Data Discovery and Classification
Organisations create, receive, and store large volumes of information every day. This data may be held in business applications, cloud platforms, shared drives, email systems, databases, employee devices, archives, and external services.
Over time, it becomes increasingly difficult to understand exactly what information exists, where it is stored, who can access it, and whether it still needs to be retained. Sensitive data may be stored in unexpected locations, duplicated across several systems, or shared more widely than necessary.
Data Discovery and Classification helps you build a clearer picture of your information environment. At CA, we help organisations locate important data, understand its sensitivity and business value, and apply appropriate controls based on how the information should be protected and used.
Why This Matters
You cannot protect information effectively if you do not know where it is or what it contains.
Many organisations have security policies, retention requirements, access controls, and data protection procedures in place. However, these measures may not be applied consistently when the organisation lacks visibility into its data.
A document containing personal, financial, commercial, technical, or confidential information may appear similar to an ordinary business file. Without an effective classification process, employees and systems may not recognise that it requires stronger protection.
Data Discovery and Classification helps you:
Understand what information you hold
Identify important, confidential, personal, regulated, or business-critical data across systems, applications, devices, and storage locations.
Find sensitive data in unexpected locations
Detect information that may have been copied, transferred, archived, or stored outside its intended environment.
Apply appropriate protection
Match security, access, handling, retention, and monitoring controls to the sensitivity and importance of the information.
Reduce unnecessary exposure
Identify duplicated, outdated, excessive, or poorly controlled data that may create avoidable security, compliance, and operational risk.
Support informed decision-making
Give business, security, technology, privacy, and compliance teams a shared understanding of the organisation’s most important information assets.
Our Approach
We combine technical data
discovery with a practical understanding of how information supports the
organisation.
Our objective is not simply
to create a list of files or apply labels. We help you establish a
classification approach that employees can understand, technology can support,
and the organisation can maintain over time.
Understand your information environment
We begin by identifying
where information is created, received, stored, processed, shared, and
archived.
This may include cloud
services, collaboration platforms, databases, business applications, shared
folders, email systems, employee devices, backups, and external service
providers.
We also consider how
different parts of the organisation use information. Which data supports
essential services? Where is personal or confidential information processed?
Which systems contain commercially sensitive records? What information would
create the greatest impact if it were disclosed, changed, lost, or made
unavailable?
This creates a clearer view
of the organisation’s data landscape and helps establish the scope and
priorities for discovery.
Discover and analyse data
We identify data across the
agreed systems and storage locations. Depending on the environment, this may
involve automated scanning, targeted searches, document reviews, metadata
analysis, interviews with data owners, and an assessment of existing inventories.
The discovery process
focuses on locating information that may require additional attention. This can
include personal data, financial records, employee information, customer
details, contracts, intellectual property, security documentation, technical information,
and other confidential business records.
We also examine how data is
distributed. Sensitive information may be stored in approved systems, but
additional copies may exist in email attachments, local folders, test
environments, collaboration spaces, archives, or supplier platforms.
The results help reveal
where important information is concentrated and where it may be exposed
unnecessarily.
Develop and apply a classification model
We help define a
classification model that reflects the organisation’s actual information, risk
profile, working practices, and regulatory responsibilities.
The model may include
categories such as public, internal, confidential, and highly confidential.
However, the number and names of classification levels should remain practical.
A complex model with too many categories can be difficult for employees to understand
and apply consistently.
For each classification
level, we define clear criteria and handling expectations. These may cover
access, sharing, storage, encryption, transmission, printing, retention,
disposal, and the use of external services.
Where appropriate, we also
help establish rules for automated or recommended classification. This allows
technology to identify common data types and suggest or apply suitable labels
while still supporting appropriate human oversight.
Improve controls and embed classification
Classification creates value
only when it leads to appropriate action.
We help connect
classification levels with practical security and information management
controls. For example, highly confidential information may require stronger
access restrictions, encryption, additional monitoring, or limitations on
external sharing.
We also support the
integration of classification into everyday processes such as document
creation, collaboration, email communication, supplier engagement, system
development, data retention, incident response, and employee onboarding.
Clear guidance and targeted
training help employees understand what the labels mean, when to use them, and
how classified information should be handled.
Monitor, review, and maintain the programme
Information environments
change continuously. New systems are introduced, business processes develop,
employees move between roles, suppliers change, and data is created in new
formats and locations.
We help establish ownership,
review schedules, reporting methods, exception processes, and measures for
monitoring the effectiveness of the classification programme.
This may include tracking
where sensitive data is stored, reviewing access permissions, identifying
unusual sharing activity, monitoring classification coverage, and verifying
whether retention and deletion requirements are being followed.
Regular reviews help ensure
that the programme remains relevant and continues to reflect the organisation’s
technology, information, and business priorities.
What Sets CA Apart
Business-focused discovery
We do not treat all information as equally important. We focus on the data that matters most to your operations, customers, employees, regulatory obligations, and strategic objectives.
Practical classification models
We create classification structures that are clear enough for employees to understand and simple enough to apply consistently.
Connection between labels and controls
We help ensure that classification leads to practical protection measures rather than becoming an administrative exercise.
Technology-independent advice
We assess your requirements before recommending processes or capabilities. Our advice is based on your organisation’s needs, not on promoting a particular product or platform.
Collaboration across teams
We bring together business owners, technology teams, security specialists, privacy professionals, compliance functions, and information managers to establish a shared approach.
Support throughout the information lifecycle
Our approach considers how information is created, accessed, used, shared, retained, archived, and securely deleted.
The Business Value
Data Discovery and Classification with CA gives your organisation greater visibility and control over its information.
It helps identify sensitive data, reduce unnecessary exposure, improve access decisions, and apply security controls more consistently. It also supports compliance by providing a clearer understanding of where regulated information is stored and how it is handled.
A practical classification programme can reduce the amount of data retained without a clear purpose, limit inappropriate sharing, and improve the organisation’s ability to respond to incidents, audits, data subject requests, customer assessments, and regulatory enquiries.
It also helps employees make better decisions. When information is clearly classified and handling requirements are easy to understand, people are less likely to store, share, or dispose of sensitive data incorrectly.
Most importantly, Data Discovery and Classification provides a foundation for wider information protection. It supports data loss prevention, access governance, retention management, cloud security, privacy, incident response, and the responsible adoption of technologies such as artificial intelligence.
Next Step
Effective information protection begins with knowing what data you hold and where it is located.
Contact CA for an initial consultation. We will help you identify your most important information, understand where it is stored, and develop a practical classification approach that supports security, compliance, and responsible data use.