Data-Driven Zero Trust: Understanding Coalfire's Product Applicability Guide

Zero trust is more than a buzzword;it’s a requirement. While many zero trust programs focus on networks and applications, a new Coalfire report shows that real resilience means applying zero trust principles to data as well.

This blog summarizes key best practices and lessons from Coalfire’s Product Applicability Guide: Enabling zero trust for security and privacy with Cyera. 

It all starts with data

Cyera’s mission is built on a simple principle: data is the foundation of security and privacy.
So, how do we put this philosophy to work? Cyera offers two must-have services you’ll want to know about:

• Data Analysis Service (DAS): discovers and classifies sensitive data wherever it lives.
• Data Insights Service (DIS): contextualizes findings, highlights risks, and drives automated protections.

Together, these services power a data-first zero trust model, giving organizations the visibility and control they need-right where it counts.

The result? Cyera DSPM keeps its zero trust promise and applies it consistently, so you’re always in step with industry standards.

“DSPM platform can not only support an organization’s compliance requirements but can also enhance an organization’s efforts toward data optimization, through the ability to directly support the adoption of generative AI and help accelerate business enablement by helping eliminate data blind spots that can stall innovation”.

Why Zero Trust for Data?

More organizations are moving to the cloud, using more SaaS tools, and starting to work with AI. But as they grow, they also face new challenges:

• Data sprawl across cloud, SaaS, and on-prem
• Hoarding and unclear provenance that obscure accountability
• Compliance gaps as frameworks evolve faster than controls
• Expanding attack surfaces that legacy tools can’t keep up with

Coalfire suggests starting with a data-first approach to zero trust. This helps organizations keep track of their data, classify it correctly, and manage it automatically.

Some of Coalfire’s Insights: 

1. Start with full visibility

“.Organizations cannot protect what they do not know they have, and, since not all data is created equal, unknown or unclassified data cannot be protected appropriately. Cyera DSPM is designed to solve both of these problems.”
Coalfire found that the four challenges mentioned above (data sprawl, data hoarding, uncertain provenance, and poor data visibility) make sensitive assets unmanageable. Cyera DSPM discovers and classifies data everywhere, so nothing stays in the dark.

2. Not all data is equal

By using contextual classification, Cyera helps organizations understand their data. This includes knowing the data subject role, residency, encryption, and whether the data is identifiable or synthetic. There’s no need for manual tagging, correlation, or de-duplication. This leads to improved policy enforcement, reduced compliance gaps, and smarter risk management. This approach helps organizations enforce the proper policies, address compliance gaps, and manage risk effectively.

3. Automate risk management

"Cyera DSPM can also enable automated security and compliance policy enforcement"

Manual controls can’t keep up with today’s fast-moving data. Cyera DSPM enables automated security and compliance policy enforcement. It continuously evaluates exposures, recommends fixes, and enforces protections without slowing down the business. The result is stronger control, less overhead, and a posture that keeps pace with modern threats.

4. Prioritize What Matters

Impact-driven alerting and incident prioritization distinguish between noise and real risk. With Cyera DSPM, alerts linked to sensitive or regulated data are automatically prioritized. This leads to faster and better response  = Less noise. More clarity. Stronger security outcomes.

5. “AI is only as secure as the data it consumes”

Cyera DSPM applies tagging and policy enforcement to data flowing into LLMs and ML pipelines. This ensures that regulated, proprietary, or high-risk data does not leak into the wrong model.

6. Focus on the basics

Cyera DSPM focuses on the basics: data discovery, classification, and automated risk management. Coalfire has confirmed its technical strength. It directly aligns with the most recognized frameworks, such as ISO/IEC 27001, NIST RMF, the Tenets of Zero Trust, GAPP, and Secure Design Principles. This allows organizations to show regulators and auditors how their data security strategy meets global standards, without the hassle of manual mapping.

“These capabilities and features are compared against the following industry best practices for security and privacy and zero trust: Secure Design Principles, Generally Accepted Privacy Principles, and the Tenants of Zero Trust”

So Basically, Zero trust isn’t optional anymore.‍

Coalfire’s conclusion is clear: without visibility and control at the data layer, both privacy and security fall short. That’s where Cyera DSPM steps in and changes the game.

From compliance to resilience

Today’s organizations can’t treat security and privacy as just items to check off a list. Regulations keep changing, and attackers are always a step ahead. What’s needed is a flexible approach that meets compliance and builds real resilience for the future.

Ready to dive deeper?

Download the full Product Applicability Guide: Enabling zero trust for security and privacy with Cyera, created with Coalfire, to see how Cyera supports zero trust for data, boosts security and privacy, and helps organizations stay resilient. 

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