SQL Data Discovery and Classification

The Data Discovery and Classification feature enables you to identify, classify, and label data held across your SQL Server estate. The sheer volume of data now held within databases makes this a challenging process, coupled with the fact that regulatory mandates such as GDPR, SOX, and PCI demand that businesses protect sensitive data. So you can see how this feature will help. Before you can develop a security strategy for your SQL Server databases, it makes logical sense to know what data you hold, and from this you can then classify and label the more sensitive data and implement the relevant security controls, therefore minimizing potential sensitive data leaks.

Key components for this feature include two metadata attributes, labels and information types. Labels are used to define the sensitivity of data. Information types are used to provide additional granularity into the types of data stored in a column. As you can see in Figure 2.1...