What Is DSPM in Cyber Security and How to Choose the Right Cloud DSPM Platform

Year after year, more data moves into the cloud. In fact, this year, over 200 zettabytes of data have landed in cloud storage repositories. The nature of that data hasn’t changed — Social Security numbers, cardholder information, intellectual property — but the surface area and accessibility have.

Cloud storage’s inherent convenience introduces new risks: attack paths, misconfigurations, insider behavior, and compliance gaps. These challenges demand attention not just with tools, but with architectural clarity and operational readiness.

This piece explains what DSPM is, why it matters at the data layer, and what to look for without the buzzwords.

TL;DR

• DSPM discovers and classifies sensitive data in cloud storage, validates storage controls, monitors risky activity, and delivers audit-ready, actor–time–object evidence.

• Use DSPM alongside CSPM, CNAPP, and DLP to close the blind spot across Amazon S3, EBS, EFS, FSx, and similar services.

• When evaluating DSPM tools, prioritize coverage depth, in-tenant architecture, ML-based anomaly detection, evidence quality, and predictable pricing.

What is Data Security Posture Management (DSPM)?

Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) is a data-centric approach to securing cloud environments by mapping where data resides, classifying its sensitivity, validating storage configurations, and detecting abnormal access behavior. First coined by Gartner in 2022, DSPM emerged as a direct response to:

• Explosive growth and sprawl in cloud storage

• Increasing concentration of sensitive data in object stores and file systems

• Lack of visibility from application- and compute-centric tools (like CNAPPs)

A modern DSPM solution typically offers:

• Automated data discovery and inventory

• Sensitive data classification (PII, PHI, source code, IP)

• Misconfiguration detection (e.g., public access, unencrypted storage)

• Object-level activity monitoring via cloud-native telemetry

• Machine-learning anomaly detection for unusual reads/writes/deletes

• Actor–time–object evidence for forensics, incident response, and audits

Some also include malware scanning, access control analysis, and compliance mapping for HIPAA, PCI DSS, SOC 2, and GDPR.

How DSPM Works

DSPM works by analyzing cloud storage configurations, contents, and behaviors using native telemetry like CloudTrail data events, CloudWatch, storage inventories, and access logs. Deployed as a SaaS or in-tenant tool, it enables five critical functions:

1. Map: Discover buckets, volumes, shares, and metadata at scale

2. Classify: Detect and label sensitive content using tunable logic

3. Validate: Identify risky posture settings, KMS drift, and policy missteps

4. Monitor: Track access behavior at the object level

5. Detect & Prove: Spot anomalies and build actor–time–object timelines

The result: continuous visibility into what data you have, where it lives, who touched it, and how risky that access was.

Why DSPM Is Important

1) Your Crown Jewels Live in Storage

The growing volume of cloud data raises the odds of compromise or loss, so the data layer needs real protection. This includes:

• PII: Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses

• Regulated data: PHI under HIPAA, payment data under PCI DSS, data under GDPR/SOC 2 commitments

• Other sensitive information: Trade secrets, IP, financial records, source code

Crucially, much of this data is vital for ongoing business activities. Even without PII or regulated data, the loss of something as seemingly minor as an Amazon S3 bucket containing purchase orders could create substantial work for operations teams attempting data retrieval from backups.

2) Data Growth Is Out of Control

Modern business increasingly rely on data. Analytics and machine learning-driven optimization are now common even for small businesses. Solutions like AWS Transfer Family simplify data ingestion into the cloud, often at rates exceeding petabytes daily. Even self-managed SFTP solutions offer straightforward integration between web applications, partners, and storage.

Cloud storage is also cost-effective compared to on-premises alternatives. Storage classes such as Amazon Glacier and Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering automate data storage, archival, and retrieval based on access patterns, reducing costs while maintaining throughput.

Consequently, it's highly probable that your organization's cloud data volume has significantly increased over the past year. This growth often leads to greater data dispersion across numerous new Amazon S3 buckets, Amazon EFS/FSx file systems, Amazon EBS volumes, and other repositories, often spread across many AWS accounts and virtual storage containers.

3) Coverage Is Slim and Shallow

While popular Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPPs) offer visibility into applications, users, workloads, and infrastructure, their coverage at the storage layer is often limited, if present at all.

Many leading CNAPP solutions cover widely used object storage like Amazon S3 and Microsoft Azure Blob. However, their protection often doesn't extend to file systems such as Amazon EFS or high-performance computing within Amazon FSx. The unfortunate reality is that popular CNAPP solutions are not designed to provide measurable protection for the storage layer, leaving the data within these instances vulnerable.

