Unstructured Data Security and Protection

TL;DR:

• Unstructured data is a goldmine of insights but poses challenges in security and compliance.
• Strac excels at securing unstructured data, enabling organizations to unlock its full potential.
• Risks of privacy and compliance in unstructured data must be addressed.
• Strac helps manage files containing sensitive data and navigate the complexity of file collection and storage.
• Implementing Strac's solution enhances email security, safeguards customer support data, secures collaboration tools, and ensures oversight in cloud databases.

In today's digital world, data is a goldmine of insights waiting to be unlocked. While structured data like numbers and tables have long been the go-to for analysis, unstructured data—think documents, images, emails, chat logs—now accounts for up to 90% of all data. Despite its prevalence, organizations are still struggling to fully tap into its value because of challenges surrounding security, privacy, and the sheer diversity of formats.

Unstructured data often hides sensitive information, like personally identifiable information (PII) or payment data, which must be protected to comply with regulations like GDPR and HIPAA. But that shouldn’t mean locking away unstructured data from analysis or operational use. This blog explores how to overcome the complexity of unstructured data and how Strac excels at securing it, empowering organizations to safely unlock its full potential.

Differences Between Structured and Unstructured Data Security

Structured data—think databases, spreadsheets, or anything that fits into a tidy, defined schema—is easy to store, search, and analyze. However, unstructured data presents a far more complex landscape. It encompasses files such as PDFs, Word documents (DOC, DOCX), images (JPEG, PNG, SCREENSHOT), Excel spreadsheets (XSLX, XSL), ZIP, and even videos (MPEG) or audio recordings. In this world of unstructured data, rigid schemas give way to diverse formats that require flexible tools for effective analysis.

This variety opens new opportunities for deeper insights but brings along unique challenges, particularly around security and compliance.

Addressing the Challenges of Securing Unstructured Data

1. Risks of Privacy and Compliance in Unstructured Data

Unstructured data is often a mix of sensitive information hidden in formats like documents or email threads. Whether it's healthcare records, financial documents, or government IDs, unstructured data can easily become a minefield of compliance issues. Regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA mandate that organizations know exactly where their sensitive data is stored, who has access to it, and how it’s being used.

Unfortunately, most organizations don’t have full visibility into their unstructured data. This lack of oversight makes it hard to comply with requests such as “right to be forgotten” or to keep personal data within specific geographic regions. Strac helps by scanning, classifying, and remediating unstructured data automatically across SaaS apps and cloud environments, ensuring compliance without the burden of manual monitoring.

2. Unstructured Data's Ubiquity in Email, Slack, and Beyond

Unstructured data doesn’t live in a single place; it’s scattered across a variety of platforms and communication tools that companies use daily. This fragmented data is found in emails, customer support tickets, Slack conversations, SharePoint documents, and cloud databases like Amazon S3. Each of these sources presents its own challenge when it comes to identifying, securing, and maintaining compliance with sensitive information.

1. Emails: Often used to communicate critical information, emails can contain PII, contracts, and financial documents. Sensitive attachments can be shared inadvertently with unauthorized users or stored in unprotected inboxes for too long.

1. Customer Support Tickets: Customer support platforms often hold valuable customer data, from names and contact information to sensitive troubleshooting logs that might include account credentials or health data.

1. Slack and Messaging Platforms: Slack has become a primary mode of communication in many organizations, but casual conversations can often include sensitive data—think financial reports, personal data, or even social security numbers shared in haste.
2. SharePoint: While great for team collaboration, SharePoint can easily become a dumping ground for documents containing sensitive or confidential information. Without clear oversight, data can end up in public folders or shared beyond its intended audience.
3. Cloud Databases like S3: Companies store a wide range of unstructured data—images, audio files, PDFs, and more—in cloud storage solutions like Amazon S3. However, many struggle to maintain visibility over what data is stored, who can access it, and whether that data complies with regulations like GDPR or HIPAA.

The decentralized nature of unstructured data across these platforms creates significant blind spots for organizations trying to stay compliant with data privacy regulations. Without proper tools, sensitive information can easily be overlooked, mishandled, or exposed to unauthorized access.

3. Managing Files Containing Sensitive Data

What happens after you collect these sensitive files? Often, businesses need to process them—perhaps extract key data points from a driver’s license or redact sensitive information from a legal document before sharing it with third parties. With Strac, businesses can securely perform these operations without decrypting or exposing sensitive data to unnecessary risks.

For instance, Strac's platform allows for automated detection and redaction of PII or PHI from files, keeping compliance in check while ensuring business workflows aren’t disrupted. Whether you’re working with consultants, auditors, or AI models, Strac helps you maintain a zero-trust environment by managing who can see, edit, or share sensitive content.

4. Navigating the Complexity of File Collection and Storage for Security

Many businesses collect sensitive documents through customer-facing applications, such as images of passports, tax forms, or healthcare records. Without the right infrastructure, these files travel through multiple services, exposing organizations to potential data leaks at each touchpoint.

