You can’t protect — or safely delete — data you’ve never mapped. And every extra copy you keep is one more thing that can be stolen.
Recommended ModuleCarriers and regulators ask about data governance because the size of a breach is driven by how much sensitive data you hold and how long you’ve kept it. Companies that never classify their data treat a marketing list and a file of Social Security numbers the same way — and companies that never delete anything turn a small breach into a catastrophic one.
The three things they’re really asking: Do you know what sensitive data you hold and where it lives? Have you classified it so the risky data gets the strongest handling? And do you keep it only as long as you need, then destroy it securely? If your answer is "it’s everywhere and we keep everything," this kit fixes exactly that.
Find your sensitive data.
Spend 30 minutes listing where your most sensitive data lives — customer records, employee SSNs, health or payment data. Check the obvious systems, but also email, spreadsheets, shared drives, and old backups. That list is the start of a data map, and it’s often eye-opening.
Adopt four labels.
Decide on four classification levels — Restricted, Confidential, Internal, Public — and write a one-line definition of each. You don’t have to label everything today; just having the scheme means new data can be handled by its sensitivity from now on.
Delete one thing you don’t need.
Find one store of old sensitive data you have no reason to keep — a years-old export, a former employee’s files, a stale backup — and securely destroy it. Data you don’t hold can’t be breached. It’s the fastest risk reduction there is.
If the quick wins showed you the gap but not the path, the kit gives you a complete data-governance starter — a classification scheme, a data map, a retention schedule, and a secure-disposal process — without a data-discovery platform or a privacy consultant.
Data Classification & Retention Policy
The policy that sets how you classify, keep, and dispose of data. Pre-structured; adapt and adopt.
Data Classification Scheme & Handling Matrix
Four levels with definitions and handling rules — how to store, share, and dispose of each level.
Data Inventory & Data Map
A living record of what data you hold, where it lives, and who can reach it — the foundation for everything else.
Data Retention Schedule
How long you keep each data type, why, and how you dispose of it — so you keep only what you need.
Secure Disposal & Destruction Log
Disposal methods by media (paper, drives, cloud, backups) plus a destruction record. "Deleted" is not "destroyed."
Data Handling Quick Reference
A one-page cheat sheet for staff so people handle data correctly by its label. Post it, attach it to onboarding.
Some data estates need to be mapped and governed, not just templated.
If your Whitestance score flagged Data Governance as a critical gap — or if you hold large volumes of regulated data across many systems — a kit gets you a program but a full engagement gets your data actually mapped and governed. Whitestance’s fractional CISO engagements inventory and classify your data across your whole environment, set defensible retention, and produce documented evidence your board, auditors, and carriers can see. Engagements start at $40,000 for smaller organizations and scale from there.
Talk to us about a full engagement →