Classify and grade sensitive data

Step 1: Activate DSC and grant permissions

DSC provides a Free edition instance that offers a fixed amount of resources each month. For more information, see Activate Data Security Center Free Edition. This example uses the Free edition.

1. Log on to the Data Security Center console and click Activate Free Edition.

2. Follow the instructions to authorize DSC to access your cloud resources. For more information, see Authorize DSC to access cloud resources.

Step 2: Connect your database to DSC

You can classify and grade sensitive data only after your data assets are connected to DSC. This topic uses an RDS database as an example to show how to connect a database for immediate classification and grading of sensitive data.

1. On the Authorization Management page, click Asset Authorization Management.

2. In the Asset Authorization Management panel, under Structured Data, select RDS and click Asset synchronization.

   If the data asset is already in the list, skip this step.

3. On the Not authorized tab, find the target instance and click Authorization in the Actions column.

4. Return to the Authorization Management page. Find the target instance and click Connect in the Actions column.

   Note

   When you use the one-click connection feature, DSC automatically creates a read-only account in the target data asset. DSC uses this account to connect to the database and run identification tasks.

5. In the Connect dialog box, select Scan assets and identify sensitive data now. and click OK. DSC automatically creates and immediately runs a default task.

   Important

   Run the scan during off-peak hours and monitor your services to prevent the data identification task from affecting your business operations.

6. Return to the Authorization Management page and click the refresh icon. After the data is refreshed, confirm that the database's connection and feature statuses are normal.

   

Step 3: Check identification task status

Classification and grading results are available only after the identification task completes. If you select Scan assets and identify sensitive data now. when you authorize the connection, DSC automatically creates and immediately runs a default task. The default task uses the primary template (by default, the Classification Template for the Internet Industry) and a common template (compliant with personal information security specifications) to scan the connected database.

1. On the Tasks page, click the Identification Tasks tab, and then click Default Tasks.

2. On the Discovery Task Monitoring page, view the scan status of the default identification task created for your database.

   The duration of an identification task depends on the amount of data being scanned and can be lengthy for large datasets.

   

Step 4: View classification results

1. On the Asset Insight page, click the Asset Type tab. Find the target database instance and the scanned database. DSC displays the identification results, including the detected Sensitivity Level and Tag.

   A darker color indicates a higher sensitivity level. N/A indicates that no sensitive data was found. DSC applies tags only for the Personal Information () and Sensitive Personal Information () categories of sensitive data.

   

2. Find the database and click Table details in the Actions column. In the Table Details panel, view statistics about the sensitive information identified in the tables, such as sensitive columns.

   

Summary

Data Security Center (DSC) can identify sensitive data in your authorized data assets. It then classifies the data into categories such as Personal Information, Sensitive Personal Information, and General Information, and assigns a sensitivity level.

References

To classify and grade data for Data Management (DMS), see Use DSC to classify and grade DMS data.