Asana DLP & DSPM

Discover, Classify and Remediate Sensitive Data in Asana tasks/attachments with Strac Asana DLP

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Asana DLP & DSPM

Table of Contents

TL;DR:

Asana DLP helps prevent unintentional exposure of sensitive data in tasks and attachments.
Strac offers automated sensitive data discovery and classification in Asana.
Strac provides real-time data monitoring, alerts, and automated data remediation.
Granular access controls ensure only authorized users can view sensitive data in Asana.
Compliance and audit reporting features help maintain regulatory compliance and data security in Asana.

Why One Should Have Asana DLP?

Asana is widely used by teams to collaborate on tasks, manage projects, and share updates. However, as businesses increasingly rely on Asana to manage workflows, sensitive information often gets shared across tasks, comments, attachments, and sub-tasks. This presents a variety of data security challenges, particularly in regulated industries or those handling sensitive client data, such as:

Unintentional Exposure of Sensitive Data: Asana is designed for collaboration, which can lead to users unintentionally sharing Personally Identifiable Information (PII), Protected Health Information (PHI), or financial data in tasks, comments, and file attachments. Without proper safeguards, this sensitive data can easily be exposed to users who shouldn’t have access to it, violating internal policies and compliance regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS.
Limited Native Data Security Controls:While Asana offers basic permission settings, it lacks advanced security controls like automated data loss prevention (DLP) mechanisms. As a result, organizations cannot automatically detect, classify, or block sensitive data within Asana, leaving them exposed to insider threats and accidental data leaks.
Lack of Data Visibility and Classification:Asana does not provide native tools to categorize or classify data shared within tasks. This creates a blind spot for IT and security teams, who are unable to track where sensitive data is stored or determine who has access to it. Sensitive documents or credentials may be buried in file attachments, making it hard to ensure compliance.
Risk of External Sharing:Asana tasks often involve external collaborators such as vendors, clients, or partners. The risk of sensitive data being shared with external users grows exponentially if the organization lacks a way to enforce data security policies at the platform level.

How Strac solves problems associated with Asana DLP?

Strac provides a comprehensive solution to these data security challenges by integrating seamlessly with Asana to offer advanced Data Loss Prevention (DLP) capabilities. Here's how Strac solves these problems:

Automated Sensitive Data Discovery and Classification:Strac integrates with Asana to scan tasks, comments, and attachments for sensitive data such as PII, PHI, financial information, and credentials. It leverages machine learning to automatically classify sensitive information based on its type and context, giving security teams visibility into where sensitive data resides in Asana.
Real-Time Data Monitoring and Alerts:Strac continuously monitors the Asana workspace for any newly added sensitive information. If a user shares sensitive data in a task description, comment, or file attachment, Strac immediately flags the content and sends alerts to administrators, allowing them to take swift action before a breach occurs.

Asana DLP: Strac Real Time Monitoring and Alerts

Automated Data Remediation:Once Strac identifies sensitive data, it can automatically remediate it based on pre-configured policies. For example, Strac can redact sensitive information from comments or tasks, or restrict access to file attachments containing PII. This ensures that sensitive data is handled according to company policies without manual intervention.

Asana DLP: Strac Redaction of Sensitive Data and Attachments

Granular Access Controls:Strac enables fine-tuned control over who can view sensitive data within Asana. It integrates with Asana’s user and group permissions to ensure that only authorized users can access specific tasks or files containing sensitive data. This minimizes the risk of internal data leaks by limiting data visibility to relevant team members.
Compliance and Audit Reporting:With Strac’s Asana DLP solution, security and compliance teams can generate detailed audit reports on how sensitive data is handled within the Asana workspace. This not only helps ensure regulatory compliance but also demonstrates due diligence in securing sensitive information to auditors and stakeholders.

By leveraging Strac’s Asana DLP capabilities, organizations can ensure that their project management activities remain secure while minimizing the risk of data breaches, regulatory non-compliance, and reputational damage.

