Privacy Management
Privacy Management technologies are software solutions designed to help organizations manage and protect personal data in compliance with data protection regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). These technologies offer a variety of features, including:
Data Discovery and Classification: Identifying and classifying personal data across an organization's systems and applications.
Consent Management: Obtaining, recording, and managing user consent for data processing activities.
Data Subject Requests (DSR) Management: Fulfilling requests from individuals to access, rectify, erase, or restrict the processing of their data.
Privacy Impact Assessments (PIA): Assessing the potential privacy risks of new projects or initiatives.
Data Breach Management: Responding to data breaches and notifying affected individuals and authorities.
Importance of Knowing If Your Organization Uses these Technologies:
It's crucial for organizations to know whether privacy management technologies are being used within their infrastructure, both sanctioned and unsanctioned, for several reasons:
Regulatory Compliance: Privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA impose strict requirements on how organizations collect, process, and store personal data. Failure to comply can result in significant fines and reputational damage. Sanctioned use of privacy management technologies ensures that organizations have the necessary tools to meet these requirements.
Risk Mitigation: Unsanctioned use of privacy management tools can create security risks if the tools are not correctly configured or maintained. Additionally, if employees use unapproved tools, tracking and managing personal data across the organization may be challenging, increasing the risk of data breaches.
Data Governance: Understanding which privacy management technologies are in use, sanctioned and unsanctioned, allows organizations to establish comprehensive data governance policies and procedures. This helps ensure that personal data is handled consistently and securely across the organization.
Cost Optimization: By identifying and consolidating privacy management technologies, organizations can potentially reduce costs and improve efficiency.
OneTrust and Cybersecurity Concerns:
OneTrust is a leading provider of privacy management software. While OneTrust implements strong security measures, organizations should be aware of potential risks associated with any cloud-based platform:
Data Breaches: OneTrust stores and processes sensitive personal data in the cloud. Organizations must ensure that OneTrust's security practices are adequate and regularly reviewed.
Third-Party Risks: OneTrust may use third-party services for specific functionalities. Organizations should assess the security practices of these third-party vendors.
Configuration Errors: Misconfigurations of OneTrust or other privacy management tools can expose sensitive data or create vulnerabilities that attackers could exploit.
ThreatNG: Identifying and Managing Risks from Privacy Management Technologies
ThreatNG can be crucial in identifying and mitigating the risks associated with privacy management technologies like OneTrust.
External Attack Surface Management (EASM): ThreatNG continuously scans the internet to discover all externally visible digital assets associated with your organization. This includes identifying privacy management platforms for data subject requests or consent management. ThreatNG can help assess the security posture of these platforms and identify potential vulnerabilities or misconfigurations.
Digital Risk Protection (DRP): ThreatNG monitors the dark web, social media, and other online channels for mentions of your organization, brands, or sensitive data. This includes detecting any leaked credentials or discussing potential security flaws in your privacy management platforms.
Security Ratings: ThreatNG provides a comprehensive risk score by analyzing your organization's external attack surface and digital risk profile. This score includes an assessment of the security posture of the privacy management platforms used by your organization.
Example Workflow with Complementary Solutions:
ThreatNG Discovery: ThreatNG identifies an unsanctioned OneTrust instance used by a department for data subject requests.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Integration: ThreatNG sends an alert to your SIEM platform, triggering an incident response workflow.
Data Governance Collaboration: The security team investigates the unauthorized use of OneTrust, collaborates with the relevant department to understand their needs, and either integrates the instance into the organization's overall privacy management program or decommission it.
Overall Benefits:
By implementing ThreatNG, organizations can:
Gain Visibility: Discover all instances of privacy management technologies used by your organization, both sanctioned and unsanctioned.
Mitigate Risks: Identify and address security vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and potential data breaches.
Ensure Compliance: Verify that all privacy management tools comply with relevant regulations and internal policies.
Enhance Security: Continuously monitor and improve the security posture of privacy management platforms.
Optimize Costs: Identify redundant or underutilized tools to reduce costs potentially.
