Discover & Classify

Discover & Classify combines capabilities for discovering, identifying, and classifying sensitive data with reusable entity management to support consistent security policy creation. These capabilities are foundational for effective data security by making sensitive data and potential security risks visible, enabling organizations to classify data accurately and prioritize appropriate remediation actions.

Why it matters

With an accurate inventory and consistent classification of sensitive data, organizations can:

• Reduce risk and exposure: Identify concentrations of sensitive data and prioritize remediation (for example, restricting access, monitoring usage, or minimizing unnecessary copies).

• Enable targeted monitoring and enforcement: Drive controls based on data sensitivity rather than broad rules that can create noise or gaps.

• Support audits and privacy obligations: Demonstrate where regulated data exists, how it is categorized, and that it is continuously governed, supporting requirements such as data inventory, data minimization, and access accountability.

• Improve operational consistency: Establish a repeatable, standardized approach to classifying sensitive data across databases and teams.

Key components

There are two key components that support visibility, compliance, and policy enforcement within your data security framework:

• Sensitive Data Discovery: Enables discovery and classification of sensitive data within target databases. Administrators can monitor discovery jobs, review discovered data, configure sensitivity groupings, and help organizations meet data privacy and regulatory requirements.

• Global Sets: A library of reusable, centrally managed sets of common entities that can be referenced across policies. Global Sets let you create and manage sets of IP addresses, OS users, user sets, client programs, schemas, and objects for any supported target database. For all Oracle Database targets, Global Sets can also include Privileged Users and Sensitive Objects, based on results from scheduled User Entitlements and Sensitive Object discovery jobs.

Typical outcomes

After implementing Discover & Classify, teams gain:

• A clearer map of where sensitive data resides across databases

• A consistent classification and labeling scheme aligned to internal standards and external requirements

• A repeatable process for keeping data discovery and classifications current

• Improved readiness for audits, incident response, and policy enforcement

Use cases

• Discover where sensitive data resides, how it is classified.

• Organize and group related entities to streamline security policy management.

• Support regulatory compliance by ensuring that sensitive data and relevant users are continuously monitored and governed.