Organizations today face an unprecedented volume of cyber threats. In 2024, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center reported 859,532 complaints of suspected internet crime with losses exceeding US$ 16 billion. Notably, personal data breaches ranked among the top complaint categories. These figures underscore the scale of the problem, when sensitive data is compromised, the fallout can be enormous.
In response, security leaders are reevaluating traditional, reactive models of defense. Such legacy approaches often focus on perimeter protection, firewalls, or after-the-fact incident response. However, these methods can leave gaps in visibility and permit data exposure to persist undetected. This blog explores how Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) enables a shift toward proactive data security by continuously monitoring, identifying, and mitigating risks before they escalate into breaches.
The Shift from Reactive to Proactive Security
Reactive security models only respond to incidents after they happen. For example, you patch vulnerabilities after an attack or do forensic analysis after a breach. While important, that’s not enough in today’s world. The rapid adoption of cloud and agile has introduced new data security gaps that traditional tools don’t cover.
As IBM states, the furious adoption of cloud computing, agile cloud-native development and both AI and machine learning led to data security risks and vulnerabilities that these technologies don’t always address, leaving organizations at risk of data breaches. In particular, the movement of data into multiple cloud accounts and development environments can create unmanaged ‘shadow data’ stores that bypass normal security controls. Such copies of sensitive data (for example, for testing or analytics) may lack proper encryption or access controls. When those hidden data stores are outside of IT control they multiply the attack surface. In short, reacting only after an incident occurs is no longer enough. A proactive stance requires tools that go beyond reactive alerts and continuously guard your data.
Understanding DSPM: A Data-First Approach
Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) is a new discipline that puts security back on the data. In simple terms, DSPM is a technology that finds your sensitive data across cloud and hybrid environments, assesses its risk and helps you protect it. In practice, DSPM inverts the traditional security model. Instead of concentrating only on defending systems or networks, it centers on protecting the data assets directly. Gartner has dubbed this a ‘data first’ approach, and indeed DSPM was first recognized in 2022 as part of Gartner’s data security hype cycle. This perspective aligns security efforts around the data that drives business value, as opposed to treating data as an afterthought.
A DSPM solution includes several core capabilities. It continuously discovers and inventories data across on-premises systems, SaaS applications, and multiple cloud providers. It then assesses risks by detecting misconfigurations, excessive access permissions, and insecure storage that could expose sensitive information.
Finally it provides remediation and prevention actions such as enforcing access controls or alerting on anomalies. In other words, DSPM solutions find an organization’s sensitive data, assess its security posture, remediate its vulnerabilities and implement safeguards and monitoring to prevent recurrence of identified vulnerabilities. This continuous loop of discovery, risk analysis and automated protection is in contrast to point in time audits or one off scans.
By having an up to date map of where all sensitive data sits and who can access it, DSPM gives security teams a complete view of data risk. For example, if a misconfigured storage bucket or a forgotten database copy has unencrypted personal data, DSPM tools will alert admins before an attacker finds it. If new data stores appear (e.g. spun up by a dev), a proactive DSPM system will include those in its visibility and classification.
This continuous vigilance is a hallmark of the proactive model. As Palo Alto Networks describes it, DSPM deploys graph-based security architectures with continuous attack path analysis to detect interconnected risk chains before they mature into breaches. In short, DSPM transforms ‘reactive alert fatigue’ into ‘a strategic data-centric defense’ that systematically reduces the cloud attack surface.
Continuous Monitoring and Risk Mitigation
A core aspect of DSPM is continuous monitoring. Rather than performing a one-time scan of data assets, DSPM systems perpetually watch for changes. New data entering the environment is automatically discovered and classified. Existing data is repeatedly analyzed for vulnerabilities. This continuous mode aligns well with modern DevOps practices, where infrastructure and data change rapidly. For example, Rubrik highlights that DSPM can provide near real-time views into data proliferation to reduce sensitive data exposure risk. That means as soon as a new copy of sensitive data appears (a backup or log file), DSPM picks it up. This timeliness gives defenders a window to act before an incident.
Moreover, DSPM can use contextual insights and AI/ML to prioritize what needs attention now. By understanding the relationships between users, data stores and config, DSPM can find combinations of vulnerabilities. For instance, a harmless misconfiguration might become critical if it accidentally grants cloud storage access to all employees. Without DSPM, security teams might never notice this risk in time. But a DSPM solution would flag that attack path and enable pre-emptive remediation. In practice, DSPM platforms often integrate with identity and access management to automatically detect over-entitlements (users who can see more data than they need) and suggest least-privilege fixes.
Mitigation is another pillar of the proactive model. It is not enough to just find risks; DSPM aims to reduce them. Leading DSPM solutions include built-in remediation features. For example, BigID’s announcement of a DSPM service in June 2025 emphasizes ‘Built-In Remediation’ that automatically enforce policies, revoke access, and reduce exposure. In real terms, if a classification scan finds that a set of files contains unprotected personal data, the DSPM tool might automatically enhances the permissions or alert administrators to delete it. This capability moves beyond passive reporting, it proactively closes the gap. By automating policy enforcement, DSPM helps prevent data issues from persisting until a breach occurs.
