Designing for data privacy and managing sensitive information

Any organization that handles sensitive information is usually bound by its country or state laws and other compliance regulations to keep the data secure and confidential. Aside from legal reasons, keeping sensitive data protected is very important for the reputation of an organization and to reduce the risk of identity theft for its customers. Azure security standards recommend the following techniques to keep sensitive data safe:

• Identifying and classifying sensitive data – The very first step is to analyze and identify all the sensitive data in your data stores. Some might be straightforward, such as SQL tables or structured files, and some might be not so straightforward, such as PII data being logged in log files. Azure also provides tools that can help with the identification and classification of data. For example, the Synapse SQL portal provides a feature for Data Discovery and Classification, which...