In today’s digitally connected world, organizations are moving towards tools that help them organize and protect data. One of the most daunting tasks for an organization is data management and security. Fortunately, technology has paved the way toward more effective and efficient tools, including data identification tools, otherwise called Personally Identifiable Information (PII). In this post, we’ll give an overview of what PII scanning tools are, why do organizations need PII, and a list of the best ones:
What Are PII Scanning Tools?
To understand the gist behind PII scanning tools, you’ll first need to know the definition behind PII. PII stands for Personally Identifiable Information that contains all types of an individual’s data from personal information like date of birth, passport, driver’s license, mailing address, e-mail address, contact number, and insurance numbers to banking records, transactions history, credit card number, registered ID, account details, IP addresses, etc. Depending on the industry and company’s scale, some organizations like hospitals store more sensitive data of their customers than others.
PII scanning tools are software that identifies and tracks the data that goes into the system. Organizations need to know where their PII is located and stored. Not only does this help them in data discovery, but also to keep up with data protection laws and regulations. Suppose an organization is not using PII scanning tools for data protection. In this case, the chances of data breach and loss increase and puts the organization at the hands of penalties, liabilities to fines, and maybe even a lawsuit. PII scanning tools enable companies to keep data breaches at bay and maximize data security.
What Are the Benefits of Using PII?
PII scanning tools let organizations dive into a world of automation, where everything is located, stored, and protected with a single click. But why do organizations’ need PII in the first place, in other words, what do they do with this data?
Technological advancements have a two-fold benefit – 1) It allows organizations to advance quickly and keep up with the time, and 2) It has changed the way customers interact with organizations. PII empowers organizations to discover, analyze, and use customers’ data to their advantage. It has made it easier for companies to identify data, extract it, and attain more in-depth analysis. Where they needed to manually discover and store data previously, PII automates this process and makes it more precise.
Τhe Best PII Scanning Tools
Now that you have an understanding of what PII scanning tools are, it’s time to dive into the top-rated
PII scanning tools in the market. We’ll discuss the features and pros and cons of each.
1. Egnyte
There might be several candidates as to which PII scanning tool is the best, but there is no debate whatsoever that Egnyte is among the most successful and trusted tools for PII scanning.
The basic idea behind Egnyte’s infrastructure is to provide its clients and users with the only platform based on unified cloud content. If you are a multi-cloud business owner who is looking for a highly secure environment for compliance, data security, threat detection, and collaboration, Egnyte is your perfect solution.
Operating as a SaaS or Software as a Service, Egnyte offers several services such as searching for storage platforms, device applications, and repositories. Azure and SharePoint are a couple of cloud collaborative platforms that you can look up with Egnyte. This PII scanning tool is powered by both human and machine-generated metadata and is programmed in such a way that it allows its users to share data with both internal and external groups. Another plus point of Egnyte, which also happens to be an AI-supported software, is that it is certified by ISO/IEC and SOC 2 and is also CCPA compliant.
With the help of Egnyte, you can locate all the sensitive data, control any risks, and protect this valuable data from all sorts of threats, whether they are internal, such as accidental data deletion, or external, such as data infiltration. Moreover, its functionality is so perfect and seamless that the software works smoothly when used both online and offline. Due to these features and benefits, almost 17 thousand businesses and firms utilize the services of Egnyte, which is why you should consider this tool too.
If you wish to know more about Egnyte, you can look them up here.
2. Nightfall
Nightfall is another web-based Saas tool that utilizes machine learning for PII scanning.
The configuration of the software aids in determining how to handle all the sensitive data. Being a cloud-based security platform, Nightfall also works best with apps like Google Drive, GitHub, Slack, and Atlassian to solve critical data problems and prevent data loss. With the help of Application programming interfaces or APIs, you or your team can delete unwanted data, prevent data loss, quarantine data, and trigger alerts.