Industry Innovations in DSPM
The DSPM concept has gained strong traction in the industry, with multiple vendors introducing solutions to operationalize these capabilities. For example, Zscaler announced in May 2024 that it had natively integrated Data Security Posture Management into its cloud data protection platform. Zscaler describes its DSPM as a central part of its data protection offering that discovers, classifies, and protects sensitive data in public clouds such as AWS and Microsoft Azure.
In practice, this means Zscaler’s customers can continuously scan their cloud storage, SaaS applications, and other data repositories for unprotected data and apply AI-driven policies to safeguard it. The company’s executives emphasized that complete data visibility is the first step toward prevention, noting that DSPM helps replace multiple legacy point products and close gaps in data security.
Rubrik, a leader in cloud data protection, also highlighted the role of DSPM in its platform. In December 2024, Rubrik announced that it was adding DSPM capabilities to its Rubrik Security Cloud in order to unblock secure adoption of AI and protect data wherever it resides. Rubrik highlights that DSPM in its platform allows customers to proactively reduce data risks across fragmented cloud, SaaS, and on-premises environments. This means that organizations using Rubrik can activate DSPM to continuously map where their sensitive data is stored, automatically classify it (including by regulatory sensitivity or business importance), and then identify any misconfigurations or risky exposures. Importantly, Rubrik emphasizes ease of deployment; existing customers can enable DSPM within their current environment without lengthy new scans or infrastructure changes. This illustrates how vendors are building DSPM to integrate smoothly into existing security processes rather than requiring disruptive rip-and-replace projects.
BigID, a data intelligence and privacy platform, has likewise focused on making DSPM accessible. In mid-2025, BigID launched a new DSPM offering tailored for managed service providers (MSPs) and mid-market customers. BigID’s announcement highlights that DSPM is a fast-growing category that gives organizations deep visibility into sensitive data, context-rich risk insights, and automated remediation across SaaS, cloud, and hybrid environments. With its DSPM Express program, BigID enables MSPs to deploy enterprise-grade DSPM in hours.
BigID highlights key benefits such as faster time-to-value and built-in automated remediation. For example, the ability to automatically revoke risky permissions when a data exposure is detected. BigID’s CEO explained that as customers ‘double down on securing sensitive data, preparing for regulation, and managing AI risk, MSPs need a smarter way to deliver outcomes’.
Another data security vendor, Varonis, has also extended its DSPM capabilities. In January 2024, Varonis announced an expansion of its DSPM support to include Snowflake, a leading cloud data warehouse platform. This integration means Varonis can now continuously discover and secure sensitive data within Snowflake instances. According to Varonis, its platform continuously discovers and classifies critical data, removes exposures, and detects advanced threats with AI-powered automation. Varonis’s DSPM component is continually scanning the Snowflake data cloud for unsecured sensitive data (for example, exposed financial records or PII). It then alerts or remediates issues (such as enforcing least-privilege permissions or encrypting data). The executive team at Varonis stated that customers could feel confident that Varonis is watching and securing their data no matter where it lives across the cloud. This illustrates how DSPM is being embedded into broader data security platforms to provide ongoing protection across all data stores.
These industry developments show a clear trend. Vendors recognize that simply reacting to breaches is insufficient, and they are building tools to help organizations get ahead of threats. From Zscaler’s AI-powered data protection to Rubrik’s accelerated AI adoption and BigID’s MSP-friendly DSPM highlights a shift toward continuous insight and control over data.
The Impact of Proactive Data Security
Moving from reactive to proactive defense, organizations can improve their data security posture big time. Continuous DSPM monitoring means vulnerabilities are found long before attackers can exploit them. For example, detecting an over-permissioned user or an exposed database credential weeks ahead can avert a potential breach. Proactive DSPM also speeds up compliance. Many regulations require knowing where personal or sensitive data resides and who can access it. DSPM automates this inventory and reporting, reducing the risk of regulatory penalties.
Moreover, by automating remediation, DSPM reduces human error and response time. Where a security team might have to manually review logs or investigate alerts, DSPM platforms can automatically quarantine or encrypt risky data or block exfiltration paths. This efficiency not only lowers risk but can also lower costs. For instance, preventing a breach saves potentially millions compared to the expense of incident response and remediation. It also means less downtime and reputational harm from data loss.
Proactive security gives you confidence in your data driven initiatives. As companies move to the cloud, IoT, and AI they generate and rely on massive volumes of data. DSPM gives you the confidence that data is being protected all the time.
However, implementing DSPM requires a clear understanding of the data estate and possibly integration with many systems (cloud accounts, SaaS apps, on-prem data stores). However, leading DSPM solutions emphasize ease of deployment. For example, Rubrik’s approach allows customers to activate DSPM within existing infrastructure without disruptive new data scans. BigID’s MSP-focused solution provides turn-key deployments for mid-size customers. These developments suggest that the industry is aware of adoption hurdles and is building Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) tools to overcome them.