What Is Data Security Posture Management (DSPM)? At its core, DSPM shifts security focus away from infrastructure and toward the data itself. Rather than relying on perimeter defenses or manual classification, DSPM platforms continuously scan environments to identify where sensitive data lives, who can access it and whether it is properly secured. “Unlike traditional tools that focus on the perimeter or infrastructure, DSPM provides continuous visibility into where sensitive data resides, who has access to it and how it is being used across cloud and hybrid environments,” Ben-Ezra says. For public sector organizations, the stakes are especially high. Agencies often manage large volumes of sensitive citizen data — including personally identifiable information and financial records — across fragmented, multigenerational systems. DSPM helps address that complexity through automation. By continuously discovering and classifying data across cloud, Software as a Service and on-premises environments, it allows security teams to identify high-risk exposures more quickly. Ben-Ezra describes DSPM as a force multiplier for resource-constrained teams, noting that it can automatically surface risky scenarios such as sensitive data that is widely accessible or left unprotected, helping agencies reduce exposure before it leads to an incident. How Does DSPM Differ From Legacy DLP and CASB Tools? Many agencies already rely on data loss prevention and cloud access security broker tools, but those technologies were designed for earlier IT environments. DLP tools typically focus on monitoring and preventing data from leaving the network, while CASBs enforce access controls for cloud applications. Both remain important, but they primarily address data in motion. “Traditional DLP is frequently blind to the relationship between the data and the underlying infrastructure, leading to high false-positive rates and manual overhead,” Ben-Ezra says. DSPM fills that gap by providing visibility into data at rest and how it is configured within cloud environments. Instead