Material Non-Public Information (MNPI) leaks can devastate a company— triggering everything from regulatory scrutiny, investor fallout, and reputational harm. Although for many organizations knowing where that sensitive information lives, who has access to it, and how it moves across the organization remains as a blind spot.
MNPI is a crucial concept in securities law and compliance that has significant implications for both investors and the integrity of financial markets. The areas as to why its important cover from compliance, market integrity, and insider trading. Luckily, BigID can help.
While BigID has best in-class data classification and discovery it is important to call out one of the most powerful use cases we can assist in. Which is in helping companies identify, classify, and respond to MNPI exposure events. BigID can help organizations break down what qualifies as MNPI, the data signals that matter, and how platforms like BigID can give companies the visibility and intelligence needed to detect these potential disclosure risks before becoming a full blown incident.
Scalable Data Discovery and Classification
BigID is the industry- leading provider for data discovery and classification— from on-prem, cloud, and SaaS applications. So let’s drive on what data is important to discover and classify to streamline these potential risks. With BigID’s out-of-the-box AI-driven classifiers and pattern recognition, we can auto-discover what documents and data could pertain to MNPI. These objects that can pertain to MNPI include: earnings and financial forecasts, M&A discussions, strategic roadmaps, product launches, legal or regulatory communications, and even board and executive communications. All of these categories not only map to MNPI, but to make that more efficient we can build policies in BigID to identify that information.
Once BigID identifies that information, we need to ensure that we label that information. As this enables your security team to not only proactively identify and label that information, it allows them to define and maintain essentially a “zone of sensitivity”. Since companies will know where their MNPI information lives and can implement heightened security controls around that.
Access Intelligence and Remediation
Half of the battle has now been won, now onto the next battle. Who has access to this data? By leveraging BigID’s Access Intelligence, we can help organizations not only who have access to that information, but is the access level appropriate. As we want to help organizations identify where their overexposed data is and analyze access patterns for individuals who actively view these files. The purpose of this is very clear, especially with MNPI data, is to enforce the principle of least privilege and reduce the risk of accidental or malicious disclosure.
When BigID discovers the list of people who have access, there needs to be action taken. By leveraging BigID’s Delegated Remediation Application, these findings can be sent to the proper data owner to review the list of individuals who have current access and determine whether or not these individuals should be removed. Once these actions are taken, companies can successfully see the reduction of risk as it pertains to their MNPI data.
Retention and Lifecycle
Another major risk factor with MNPI data is stale or forgotten data. Those documents that should have been archived or deleted a very long time ago, but still remain in shared folders or legacy systems. BigID can help map and manage the lifecycle of these records, identify any orphaned data left behind by former employees, and assist in data lifecycle practices that further minimize long-term exposure risks.
Without this visibility, these data artifacts can quietly accumulate over time and further increase exposure risks. BigID can assist in mapping those data lifecycle signals that can assist security and compliance teams automate retention workflows based on policy and usage, reduce unnecessary storage costs, and ultimately shrink the MNPI attack surface.
Proactively Mitigate Risk with BigID
At its core, BigID transforms data security from a reactive, check-box exercise into a proactive strategy for managing MNPI risk. BigID gives organizations the ability to continuously discover and classify MNPI across an ever-changing ecosystem, monitor who has access to it and how that access is used, and enforce data lifecycle controls and practices that reduce long term exposure. In doing so, BigID doesn’t just help companies stay in compliance, it helps them stay ahead of the risk.
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Frequently Asked Questions About MNPI Risk
What types of documents and data can pertain to MNPI?
Documents and data that can pertain to MNPI include earnings reports and financial forecasts, M&A discussions, strategic plans and roadmaps, information about upcoming product launches, legal or regulatory communications, and board or executive communications. Other potentially sensitive information can include unpublished business results, material corporate developments, and documents containing details that could influence an investor’s decision. BigID can discover and classify these data types across on-premises, cloud, and SaaS environments.
How can organizations identify MNPI across their data environment?
Organizations can identify MNPI by combining data discovery, classification, pattern recognition, and policy-based detection across their data environment. The process should cover structured and unstructured data in file shares, cloud platforms, SaaS applications, and other repositories where sensitive information may reside. Automated classification can help security and compliance teams identify likely MNPI at scale and establish a clear view of where sensitive information is stored.
Who should have access to MNPI?
Access to MNPI should be limited to individuals who have a legitimate business need and the appropriate level of authorization. Organizations should regularly review access permissions, identify overexposed data, and remove unnecessary access to reduce the risk of accidental or intentional disclosure. Applying least-privilege principles and monitoring how sensitive information is accessed can help security and compliance teams maintain tighter control over MNPI.
How does BigID help organizations manage MNPI risk?
BigID helps organizations manage MNPI risk by discovering and classifying potentially sensitive information, analyzing who has access to it, and supporting remediation and data lifecycle controls. Organizations can use BigID to identify documents and data that may contain MNPI, establish policies around sensitive information, review access risks, and reduce unnecessary exposure through remediation and retention workflows. This provides security and compliance teams with greater visibility and control over MNPI across the enterprise.
How can organizations reduce the risk of MNPI exposure?
Organizations can reduce MNPI exposure by first identifying where sensitive information resides, then limiting access to people with a legitimate business need. Effective controls should also include ongoing monitoring, remediation of excessive access, and retention policies that prevent unnecessary sensitive data from accumulating. Regularly reviewing MNPI-related data and access as business environments change helps security and compliance teams reduce the likelihood of accidental disclosure and maintain stronger control over sensitive information.
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