Sensitive Data Types for Asana DLP & DSPM

Checkout all the sensitive data elements and file formats supported by Strac: https://www.strac.io/blog/strac-catalog-of-sensitive-data-elements

Sharepoint DLP Use Cases

Practical Scenario

A hospital’s billing and administrative teams use SharePoint Online to store patient invoices, medical reports, and insurance forms. While collaborating with external insurance providers, a staff member accidentally updates the permissions on a SharePoint document library to “Anyone with the link,” exposing potentially thousands of patient files containing PHI.

How Strac's Sharepoint DLP Helps

Continuous Data Discovery: Strac automatically scans existing and newly uploaded documents, identifying PHI (e.g., medical record numbers, Social Security Numbers).
Classification & Labeling: Once identified, files are labeled (e.g., “HIPAA Sensitive”), ensuring that administrators know which documents require the highest level of protection.
Visibility into Access: Strac provides real-time insight into who has access to these sensitive documents. Administrators can instantly see if unauthorized users or broad groups have viewing rights.
Revoke Public Links: If a file is publicly accessible, Strac immediately revokes those links and restores restricted access.
Alerts & Quarantines: When someone attempts to share PHI externally, Strac can alert admins, quarantine the file for review, or completely block the action.
Audit-Ready Reports: All actions are logged, enabling quick incident response and demonstrating HIPAA compliance for audits.

Practical Scenario

A mid-sized investment firm uses SharePoint to collaborate on various client files, including:

Credit card statements (subject to PCI-DSS)
ID documents (Driver’s Licenses, Passports, etc.) used for KYC (Know Your Customer) verification
Banking information such as account and routing numbers

An associate accidentally shares a SharePoint folder containing these files with a newly onboarded client who does not require access to all confidential documents. This folder is also accessible to several internal teams outside the immediate project, creating multiple potential exposure points.

How Strac's Sharepoint DLP Helps

Comprehensive Data Discovery: Strac scans both existing and newly uploaded documents in SharePoint for sensitive information such as credit card numbers, bank account details, and ID documents (Driver’s License, Passport formats).
Classification & Automated Labeling: Once identified, Strac applies meaningful labels (e.g., “PCI-DSS Sensitive,” “PII – ID Documents,” “Banking Info”) to ensure these files stand out and are subject to stricter security rules.
Visibility into Access: Strac provides an immediate view of who currently has access to these sensitive files. This allows admins to spot situations where external clients or internal teams unnecessarily have permissions.
Public Access Revocation: If a labeled document (e.g., containing card data or ID scans) is found to be publicly shared or too broadly accessible, Strac automatically revokes these links or permissions, aligning access with the principle of least privilege.
Alerts, Quarantines, and Blocks: When a user attempts to share a labeled document with outside domains—or with an entire department—Strac alerts administrators or quarantines/blocks the file share, depending on policy settings.
In cases where the share is intentional but needs review, admins can approve or deny the request within Strac’s dashboard.
Audit & Compliance: Every sharing event, label assignment, and access revocation is logged, creating a detailed audit trail. This helps demonstrate compliance with PCI-DSS, KYC, AML, and other regulatory requirements.
Automatic reporting simplifies any regulatory or internal compliance audit, reducing the administrative burden on security and compliance teams.

Practical Scenario

A software company keeps source code, product roadmaps, and design specs in SharePoint. Several teams—including external contractors—use the same SharePoint site. A developer accidentally grants a large group, including some non-disclosure–exempt contractors, access to a folder containing patent-pending code.

How Strac's Sharepoint DLP Helps

Holistic File Scanning: Strac inspects documents, PDFs, and archives for code snippets, system designs, and proprietary business terms to detect potential IP.
Intelligent Labeling: Documents identified as containing IP or trade secrets are automatically classified (e.g., “Proprietary IP”), reinforcing the need for restricted sharing.
Real-Time Access Insights: With Strac, administrators can instantly see who has access to IP-tagged files, enabling them to remove unauthorized users or reduce permission scopes.
Immediate Link Removal: If a contractor or external partner is mistakenly granted access to IP, Strac revokes public or unauthorized sharing before the files can be downloaded.
Alerts & Blocking: Strac’s policies can be configured to alert security teams or block external sharing attempts for files containing proprietary content.
Incident Response & Auditing: Detailed logs of every share request, label change, and access revocation aid in quick incident resolution and help prove due diligence if legal issues arise.