With Strac, businesses can securely collect and store sensitive files like PDFs, images, and even large data-heavy files, ensuring that data remains encrypted and protected from the moment it’s uploaded to the point it reaches long-term storage. Strac’s secure vault handles encryption, access control, and storage compliance, minimizing the risk of exposure.

5. Avoiding the Dangers of File Sharing in Unstructured Data

It’s not just about storing data securely—what about when sensitive files need to be shared? Whether you're sharing a signed contract, financial statement, or government ID with third-party vendors or internal teams, keeping these files secure in transit is crucial.

Strac’s file-sharing capabilities allow users to share sensitive files securely with granular permissions and time-limited access. For example, sharing a driver’s license with a Know Your Customer (KYC) verification provider becomes safe and compliant by ensuring the file never resides on your infrastructure, limiting the risk of data leaks.

Implementing Unstructured Data Security Solution

To address this growing challenge, Strac offers a comprehensive solution that allows businesses to seamlessly manage unstructured data across emails, customer support platforms, Slack, SharePoint, and cloud storage like S3. Strac’s advanced scanning, classification, and remediation technology works across these diverse data sources, giving organizations full visibility and control over their sensitive information.

1. Enhancing Email Security and Scanning for Unstructured Data

Strac integrates with email platforms to scan both email bodies and attachments for sensitive data like PII, PCI, or health-related information. When a sensitive document or piece of information is detected, Strac automatically flags it for redaction, encryption, or alerting the appropriate personnel. Strac can also implement policies that ensure sensitive data is not stored in email inboxes beyond a certain period, keeping emails compliant with data retention regulations.

2. Safeguarding Customer Support Data in Unstructured Formats

By integrating with popular customer support systems, Strac automatically scans incoming and outgoing support tickets for sensitive customer information. It ensures that any PII shared within support communications is properly secured, either by redacting it or automatically alerting agents to take additional precautions. Strac can also enforce data retention policies, ensuring that customer data isn’t stored longer than necessary.

3. Securing Slack and Other Collaboration Tools for Unstructured Data

Strac’s integration with Slack allows it to monitor conversations in real time. If sensitive data is shared—whether accidentally or intentionally—Strac can alert administrators or automatically remove the data from the message. This ensures compliance without disrupting the flow of communication. Strac’s classification tools also make it easy to identify sensitive files shared in Slack, removing or securing them based on predefined policies.

4. Ensuring Security and Oversight in SharePoint, Google Drive, One Drive, and Box

Strac scans SharePoint libraries for sensitive information, ensuring that documents containing PII, financial data, or other confidential material are not publicly accessible or shared with unauthorized users. Strac’s access control policies help ensure that files are only shared with those who need them, while automatic alerts notify administrators if sensitive data is being shared outside of the defined permissions.

5. Monitoring S3 and Cloud Databases for Unstructured Data Security

Strac offers deep integration with cloud storage solutions like Amazon S3, scanning the files stored within these databases for sensitive information. Strac can automatically apply encryption to sensitive files, remove public access links, or alert administrators if files are stored in non-compliant regions. This ensures that unstructured data residing in cloud databases is continuously monitored and protected, no matter the scale.

6. Automating Redaction and Operations on Sensitive Unstructured Data

Strac takes secure file handling to the next level by allowing you to perform operations—like redaction, data extraction, or analysis—without moving files out of the secure vault. Whether you’re running a simple birthdate extraction from an ID or performing advanced analysis on a medical document, Strac’s secure environment ensures data never leaves the protected ecosystem.

Imagine running OCR (optical character recognition) on a document to extract key details like names and addresses, but never exposing the document itself to human error or system vulnerabilities. That’s the power of Strac’s secure processing capabilities.

7. Data Discovery and Classification and Sensitive Information in Unstructured Data

Identifying and classifying sensitive data in unstructured files—like PDFs, images, or even chat messages—requires more than just pattern matching. Strac uses advanced AI/ML algorithms to detect sensitive information embedded in various file types. Whether it’s financial data hidden within emails or PHI within medical records, Strac automatically detects, classifies, and alerts you about sensitive data that needs attention.

Strac’s data discovery and classification models are designed to handle a wide array of data formats and languages, making it a comprehensive solution for global organizations dealing with unstructured data across multiple regions.

8. Facilitating Seamless and Secure File Sharing for Unstructured Data

Sharing sensitive files with third parties is often a necessary part of business operations, but it doesn’t have to be risky. Strac enables secure, permission-controlled file sharing, ensuring files are only accessible to the intended recipient for the necessary duration. This minimizes the risk of unauthorized access or data leaks, while still allowing for seamless business operations.

For example, when a contract needs to be shared with a client or a vendor, Strac ensures that access is time-limited and that the file remains encrypted even during transit, maintaining compliance throughout.

Final Thoughts

Unstructured data presents both a massive opportunity and a massive challenge for businesses today. From privacy risks to regulatory compliance, the stakes are higher than ever. But with Strac’s robust, security-first approach, businesses can confidently use their unstructured data for analytics, AI, and daily operations while maintaining control over sensitive information.

By integrating Strac’s unstructured data protection into your workflow, you gain a competitive advantage: unlocking the full potential of your data while staying fully compliant and secure.