Businesses today deal with huge amounts of sensitive information, including customer data such as financial records, customer information, and intellectual property. It is important to protect the information from unauthorized access to ensure that customers continue to be able to trust companies with their data and also that it is legally accessible in the event of a dispute or regulatory actions.
Unauthorized access to sensitive data could have serious negative consequences for businesses such as lost sales, reputational damage and legal costs. Adopting a security policy that outlines procedures to safeguard sensitive data will help reduce the risk of cyberattacks and also protect itself from legal risks.
Information security is the broad class of software that helps companies keep their sensitive data safe whether they’re in the cloud or on devices such as laptops. Information protection encompasses everything from policies that define what information is considered to be sensitive and the manner in which it’s accessed, to physical security that protect passwords or encryption, to processes that monitor access, detect threats, and take action to the threat.
The Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) suite of services, also known as Azure Information Protection or Purview, enables the detection and classification of sensitive information by its sensitivity by using labeling. You can safeguard content regardless of where it’s stored or traveled, track who accessed it, and revoke access when needed. MIP can be integrated into other apps and system via the SDK. For example Line-of-business applications can apply a sensitivity tag to documents when exporting them or CAD/CAM tools may use MIP to automatically secure documents prior to saving them to an appropriate folder.