Protecting data in Snowflake is easy with Nightfall’s developer platform

Ever since Snowflake burst onto the scene in 2014, the company and the software has been massively influential in how we all think of storing and accessing data. Snowflake reached new heights in September when they launched their IPO — at 28 million shares and $3.4 billion raised, it’s the largest software IPO in history.

The higher financial profile and cash influx means Snowflake can expand its reach even further. Many infosec leaders will likely be thinking about adding Snowflake to their organization’s tech stacks. The power of SaaS data warehousing and expertise in cloud storage is an easy sell. But there’s one thing missing: how will companies secure their data in Snowflake?

It’s a common story for infosec leaders: finding the balance between implementing the next big thing to make the company run smoother and faster and securing business-critical data as the tech stack grows. Snowflake lacks data loss prevention (DLP) in their app, meaning that data could slip through the cracks when working in the platform. Companies will be eager to plug in all their data into Snowflake, perhaps without considering the risks of who it could be shared with. Every piece of data in the cloud is at risk without DLP to protect it. Functionality and security should always be top concerns when implementing a platform like Snowflake.

If you’re looking to add Snowflake to your organization, think of these five ways DLP will secure the data you need to protect most — and see how easy it is to implement a higher level of security with Nightfall.

Take the guesswork out of security with DLP

Many Snowflake users utilize the platform’s key workloads to work with their data. Snowflake’s Data Applications allow users to simplify the development of data-intensive applications and deliver fast analytics, and Data Exchange makes it easy to share and collaborate on live data across your ecosystem. When working with these and other Snowflake workloads, it’s important to secure data at all times.

A DLP solution that can continuously scan your Snowflake instance will protect data from leakage as you access and store files and other important information. As data moves quickly throughout Snowflake — and all connected apps — it’s impossible to manually keep track of every security incident or potential data leak vector. If you rely on an automated solution for data warehousing, then you should expect an automated DLP to scan your Snowflake workloads to secure your entire organization.

Security built for industry experts

Any company that uses cloud-based data warehousing can benefit from Snowflake’s powerful solutions. Snowflake serves a wide range of industries and specializes in financial services, healthcare, education, and government. These particular industries have strict compliance guidelines they must adhere to, and each industry’s guidelines vary. When sharing data within Snowflake, it must be protected according to your industry’s compliance requirements.

Look for a DLP platform that supports compliance for your industry. A DLP that can detect and classify data critical to multiple industries like protected health information (PHI), bank routing numbers, or social security numbers is most qualified to protect private data from loss or leakage. Long-term cybersecurity success depends on how well you secure all your SaaS apps, including Snowflake.

Automate cross-platform data security and scale up your organization

Data warehousing helps teams get more done, and faster. Snowflake connects to many popular software integrations and cloud storage solutions, like AWS S3. The platform is built to support a wide network of partner integrations — but remember that accessing and sharing data from Snowflake to your various integrations must be done safely and securely.

Protect your essential data when connecting Snowflake to AWS S3 with a DLP solution that scans for information that might be in your S3 buckets. Data and files that live in these buckets could be exposed through improper access permissions or user error, so look for a DLP that integrates with AWS S3 to protect essential data. It’s one big way to help your organization get the most out of Snowflake.

Detect and classify unstructured data anywhere in Snowflake

When working with data warehouses like Snowflake, it’s inevitable to run across unstructured data. What you do with that unstructured data is a big question, and unfortunately doesn’t have a lot of clear answers. The problem is only getting larger: by 2025, it’s estimated that 80% of data worldwide will be unstructured. Detecting and classifying it are the first steps to understanding the associated security risks. From there, you have more options to use the unstructured data to your advantage.

Work with unstructured data and protect against loss with a DLP solution that can identify this data hidden in files across your cloud ecosystem. Reduce your risk of losing data by implementing DLP for Snowflake, and start catching all the hidden data you previously missed.

Adding more data protection is always a good move

One of Snowflake’s best features is how versatile the platform can be. It’s easy for beginners to pick up and use, with cool tricks for advanced users. Snowflake features a dev environment for advanced users to create a fully custom solution for their data warehousing needs. The minds behind Snowflake were thinking about how to protect data when working in the dev environment by implementing an option to mask the window while working.

But there’s still a massive problem with data exposure in dev environments and code repositories. Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler AG suffered a leak of software development documentation in May due to a misconfigured GitLab repository. Security may not always be top of mind for everyone in your organization. That’s why you need a DLP solution that secures data automatically across all your SaaS apps. Scan your entire code base for secrets and credentials to catch anything that shouldn’t be shared in Snowflake, like API keys or passwords. Snowflake offers a solution to mask the data when working in the dev environment, but if the data is in the warehouse to begin with, it will always be at risk of exposure. DLP ensures that you no longer have to worry about it.

Snowflake and the Nightfall Developer Platform are a perfect fit

Snowflake is a unique and powerful platform that allows users to create custom solutions to meet their data warehousing needs. It makes sense to pair Snowflake with another flexible cloud platform to ensure data security — the Nightfall developer platform. With our fully customizable and scalable developer platform, you can configure the detectors you need to detect and classify business-critical data in Snowflake. Best of all, Nightfall DLP allows you to take actions on potential security issues before they become threats.

When you use Snowflake to bring all your essential data together, use the Nightfall developer platform to ensure that data can be discovered, classified, and protected everywhere within Snowflake and any SaaS apps it is connected to. Our developer platform is built for developers, by developers, and integrates seamlessly into Snowflake with just a few lines of code. Our modern REST API makes DLP easy to deploy, with automated scanning, native remediation options, and deep-learning based detectors that go well beyond regexes, rules, and search strings.

Talk to us about how to add Nightfall’s developer platform to Snowflake and start securing your essential data right away.