As organizations scale, data grows, spreads, and becomes harder to control. Add hybrid work, cross-cloud services, and intelligent collaboration (AI) tools, and suddenly the challenge isn’t just securing access, it’s gaining visibility, context, and control over sensitive data while detecting risky access and exposure.
Microsoft Purview Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) is built for exactly that purpose. It gives you a security lens over your data estate so you can answer:
What sensitive data do we have? Where is it? Who is accessing it? And are we protecting it consistently?
This article walks through what DSPM is, why it matters, and most importantly what you need to have in place to get full value from it.
If you’re looking for AI-specific coverage, I covered DSPM for AI previously, read that article here: Take Control of AI Services and Sensitive Data in Your Organization | IT-Säkerhetsguiden
What DSPM does — in practice
DSPM in Microsoft Purview helps you:
- Identify sensitive data across your organization
- Assess & score your data security posture
- Highlight risky users, activities, and data flows
- Recommend and validate controls such as DLP, sensitivity labels, and access management
- Track improvement over time via trend insights and reports
It connects your data-classification work with real-world behavior, surfacing signals like:
- Sensitive files downloaded –> then exfiltrated to personal cloud storage
- Users with elevated risk indicators moving sensitive content out of controlled environments
- Unprotected or unlabeled content in high-risk locations
This isn’t just visibility, it’s prioritized insight, tied to real risk.
Why groundwork matters
(your security posture only becomes as strong as your prep)
I’ve said it many times before around the new released Purview functions:
DSPM is not magic, it accelerates whatever foundation you already have.
So to get meaningful insights, make sure of the following:
1. Custom Sensitive Information Types (SITs)
Don’t rely solely on built-in detections like SITs and trainable classifiers. Your real-world crown jewels are often industry- and organization-specific. Build custom SITs for your R&D artifacts, internal product IDs, engineering documentation, contract structures, and sensitive personal data. Always validate any built-in SITs you plan to use to minimize irrelevant noise and false positives.
2. Labels Mapped to Business-Critical Data Categories
Sensitivity labels are more than a compliance tool, they’re the foundation for DSPM intelligence. Define labels that align with your organization’s most critical data domains.
For example, distinct labels for HR, R&D, and executive management data enable clear visibility into how sensitive information is handled and where potential misuse or data exposure occurs.
3. DLP Deployed Strategically
Begin by targeting the highest-risk data flows and user groups, then expand coverage gradually. Ensure Endpoint DLP is fully deployed to monitor data movement on endpoints and integrated across Microsoft 365 and other key services. Incorporate sensitive data handling into standard operating procedures and governance frameworks to strengthen protection across your digital estate.
With these three pillars, DSPM stops being a “dashboard” and becomes a risk-driven control engine.
DSPM + Insider Risk + Defender XDR: seeing the full picture
One of the most powerful DSPM outcomes is identifying High-risk users and Potential risky users.
One example is to find
High-risk users downloading Sensitive files → then exfiltrating them externally.
This is real value, but only because the necessary integrations were in place:
- Insider Risk Management signals enabled
- Entra ID Protection risk telemetry
- Defender integration for endpoint events
Without these integrations, you simply won’t see the whole XDR chain.
Make sure you enable:
These give you critical insight like suspicious sign-ins, device tampering, abnormal file-movement behavior, and more.
From Default to Defined Detections
Let’s explore how the Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) Report can help identify the most critical risk-related activities.
By default, the DSPM report aggregates all available sensitive information types detected across your environment.
2. Filtering for business-relevant sensitive data
Next, we apply a filter to focus only on the sensitive data categories that matter most to our organization
3. Focusing on the most risky actions
We then narrow down to the riskiest activities, such as sharing outside the organization, copying to unmanaged
locations, or uploading to non-compliant SaaS services.
4. Correlating risky users, actions, and sensitive data
The final view highlights the intersection between risky users, risky actions, and sensitive data — providing a clear, prioritized view of where potential data exposure or misuse is most likely to occur.
From DSPM to Investigation: Using Copilot
Once DSPM surfaces High-risk users, Potential risky users, or exfiltration activity, Insider Risk Management is the built in tool for investigations but you can also accelerate investigation using Microsoft Security Copilot embedded in Purview.
With the correct roles assigned (for example the Purview Data Security Viewer + Copilot-enabled investigator role) you can ask natural-language queries such as:
Copilot can summarize and triage DSPM signals, correlating sensitive data detection, DLP events, and Insider Risk signals to quickly pinpoint the source of risk.
Recommended rollout approach
- Identify high-value data (Crown Jewels)
- Build and validate custom and built in SITs
- Align sensitivity labels & DLP policies
- Enable Insider Risk + Entra + Defender signals
- Turn on DSPM and evaluate high-risk insights
- Use Copilot to triage and investigate alerts
- Iterate based on behavior, not theory
DSPM is a journey, and when paired with IRM and Defender XDR signals and Copilot, it becomes a force multiplier for governance, security, and rapid risk investigation.
Final thought
Security isn’t just about blocking, it’s about understanding your data and behaviors well enough to protect innovation without friction.
DSPM gives visibility and intelligence.
Copilot gives investigative power.
Your groundwork unlocks the full value.