About the Casino
This hospitality and gaming resort operates a 24/7 large environment with hundreds of endpoints, terabytes of data on file servers, multiple databases, and a growing use of cloud platforms. With sensitive data spread across on-premises and cloud locations, the cybersecurity team sought a solution to gain full visibility, automate data remediation, and strengthen executive reporting. Spirion’s Sensitive Data Platform enabled them to uncover hidden risk, quarantine outdated data, and reduce exposure across their hybrid environment.
“We were flying blind. If there was a breach, we wouldn’t have known exactly what data was exposed, or where it even lived.”
— Head of Cybersecurity, Hospitality & Gaming Organization
Challenge
Operating 24/7 and processing sensitive financial, guest, and employee data across numerous departments, this major casino resort faced a growing data security challenge: ensuring compliance while addressing internal vulnerabilities. As regulatory scrutiny intensified and the threat of data breaches became more real, the cybersecurity team lacked confidence in their ability to locate, classify, and control sensitive data across endpoints, file shares, databases, and emerging cloud platforms.
Internally, data sprawl, especially in accounting, led to the retention of outdated financial and PII records well beyond policy limits, often without clear business justification. “We had a lot of data sitting in department shares that we didn’t need anymore, but no easy way to identify or remove it,” explained the Head of Cybersecurity. The organization needed to remediate older data and quarantine it to a secure location, all while leaving behind a record for traceability.
At the same time, their existing tools offered little to no visibility into how data was being accessed or shared, particularly as SharePoint, OneDrive, and Exchange Online adoption grew. There also were no meaningful alerts or reports to communicate risk to stakeholders or support compliance efforts. “We were flying blind. If there was a breach, we wouldn’t have known exactly what data was exposed, or where it even lived,” confided the Head of Cybersecurity.
Beyond today’s requirements, leadership also recognized the need for a solution that could scale with the business to support future growth while strengthening current security posture. To succeed, the solution had to deliver policy-based alerting, data classification, and remediation automation without overburdening IT or requiring complex workflows.
Solution
To address these challenges, the casino implemented Spirion’s Sensitive Data Platform (SDP) and enrolled in Spirion’s 90-Day QuickStart program. Spirion’s team worked side-by-side with the customer to define sensitive data types, scanning targets, and remediation workflows tailored to their environment.
Spirion quickly helped them set policies to automatically quarantine data that hadn’t been accessed in over five years, with a 90-day hold before secure deletion.
From day one, Spirion enabled the organization to move beyond passive discovery. They quickly uncovered a significant volume of outdated sensitive data; far more than anticipated, including financial records and PII stored in unstructured formats. “It was more than we expected for sure,” noted the Head of Cybersecurity.
Spirion helped them implement automated policies to quarantine files older than three years, especially those not accessed in five or more, and relocating them from legacy file shares to a secure server. All while leaving behind a record of the action. This not only reduced risk but aligned with internal data governance rules and streamlined cleanup efforts.
Where legacy tools had failed, such as quarantining files with complex metadata tags, Spirion resolved technical issues quickly, enabling consistent remediation across file types like Excel and PDF. Additionally, Spirion’s classification and tagging capabilities gave the organization deeper insight into what data was at risk and how it should be handled.
The cybersecurity team also began delivering automated weekly reports showing what data had been discovered, classified, and quarantined, and what remained unremediated. This enhanced transparency across IT and executive stakeholders. “Scanning isn’t enough. I needed to start remediating so I could show leadership how it’s working, not just tell them,” explained the Head of Cybersecurity.
Because Spirion integrates with cloud platforms and offers persistent controls across hybrid environments, the casino was also able to begin extending its protection to SharePoint Online, OneDrive, and Exchange Online. This closed visibility gaps and further improved its data security posture.
Results
In just three months, the customer significantly improved their data hygiene, reduced risk exposure, and gained confidence in their ability to respond to audits or incidents. Key outcomes include:
- Comprehensive visibility into sensitive data across file servers, SQL databases, and cloud platforms
- Automated quarantine of outdated files based on age and access criteria
- Streamlined reporting for executive stakeholders, supporting transparency and compliance
- Strong user satisfaction, with the customer rating Spirion a 10 out of 10 on likelihood to recommend
What began as a tool to discover and catalog data became a platform for data-centric security and strategic risk reduction. With quarterly check-ins and ongoing support, the customer is planning to expand coverage to more endpoints to continue driving value from the platform.