Scenarios

• Bulk downloads at odd hours. A new principal lists and downloads objects across two production buckets at 10× the normal rate. Correlating CloudTrail data events with storage metrics reveals the role path, burst window, and sensitive prefixes—so you can tell a legitimate batch job from early exfiltration.

• “Harmless” public access. A small policy tweak exposes a prefix with purchase orders. Tracing policy deltas to effective access paths shows what became internet-reachable and how to reverse it.

• Cross-account curiosity. A contractor role gains access to a finance archive via a mis-scoped policy. The new principal + uncommon path + sensitive prefix pattern is flagged as an anomaly, not just a static violation.

What Features Should a Good DSPM Have for Cloud Security?

• Coverage & architecture: S3, EBS, EFS, FSx; in-tenant analysis; native use of CloudTrail data events/CloudWatch.

• Data intelligence: Tunable classification for PII/PHI, finance, source code, secrets; context-aware exposure (public paths, cross-account routes, KMS).

• Detection & response: Object-level monitoring; anomaly detection with baselining and suppression; actor–time–object reporting.

• Compliance & reporting: Continuous checks, exportable audit-ready artifacts aligned to HIPAA/PCI/GDPR/SOC 2.

• Operations & cost: Clear pricing drivers, no surprise egress; straightforward integrations 

How to Choose a DSPM Solution for Cloud Security

1. Anchor on architecture. What, if anything, leaves your account? Favor in-tenant designs.

2. Prove coverage early. Run discovery on S3 plus one file service and a slice of EBS; measure time-to-first-inventory and classification precision on your data.

3. Test the signal. Simulate a safe bulk read, a policy drift, and a cross-account path; judge alert quality, speed, and noise controls.

4. Demand reusable evidence. Ask for sample actor–time–object exports that audit and IR can use as-is.

5. Size total cost. Understand pricing units, caps, API/log volumes, and day-2 ops.

A Simple Evaluation Scorecard

• In-tenant architecture (20%) — Does any data/object content leave?

• Storage depth (15%) — S3, EBS, EFS, FSx today; roadmap clarity.

• Classification quality (15%) — Precision/recall on your samples; tunable patterns.

• Activity & anomalies (15%) — Baselines, suppression, early-stage risk.

• Evidence & reporting (15%) — Clear actor–time–object timelines; exportable.

• Compliance mapping (10%) — HIPAA/PCI/GDPR/SOC 2 alignment.

• Cost & operations (10%) — Pricing predictability and operational footprint.

Run two DSPM vendors in parallel for a week on the same datasets. Score daily, not just at the demo.

72-Hour Pilot Plan (copy/paste)

Day 1 — Discover. Connect to CloudTrail data events/S3 Inventory; run discovery across S3 + one file service + a subset of EBS.
Day 2 — Classify & baseline. Turn on classification for priority prefixes; establish baselines; tune suppression for known jobs.
Day 3 — Simulate & prove. Simulate bulk read and policy drift; confirm alert + actor–time–object export + IR playbook handoff.

Incident Playbook — When DSPM Flags Potential Exfiltration

1. Contain — revoke session/assume role; apply temporary deny policy.

2. Collect — export actor–time–object timeline, S3 access logs, CloudTrail session info; snapshot object versions.

3. Preserve — record timestamps/actions/actors; store evidence immutably.

4. Assess — classify data affected; notify stakeholders.

5. Remediate — rotate creds, block access paths, reverse policy drift.

6. Report — produce audit packet; run root-cause analysis.

Operational KPIs to Track

• MTTD for storage incidents (target: hours).

• MTTR to containment (target: < 4 hours for criticals).

• False-positive rate after 30 days of tuning (target: < 10% for high-severity).

• Coverage % of inventoried/classified storage (> 90% for prod stores).

• Evidence completeness (actor–time–object) across incidents (> 95%).

Limits & Trade-offs

• DSPM complements—doesn’t replace—CSPM, CNAPP, DLP, or EDR.

• Telemetry quality matters (turn on data events; keep inventories current).

• Classification is probabilistic; expect tuning.

• Early noise is normal; plan a baseline window and suppression rules.

Introducing DataDefender, DSPM for Cloud Storage

DataDefender is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution that monitors customers’ storage environments and provides both control plane and data plane security. It integrates data from CloudWatch, S3 Server Access Logs, VPC Flow Logs and service-specific APIs with machine learning-based anomaly detection, malware protection and sensitive data identification.

DataDefender’s intelligence is powered by Casmer Labs, Cloud Storage Security’s internal threat laboratory. These security experts work around the clock to identify and ensure DataDefender protects against both new and impending threats to the storage layer in the cloud.

Learn more at DataDefender at CSS

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