance, it helps your teams proactively manage data exposure and align security with business needs. 

Here are some common ways organizations use DSPM to reduce risk:

• Spot high-risk data exposure paths before attackers do to decrease the chance of a breach.
• Demonstrate compliance and control of sensitive data in line with industry standards and regulations.
• Maintain inventory and policy evidence for regulated data sets for audit readiness.
• Reduce risk by enforcing least privilege access.
• Find unauthorized services storing or using sensitive data.
• Identify and mitigate AI-related data risks across your cloud footprint.
• Enable developers to detect risky data exposure early in the pipeline.
• Establish sustainable control over data residency, sovereignty and usage policies.

DSPM brings data exposure insights into your DevSecOps lifecycle, helping developers shift left and catch risky data handling before code hits production.

When you embed DSPM into your CI/CD pipelines, it scans infrastructure-as-code (IaC), container images, APIs and deployment manifests in real time. It flags issues like sensitive data left in test environments or secrets baked into containers.

With this visibility, your developers can fix problems early. They can encrypt storage, tighten entitlements or remove embedded secrets before they spread across environments.

DSPM helps you spot toxic combinations, like public access to secrets tied to service accounts, and provides clear remediation steps. You can even automate fixes through policy-as-code workflows.

The result is smoother releases, fewer post-deployment surprises and better alignment between security and development speed.

DSPM also supports compliance-focused DevOps. It makes it easier to enforce privacy-by-design principles and add data governance checks directly into development pipelines.

Your team can automatically generate reports, while enforcement gates block data-related policy violations from moving forward, which saves time during audits and reduces risk.

Ultimately, DSPM connects code, data and deployment in one unified pipeline so sensitive data never slips through the cracks during build, test or deployment. It keeps security, compliance and developer agility in sync.

Shadow data is sensitive information hiding in places you don’t manage or monitor, like old databases, forgotten test buckets or SaaS apps spun up outside your governance framework.

Think of it as the cloud’s dark side: an unmonitored surface attackers love to exploit.

DSPM addresses shadow data by going beyond approved environments. It scans every connected account, service, container and shadow SaaS app for structured and unstructured data. It maps what it finds and highlights sensitive content wherever it lives, even in forgotten test buckets or AI model training data sets.

After discovery, DSPM classifies and contextualizes each repository.

• Does that unmanaged data lake hold sensitive information?
• Is there source code sitting in an abandoned dev bucket?

It doesn’t stop there. 

DSPM overlays identity and configuration analysis to catch toxic combinations, like public write access on a forgotten data store tied to expired admin credentials.

Guided remediation helps you bring shadow data back under control. You can migrate it to approved storage, revoke risky access, delete stale copies or securely encrypt what you need to keep.

By regaining visibility and control over these unknowns, DSPM shrinks your attack surface and eliminates one of the most common sources of untracked risk.

Regulations demand tight control over who can access sensitive data, with solid proof to back it up.

This is where DSPM helps with compliance. It automates workflows that strengthen your compliance program and make audits far less painful.

It starts by continuously discovering and classifying data based on regulation-driven categories like financial records or protected health information. You’ll see where that data lives, who has access to it, and where it has exposures.

Then, DSPM checks your configurations and identity settings to ensure they align with policy requirements. That means you have encryption where you need it, you’ve shut off public access, and entitlements follow least-privilege standards.

If something drifts out of compliance, DSPM flags it in easy-to-read, risk-scored dashboards.

When auditors show up, you’re ready. DSPM gives you artifact-rich reports that map data sets to controls, show remediation steps and include timestamps. Remember, auditors want proof, not promises.

You can also track compliance status and remediation progress over time with customizable dashboards.

As regulations change, DSPM adapts. It updates data categories, supports custom labeling and fine-tunes classification models to meet new requirements.

With continuous monitoring, your security posture stays audit-ready even as your cloud environments evolve.

DSPM can reduce audit friction, lower the risk of fines and help your team maintain certified readiness with less effort.

At its core, DSPM focuses on reducing cloud data risk in a targeted, measurable way. It adds data context to your infrastructure and identity visibility so you can uncover real attack paths, not just theoretical vulnerabilities.

It starts by automatically discovering sensitive data across multi-cloud and SaaS environments.

From there, DSPM builds exposure graphs — visual models showing how identities, configurations, network paths and data interact. 

You can see how an unencrypted database paired with stale admin credentials creates a direct path for attackers. These clear attack paths guide your remediation efforts.

DSPM also applies risk scoring to prioritize actual risk. A test bucket leaking dummy data gets a lower score than a misconfigured data store exposing real customer records. It helps you align fixes with business priorities.

Once you identify dangerous exposures, guided remediation makes it easy to revoke access, encrypt data or adjust configurations. DSPM integrates with CIEM, CSPM, SIEM/SOAR or CNAPP tools for manual and automated responses.

