Protecting your data in a shifting digital landscape

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, organisations face an unprecedented surge in cyber threats—many of them aimed squarely at compromising sensitive data. As high‑profile incidents continue to dominate the headlines, the need for a holistic, resilient, and proactive approach to data security has never been more urgent. This eBook explores the shifting threat environment, the growing complexity of data types and platforms, and the operational gaps that leave organisations exposed. It also demystifies the core challenges—from shadow data and ghost accounts to AI‑driven risks—and offers practical, structured guidance for strengthening your defence‑in‑depth strategy.

This eBook explores the key challenges organisations face as they navigate this evolving threat environment and the practical steps they can take to strengthen their data security posture. From understanding where data lives and who has access, to managing insider risk and ensuring swift response when incidents occur, the guidance provided offers a clear, structured view of what effective protection looks like in modern enterprises. It highlights the tools, strategies and frameworks that can help organisations regain control, build resilience and support secure, trusted data flow.

Rajvir Cheema

Partner, Digital Healthcare Advisory

KPMG in the UK

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Cyber considerations

The challenges of protecting your data

Organisations must understand what data they hold, where it lives, and who can access it to build an effective defence.
Data comes in many different forms

The rise of unstructured data and complex, multi‑cloud environments makes visibility and protection increasingly difficult.
There is often a lack of insight into the use of GenAI

Unmanaged or unclear AI usage introduces significant risks of accidental or intentional data exposure.
Ghost users and dormant accounts are rife

Inactive or forgotten accounts create silent access points that attackers can exploit.
Insider risk is still misunderstood

Human error, malicious intent and poor identity controls remain major drivers of data breaches.
Today’s solution landscape is fragmented

Disjointed security tools create gaps and inefficiencies, making organisations more vulnerable to attack.

4 Steps to a practical Cyber defence

Discover and protect sensitive data

Organisations should map where data is stored and how it moves, assign clear ownership, classify it with sensitivity labels, and protect it through encryption and access controls. Modern integrated tools like Microsoft Purview support this by giving full visibility of sensitive data across the digital estate and unifying protection, DLP, insider risk management and AI‑driven insights to reduce data security risks.
Protect and prevent data loss

Organisations can strengthen their data protection by extending foundational controls across multi‑cloud and multi‑platform environments in a way that maintains both security and productivity. Centralised solutions like Microsoft Purview streamline this by managing DLP from a single portal, tailoring protection based on user risk, and preventing sensitive data from being shared through consumer GenAI tools.

Manage insider risks

Robust identity and access management—supported by automatic removal of ghost accounts and regular access reviews—helps reduce insider risk, while specialised tools like Microsoft Purview’s Insider Risk Management use machine learning and behavioural indicators to detect threats such as data leakage or IP theft. With AI‑related risks rising, purpose‑built capabilities like Copilot for Security provide continuous visibility into how users interact with consumer GenAI apps, highlighting sensitive prompts and emerging risk patterns across the organisation.
Quickly investigate and respond to incidents

Organisations need well‑trained cyber teams, clear incident response processes, and strong user awareness to ensure fast detection and reaction when a security incident occurs. Microsoft Purview supports this by unifying incident triage and accelerating investigations through Copilot for Security, enabling quick analysis of alerts, forensic evidence review and seamless escalation to eDiscovery.

Why KPMG and Microsoft

KPMG and Microsoft combine strategic insight with advanced technology to help organisations secure their most valuable asset-data. KPMG brings deep expertise in data risk, governance, and regulatory alignment, while Microsoft delivers integrated, AI-powered tools like Microsoft Purview to classify, protect, and manage sensitive information across hybrid environments. Together, we enable organisations to build robust data security frameworks that go beyond perimeter defence – embedding protection at the data level, ensuring compliance, and enabling secure collaboration. This partnership empowers clients to reduce data exposure, respond to threats faster, and unlock trusted data for innovation. With KPMG and Microsoft, data security becomes a foundation for resilience and growth.