Combatting Public Sector Data Sprawl in the Age of AI & Cloud

Synack’s Katie Bowen offers insights on combatting public sector data sprawl in the age of AI and cloud. This article originally appeared on Solutions Review’s Insight Jam, an enterprise IT community enabling the human conversation on AI.

Organizations have rushed to adopt increasingly complex infrastructure—including AI-based tools and services—in the hope of becoming more efficient and capable in their software delivery practices and infrastructure management. But these utilities also come with a hidden cost: data sprawl. This leads to massive security blind spots that could have severe consequences for all organizations, but especially for regulators, law enforcement agencies, and other government entities tasked with handling sensitive information.

So, what steps can the public sector take to minimize the potential fallout of data sprawl? To understand that, we have to explore the risks and requirements government agencies will meet.

How Data Sprawl is Impacting Government Organizations 

When data is fragmented across multiple platforms, devices and cloud services, maintaining a comprehensive security posture becomes extremely complicated. The lack of centralized oversight can result in gaps in security protocols, unpatched systems and outdated encryption standards—all of which can be exploited by malicious actors.

Tracking and controlling access also becomes difficult, opening the door for overlooked, unauthorized access points to highly sensitive information. This fragmentation means government agencies are constantly at risk of data breaches, which can have severe national security implications, especially during periods of high tension, both foreign and domestic.

Data sprawl also leads to compliance challenges for government organizations that are bound by a variety of regulatory requirements based on the information they’re working with and how it’s used. Because data sprawl complicates the ability to maintain accurate and comprehensive records, it makes it difficult to demonstrate compliance during audits. Further, in the event of a breach, dispersed data can hinder the organization’s ability to conduct thorough investigations and report the incident within mandated timeframes, leading to potential regulatory penalties.

Non-compliance can result in significant fines, legal consequences, and a loss of public trust, making it imperative for government agencies to find effective solutions to manage their data securely.

Cue Continuous Security Testing

There’s no silver bullet solution to cybersecurity and compliance, which is why continuous security testing—i.e. constant vulnerability scanning, patch verification, and attack surface discovery—is essential across any industry, especially the government.

Continuous security testing provides government organizations with comprehensive oversight and enhanced visibility into the posture of their disparate environments. This visibility is crucial for identifying unauthorized access points and potential security risks, as well as responding in an effective manner when incidents do take place. In other words, by maintaining a constant and accurate view of their environments, public sector organizations can better predict, prevent and respond to incidents.

For example, recent research shows that injection vulnerabilities like SQLi accounted for nearly a third of all vulnerabilities detected last year. Despite their prevalence, with continuous testing, the government can drastically enhance their understanding of the attack surface and reduce remediation time to minimize impact.

In the same vein, the enhanced visibility that comes from continuous security testing also helps organizations achieve compliance and meet key requirements, including protection of sensitive personally identifiable information (PII) on federal employees.

Take FedRAMP, a government-wide program that promotes the adoption of secure cloud services across the federal government by providing a standardized approach to security and risk assessment for cloud technologies and federal agencies. Data categorized in the “Moderate Impact” level involves information whose loss of theft “would result in serious adverse effects on an agency’s operations, assets, or individuals.” Continuous security testing has evolved to cover even this level of sensitive data.

As organizations explore new tools and technologies, addressing data sprawl will become increasingly important. Continuous security testing is a key step in understanding where data is and how it could be exposed through the exploitation of a vulnerability and how to achieve compliance. By adopting continuous, human-led security testing as part of a strategic approach, the public sector can better prepare for the ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats.