A recent survey conducted by Dell Software found that 52 percent of organizations saw their unstructured data volumes increase by at least 25 percent in the past year, but only 45 are taking the appropriate measures to secure their sensitive information. These figures reflect a business opportunity that Dell is eager to exploit.

This morning, the company announced a new module for its Quest One Identity Manager – Data Governance Edition software. The update introduces a system that scans the user’s infrastructure and produces a Management Risk Index (MRI) report which helps admins identify the parts of their environment that are most vulnerable to attack.

This feature is complemented by a classification tool that categorizes data by risk level, and an analytics program that contextualizes and sorts sensitive info based on risk ranking and content. The Classification Module also includes a tagging mechanism that empowers organizations to enforce access policies, and location-based tracking capabilities that enable CIOs to see where their data is stored. The latter feature is particularly handy for organizations in regulated industries that have to take jurisdiction laws into account.

“Our solution’s unique capability to add identity to unstructured data can improve security, compliance and business agility,” boasted Dell Software executive director John Milburn. “Business owners can better manage data assets when they know what’s in the data itself, and can assign a risk level for each user, depending on what other permissions the user has. The Quest One Identity Manager – Data Governance Edition Classification Module gives business owners insight into both the data, and the roles and responsibilities of users, so they can make informed decisions on access requests to help further reduce the organization’s exposure to risk.”

Companies – especially those that manage sensitive data – can’t afford to let their guards down. We learned this once again last week, when security experts announced that a highly sophisticated piece of malware wormed its way into at least 350 firms and government agencies, including a number of aerospace and nuclear power organizations.