From Invisible Risk
to Informed Action
A North American professional services organization with 1,200+ users discovered $7.2M in unmanaged data risk — concentrated in workflows they already knew about, hiding in places they didn’t.
Sensitive data was accumulating — quietly, continuously, across every system.
Like most organizations, this client knew they had sensitive data. What they didn’t know was exactly where it lived, how much had built up over time, or which business processes were creating the greatest risk.
Privacy data had migrated far beyond controlled systems into the unstructured sprawl of email archives, shared drives, and personal OneDrive folders — accumulating for nearly two decades with no systematic review.
Privacy data living in email
94.7% of the total risk exposure ($6.8M of $7.2M) originated in Exchange Online — email was the primary vehicle for sensitive data ingestion and the primary location where it remained, indefinitely.
18 years of accumulated exposure
The oldest item at risk dated back to April 2007. With no retention policies governing unstructured data, records sat untouched for years — long past any legitimate business need.
Growing risk, month over month
369 new sensitive items were being added every month. Without intervention, every quarter of inaction added ~$192K to the exposure.
Super-toxic document concentration
14 documents contained 25+ individual data subjects each — representing disproportionate breach impact and the clearest candidates for immediate remediation.
What 52.7 million items revealed
The Data & More assessment provided a complete picture of the organization’s data risk — across every storage location, data type, and age cohort.
Recruiting and travel data account for 73% of all privacy risk
These findings align directly with core business workflows — and that’s good news. The highest-risk data concentrations map precisely to the processes that can be targeted first.
Email is the primary risk surface
$6.8M of the total exposure originates in Exchange Online — characteristic of organizations that process sensitive data through email workflows without systematic migration to governed storage.
Key insight: Because risk is concentrated in Exchange, targeted email remediation policies deliver disproportionate impact with relatively contained scope — a strong starting point for a quick-win programme.
Five targeted policies.
One major outcome.
These quick wins address the highest-concentration risk categories with low implementation complexity. Together, they reduce estimated exposure by ~82% — before any long-term governance programme is in place.
Visibility creates the foundation for everything else.
Beyond the immediate risk numbers, the assessment gives the organization a set of practical capabilities they didn’t have before — and a clear, sequenced path forward.
A complete data inventory, not estimates
For the first time, the organization knows exactly what sensitive data exists, where it lives, who owns it, and how old it is — across every storage system simultaneously.
AI Copilot readiness assessment
83% of users required remediation to make their data safe for AI consumption. This assessment establishes the baseline and roadmap to Copilot enablement done right.
Sustainable, recurring governance cycles
Each remediation policy recurs automatically every 6 months. Users review, mark, and move on. The programme compounds in impact over time without compounding in effort.
Defensible compliance posture
With documented discovery, review, and remediation cycles in place, the organization can demonstrate active, auditable data stewardship to regulators, auditors, and clients.
The data is there. The risk is real. The path forward is clear — and the first steps are straightforward.
Every organization’s data tells a story.
Find out what yours says.
A Data & More assessment takes weeks, not months — and gives your team the complete picture needed to act with confidence.