Guide to Performing a Data Risk Assessment

This article explains what a data risk assessment (DRA) is, why it matters, and how to perform one through three main steps: mapping data to applications (identifying owners, classifications, data flows, and controls), assessing risks (excess access, stale data, privileged accounts, etc.), and remediating vulnerabilities (least privilege, MFA, data sharing and retention policies, and monitoring). It emphasizes a data-centric security approach for distributed workforces and notes SecurityScorecard’s platform as a tool for continuous monitoring and actionable alerts to protect sensitive information.