Because continuous monitoring is built in, cloud risk reduction isn’t a one-time effort. DSPM keeps watching for new data stores, configuration drifts or identity changes in real time, so your organization can move closer to fewer exposures.

The result? A measurable reduction in your cloud attack surface, fewer data breach incidents and stronger alignment between security, development and governance teams.

CSPM focuses on securing infrastructure configurations, networks, workloads and services. 

DSPM adds a missing layer: data.

While CSPM can alert you to a public bucket or an open firewall rule, it doesn’t tell if that resource contains customer data. DSPM answers that question and then shows you the full scope of your exposures.

Think of CSPM like checking the locks and windows on your house. It tells you if you left a door open or a window unlocked. But it doesn’t tell you what valuables are inside. 

DSPM answers the question: what’s at risk? To show you if you have sensitive customer data in an open bucket or exposed database.

When used together, DSPM vs. CSPM offer layered visibility. You can detect the infrastructure flaw (via CSPM) and assess the data impact (via DSPM) for an accurate picture of risk.

You strengthen your security posture by embedding DSPM into your exposure management strategy. It helps you proactively reduce risk by giving you a clear view of your entire data attack surface. 

DSPM shows you where sensitive data lives across your multi-cloud environments, who can access it, and how misconfigurations create dangerous exposure paths.

Combining DSPM with CSPM and CIEM in a unified exposure management platform gives you a unified view of risk. 

• CSPM spots public storage buckets.
• CIEM highlights over-privileged users.
• DSPM connects those findings to the actual sensitive data at risk. 

Together, they reveal toxic combinations, like a super-admin user accessing a publicly exposed database with customer data. Those issues might not seem critical on their own, but combined, they expose a serious, exploitable attack path.

Instead of chasing every misconfiguration, DSPM helps you prioritize based on data sensitivity, access criticality and business impact. You also get clear, contextual remediation steps, like revoking specific privileges or encrypting an exposed data store, so your teams can act fast.

With DSPM, you move beyond noisy alerts to actionable intelligence. Your response becomes faster and more precise, and your attack surface shrinks in a way that directly reduces real-world data risk.

Not all DSPM platforms offer the same level of protection. To reduce cloud data risk, you need a solution that goes beyond basic discovery and delivers context-driven, actionable intelligence.

Look for a DSPM platform that supports multi-cloud and SaaS environments so you have consistent visibility across AWS, Azure, GCP and SaaS apps. It should use agentless, API-based scanning to avoid blind spots and reduce operational overhead while continuously monitoring without disrupting workloads.

Automated discovery is critical for uncovering shadow data like forgotten buckets, unmanaged databases and unauthorized SaaS tools. Once found, DSPM should classify data by sensitivity and regulatory requirements so you can prioritize what matters.

It must also analyze identities, roles and entitlements to catch over-permissioned accounts and toxic privilege combinations. Context matters, too. DSPM should show how misconfigurations, identities and data connect to form real attack paths, not just isolated alerts.

Integration is key. 

A good DSPM solution works with CSPM, CIEM and CNAPP tools for a unified risk view. It should also apply risk scoring based on exposure severity and business impact, so you know which issues to fix first.

Finally, look for guided remediation. The best DSPM platforms provide clear steps like revoking permissions, encrypting data or disabling public access, with automation options to speed up response.

Frequently asked DSPM questions:

What kinds of data does DSPM protect?

DSPM protects structured and unstructured sensitive data, including customer records, payment data, health information, IP and source code. It also helps secure shadow data across cloud-native environments. 

Is DSPM required for compliance?

While not mandatory, DSPM helps meet compliance obligations by providing continuous data visibility and risk control. Many auditors now expect proof of data classification and access governance, and evidence of measures that reduce the risk of data incidents, which DSPM supports. 

Can DSPM replace DLP or CSPM?

No. DSPM complements those tools. DLP protects data at rest, in motion and in use by enforcing policies that prevent unauthorized access or sharing, like blocking users from copying sensitive files to USB drives or cloud storage. CSPM secures infrastructure. DSPM focuses on data at rest and its exposure posture, especially in dynamic, cloud-native environments.

Does Tenable offer DSPM?

Yes. Tenable Cloud Security has DSPM capabilities that discover, classify and protect sensitive data across the cloud. DSPM is part of a broader exposure management strategy that includes CSPM, CIEM and cloud vulnerability management.

Tenable data security posture management capabilities are part of its unified cloud security platform that integrates DSPM, CSPM, vulnerability management and identity risk analysis. With Tenable, you gain deep visibility into:

• The location of sensitive data
• How that data flows
• Who can access it
• Which exposure paths pose real risk

By mapping data access to cloud misconfigurations, over-permissioned roles and external exposure, Tenable helps you find and fix the gaps that matter most. DSPM is part of a broader exposure management strategy, giving you the clarity and context to secure critical cloud data.

Learn how Tenable Cloud Security supports data security posture management.