By using the numerous templates provided by Nightfall, you can set up sensitive data controls to satisfy data security initiatives and become CCPA, HIPAA, GDPR, and PCI DSS compliant. Nightfall provides you with a variety of deep learning concepts which can be applied to leverage standard detectors of structured and sensitive data such as credit card numbers, credentials, secrets, and emails. Moreover, Nightfall is also an AI-supported cloud-native software system with the help of which high-level data protection and data loss prevention are possible. Not only that, but it also monitors all the data flowing into and out of the servers and classifies it continuously so that none of the important information gets missed out.
There are numerous benefits of using Nightfall as your security system. For starters, Nightfall has a special Nightfall Startup Solution, which is an excellent initiative, especially for business owners and companies that are new to the market. In addition, the Nightfall system detects data loss using raw data and automates workflows for data discovery, alerts, and deletions, which save you a significant amount of time. No wonder business tycoons such as Tesla, Google, and Facebook Meta rely on the Nightfall security system to protect their sensitive and valuable data.
To know more about this tool, head up to their website.
3. ManageEngine Data Security Plus
ManageEngine Data Security Plus is also an excellent and well-known PII scanning tool. Although this tool does not have a cloud version, it operates best on Windows devices. For instance, if you are searching for a software that finds and analyzes sensitive personal data, such as electronically protected health information (ePHI) or personally identifiable information (PII), stored in Windows-managed file servers, failover cluster environments, or Microsoft SQL servers, ManageEngine Data Security Plus is just what you need.
Once this tool has scanned for such business-critical data, it creates a sensitive data inventory by locating and cataloging passport numbers, national IDs, credit card data, and financial data. Additionally, you can detect sensitive data accurately with the help of ManageEngine Data Security Plus’ rules and regulations. Search for regular expressions or specific keyword sets, and you will find the exact matches. You can also analyze, rearrange, and improve your access rights management by using ManageEngine Data Security Plus, which will further assist you in enforcing compliance with ease.
Your system carries a lot of loads, which can have a significant impact on performance and can reduce efficiency if raised above a threshold level. ManageEngine Data Security Plus has come up with a way to increase efficiency by minimizing the load. Instead of wasting critical business hours on scan times, the tool’s software uses parallel and incremental scanning capabilities to manage the entire data scanning process with ease.
Additional features of ManageEngine Data Security Plus include top-notch inventory management, multi-factor authentication, data encryption, and role-based access. These features and advantages were more than enough to convince large-scale businesses such as Toyota, Sony Music, and Xerox to use ManageEngine Data Security Plus for managing and protecting their data.
Learn more about their services by visiting their website.
4. One Trust
According to a data analysis report published in 2019, One Trust is the leading organization in terms of global data privacy management software market shares, with almost 35 percent of the total shares belonging to One Trust. Ever since its rise, One Trust has continuously and consistently gained the trust of older clients and attracted new customers and is showing no sign of slowing down, let alone stopping.
Ranked as the most widely used privacy platform, One Trust provides its customers and clients with several advantages. For instance, the One Trust platform has a strong backbone powered by its One Trust Athena. When coupled with its robotic automation engine, you get an AI-supported system that identifies, analyzes, and classifies sensitive and private data, just like Egnyte, but at a higher efficiency rate. Not many companies solely own their PHI or PII.
These companies are at a high risk of third-party data infiltration. As a result, they are in dire need of a PII scanning tool. One Trust has a central agile workflow that it uses to negate any third-party risks and concerns. Moreover, One Trust claims to focus on providing its clients with GRC, security, privacy, ethics, ESG programs, and data governance, and they have the credentials to back this claim. One Trust has broad-spectrum applicability, as it fulfills several compliance requirements such as CCPA, LEPD, PDPA, GDPR, and ISO27001. For all these reasons, One Trust attracts large businesses and is even on the payroll of various fortune 500 firms.
You can dig deep into them if you hit up their website.
5. Endpoint Protector
A good PII scanning tool should have a complete data loss protection (DLP) solution. Endpoint Protector not only fulfills this requirement but also has a competent and efficient threat detection system. Due to its top-notch features and excellent functionality, it is recognized as an up-to-the-mark choice and solution in the latest Enterprise DLP Magic Quadrant by Gartner. The working of Endpoint Protector is quite smooth and free-flowing.
