Spirion Upholds Core Data Protection Disciplines Amidst GenAI Expansion

Tampa, FL, March 19, 2024 — Spirion, the world’s foremost authority in data discovery, classification, and remediation, extends their portfolio to assist organizations adopting Generative AI (GenAI). As they experience the game changing benefits of GenAI models, they are also beginning to recognize that those benefits can quickly be offset by the ungoverned risks associated with the Large Language Models (LLM’s) that underpin them. 

Trained on billions of records over 18 years, Spirion’s proprietary technology delivers industry leading OOTB accuracy in discovering and protecting sensitive data, any data type (structured or unstructured), anywhere it resides, including in any cloud architecture, on any on-premise server, and on any endpoint (Windows or Mac). 

By properly prioritizing privacy and security when building their data sets, organizations can continue to experiment, innovate, and disrupt by safely harnessing the power of GenAI. 

Key Highlights: 

– Data Security at the Core: Spirion recognizes the inherent value of data and emphasizes the need for a proactive approach to its utilization. As with all things Sensitive Data, Spirion is “Step One”.  Mazars’ “S.A.F.E. AI Framework” starts with “Secure – deploying data privacy, compliance and protection standards”.  Furthering the need for data protection basics, according to research in IDC’s Future Enterprise Resiliency & Spending Survey Wave, “63% [of enterprises interviewed] do not believe they have strict enough controls around their sensitive data” to be able to fully adopt GenAI”.   

– Mitigating Unwarranted Risks: In the dynamic landscape of AI adoption, Spirion stresses the paramount importance of avoiding data incidents. According to Abhishek Gupta, Founder and Principal Researcher at the Montreal AI Ethics Institute and Director, Responsible AI at BCG, “AI governance presents significant innovation opportunities for organizations by increasing the quality of AI systems. Learning from huge data collections introduces risks related to data centralization, privacy, energy efficiency, limited customizability, and control.” 

Spirion’s Unique Approach: 

Spirion’s approach ensures that AI and LLM data retain maximum value without compromising organizational health. Leveraging the world-leading Privacy-Grade^TM accuracy in identifying sensitive data, coupled with a context-rich classification engine, Spirion persistently labels data as “LLM-ready” or “LLM-prohibited”. This strategic classification allows organizations to effectively control the ingestion of sensitive data, limiting it to only content approved for usage in LLM initiatives. 

According to Steve Hindle, Principal Chief Security & Compliance Advisor at Spirion, “Data is the new oil, and like oil it can be both highly valuable as well as incredibly toxic when placed in the wrong environment. Data toxicity reflects the level to which an organization has unknown and/or unprotected sensitive data. The temptation facing many organizations in their adoption, training, and usage of AI is that they want to feed in as much data as possible (due to its value). However, it is critical to identify, sanitize, and thus make your data LLM-ready to ensure that you are not exposing AI platforms to more than is required – and inadvertently turning your high value data into a toxic superfund site.” 

In addition to strategically cleansing and then classifying content to be considered ready for LLM ingestion at scale, Spirion also interoperates with in-motion data loss prevention (DLP) tools, providing organizations with unprecedented control over how and when data is shared. 

This continued commitment highlights Spirion’s fundamental foundations of empowering organizations to navigate the evolving landscape securely while protecting what matters most, their data. 

About Spirion 

Since 2006, Spirion has been dedicated to addressing genuine data protection challenges through precise contextual discovery of both structured and unstructured data, deliberate classification, automated real-time risk mitigation, and robust analytics and dashboards, providing organizations with enhanced insight into their most vulnerable data and assets. With Spirion’s Privacy-Grade™ data protection software, businesses can minimize risk exposure, enhance understanding of their data landscape, streamline operations and decision-making processes, all while ensuring compliance with data protection regulations. 

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For more information, press only:  

Missi Carmen, Missi.carmen@spirion.com, (646) 863-8301