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Data Confidentiality: Identifying and Protecting Assets Against Data Breaches

Data confidentiality refers to protection of data from unauthorized access and disclosure, including means for protecting personal privacy and proprietary information. Lapses in data confidentiality can lead to a data breach, which can have far-reaching operational, financial, and reputational impacts for the enterprise. The NCCoE is committed to helping organizations address threats to data confidentiality.

Demonstrating how organizations can identify and protect information from threats to data confidentiality

The NCCoE Data Security Project Team is collaborating with industry experts and technology vendors to develop a reference design and a detailed description of the practical steps needed to identify and protect the confidentiality of an enterprise’s data.
Status: Finalized Guidance

This guide provides recommendations on how to prevent data beaches, including cybersecurity and privacy considerations to prepare for data beaches and specific technical direction for implementation.

NIST SP 1800-28 (Complete Guide HTML)Web Version NIST SP 1800-28 (Complete Guide HTML)
NIST SP 1800-28 (Complete Guide PDF)Web Version NIST SP 1800-28 (Complete Guide PDF)
NIST SP 1800-28A: Executive SummaryDocument Version NIST SP 1800-28A: Executive Summary
NIST SP 1800-28B: Approach, Architecture, and Security CharacteristicsDocument Version NIST SP 1800-28B: Approach, Architecture, and Security Characteristics
NIST SP 1800-28C: How-To GuidesDocument Version NIST SP 1800-28C: How-To Guides

Project Abstract

An organization’s data is one of its most valuable assets and must be protected from unauthorized access and disclosure. Large and small data breaches can impact the ability of an organization to survive as operational and financial data, along with employee or customer personally identifiable information, can become compromised. This can undermine the organization’s work and success and lead to severe reputational damage.

The NCCoE is helping enterprises address data confidentiality challenges through collaborative efforts with industry and the Information Technology (IT) community, including vendors of cybersecurity solutions.

The goal of this project is to provide a practical solution to identify and protect the confidentiality of an enterprise’s data. This project will also provide guidance that parallels the Detect, Respond to, and Recover from Data Breaches Project. The NCCoE chose to address data confidentiality in two parallel projects to provide modular, adaptable guidance rather than an utilize an all-or-nothing approach.

This project will result in a publicly available National Institute of Standards and Technology Cybersecurity Practice Guide, a detailed implementation guide of the practical steps needed to implement a cybersecurity reference design that addresses this challenge.

Read the project description

An organization’s data is one of its most valuable assets and must be protected from unauthorized access and disclosure.

Collaborating Vendors

Organizations participating in this project submitted their capabilities in response to an open call in the Federal Register for all sources of relevant security capabilities from academia and industry (vendors and integrators). The following respondents with relevant capabilities or product components (identified as “Technology Partners/Collaborators” herein) signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement to collaborate with NIST in a consortium to build this example solution.