Once you have specified your security policies and installed all the right stations, the software sweeps all the endpoints to assess the entire data collection. Next, the software categorizes all this data to see which parts are sensitive and valuable. The customer can also use the central server for auditing their access rights management to get better data access permissions. Once this step is completed, the software can encrypt these data locations. If you have your data stored in a USB storage device, you can also encrypt, manage, and secure it with a password in an easy and simple step.
Endpoint Protector also helps you detect any account takeover, intruder activity, or internal threat. The system has an option that profiles all user activities once enabled. Once it starts to monitor all the actions and commands, the system creates a baseline of repetitive everyday activities and makes a standard pattern. If any activity deviates from this standard pattern, you or your team will get a security alert. Other than that, Endpoint Protector has an excellent history of satisfying customers with great offline support, forensics, encrypted algorithms, blended threat protection, HTTPS malware detection, exploiting blockers, and web filtering. No wonder AON, Allianz, Samsung, and Western Union trust Endpoint Protector for their PII scanning.
Here is a link to their website if you are looking for more details.
6. Netwrix Auditor
The PII scanning market is flooded with tools that manage and protect data on SharePoint, Office 365, and file servers. In such a tough, competitive environment, Netwrix Auditor has managed to make its way to the top because of its outstanding features and numerous benefits.
Netwrix Auditor is a massive boost to your business since it detects security threats, increases your team’s efficiency, and proves compliance.
Every firm has sensitive private data, security gaps, and loose permissions which can be exposed. A huge chunk of your critical assets is shared with external third-party members, while many accounts with sensitive data have no passwords or restrictions. Netwrix Auditor analyzes all the data, identifies any infrastructure gaps such as a large number of proactive users, and minimizes the IT risk by exposing loose permissions. Moreover, Netwrix Auditor is programmed to perform automated security checks and responses for more accurate and efficient investigations as well as sending alerts on threat patterns. This way, you will be notified of a security breach before it occurs.
Nowadays, business owners do not have the time to get and organize configuration reports and prepare for audits, and that is where Netwrix Auditor is your savior. With the help of this software, you can not only save up a significant amount of time combing through audit logs but are also saved from the hassle of struggling with log files, spreadsheets, and scripts, which is a key element of GDPR and HIPAA compliant firms.
You can also avail the services of Netwrix Auditor Free Community Edition if you wish to focus on access control regulation. Netwrix, by nature, is an auditing software, with most of its features tilted towards instantaneously dealing with audit requests. In addition, its simple and easy-to-use interface makes it an ideal choice for users who are not that tech-savvy.
You can also lookup their website to get more information.
7. Digital Guardian DLP
Digital Guardian is another Software as a Service platform that helps in data loss prevention, but what makes this service stand out is that it also offers timely threat detection.
The Digital Guardian is a cloud-based system that is well-known for its versatility and works best on any device, whether it runs on Windows, Linux, or macOS. Digital Guardian helps assess and organize access rights management structure and, like every other data loss prevention system, benefits its users in enforcing compliance with ease. As a result, users can easily regulate and monitor access to sensitive data through different security policies.
An innovative feature of Digital Guardian is its eDiscovery sweep. When enabled, the software continuously goes through the data and searches it for identifying the PII. Additionally, any system under the protection of Digital Guardian records all the user activities and profiles them to create a standard baseline. If any hacker or intruder breaks the usual cycle, the software sends an intrusion or account-takeover threat to your team so that they can take appropriate steps timely.
Digital Guardian has several benefits. With the help of this software, you can classify your data according to specific functions along with efficiently controlling data movement. The industry’s sole Saas solution for enterprise data loss prevention also provides additional threat detection methods along with secured intellectual properties for enhanced security and privacy.
If you are interested in using their services, visit their website for further details.
Final Take
Accelerating technological advancements has its benefits, but it increases the risks of data breaches and loss as well. To maintain customers’ trust and loyalty, organizations need to equip themselves with tools that can prevent a disastrous scenario where your customers’ data lands in the hands of a data hacker. Use a suitable PII tool to protect personal and sensitive data at all times.
