Snowflake Unstructured Data Exposure Prevention

Learn how to prevent exposure of unstructured data in Snowflake environments. Follow step-by-step guidance for GDPR compliance.

data exposure

GDPR

snowflake

Why It Matters

The core goal is to proactively secure every location where unstructured data is stored within your Snowflake environment, preventing accidental exposures before they become compliance violations. Implementing preventive controls for unstructured data in Snowflake is critical for organizations subject to GDPR, as it ensures sensitive personal data remains protected through proper access controls, masking policies, and governance frameworks.

Primary Risk: Data exposure through inadequate access controls

Relevant Regulation: General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

A comprehensive prevention strategy provides proactive protection, ensuring automated policy enforcement and continuous compliance monitoring.

Prerequisites

Permissions & Roles

  • Snowflake ACCOUNTADMIN or SECURITYADMIN role
  • CREATE MASKING POLICY and CREATE ROW ACCESS POLICY privileges
  • USAGE and CREATE privileges on relevant databases and schemas

External Tools

  • Snowflake CLI or SnowSQL
  • Cyera DSPM account
  • API credentials for integrations

Prior Setup

  • Snowflake account with appropriate edition
  • Object tagging framework configured
  • Role-based access control (RBAC) hierarchy established
  • Network policies configured

Introducing Cyera

Cyera is a modern Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) platform that discovers, classifies, and continuously monitors your sensitive data across cloud services. Using advanced AI and Natural Language Processing (NER), Cyera automatically identifies and classifies unstructured data in Snowflake, enabling you to implement targeted prevention controls and maintain GDPR compliance through intelligent data discovery and risk assessment.

Step-by-Step Guide

1
Implement object tagging strategy

Create a comprehensive tagging framework to classify unstructured data by sensitivity level, data type, and regulatory requirements. Apply tags systematically across tables, views, and files.

CREATE TAG IF NOT EXISTS governance.data_classification ALLOWED_VALUES ('PUBLIC', 'INTERNAL', 'CONFIDENTIAL', 'RESTRICTED');

2
Configure dynamic data masking policies

Create masking policies that automatically obscure sensitive unstructured data based on user roles and context. Link policies to your tagging framework for automated enforcement.

CREATE MASKING POLICY unstructured_data_mask AS (val string) RETURNS string -> CASE WHEN current_role() IN ('ANALYST_ROLE') THEN 'MASKED' ELSE val END;

3
Establish row-level security controls

Implement row access policies to restrict access to unstructured data based on user attributes, department membership, or data classification levels. Configure policies to work with your existing RBAC structure.

CREATE ROW ACCESS POLICY restrict_unstructured_access AS (department string) RETURNS boolean -> current_role() = 'DATA_STEWARD' OR department = current_user();

4
Enable continuous monitoring and alerting

Set up Cyera integration to continuously monitor unstructured data access patterns, detect policy violations, and automatically trigger remediation workflows. Configure real-time alerts for unauthorized access attempts.

Architecture & Workflow

Snowflake Object Tagging

Systematic classification of unstructured data assets

Dynamic Data Masking

Context-aware data obfuscation policies

Row Access Policies

Fine-grained access control enforcement

Cyera Monitoring

Continuous compliance and risk assessment

Prevention Flow Summary

Tag Classification → Apply Policies → Enforce Controls → Monitor Access

Best Practices & Tips

Policy Management

  • Start with least-privilege access principles
  • Implement graduated masking based on roles
  • Use conditional logic for context-aware policies

Performance Optimization

  • Cache masking policy results where possible
  • Optimize row access policy conditions
  • Monitor query performance impact

Common Pitfalls

  • Over-masking data affecting business operations
  • Inconsistent tagging across environments
  • Forgetting to test policies before production deployment

References & Further Reading

Next Steps

🔍 Detect: Identify unstructured data locations 🔧 Fix: Remediate exposed unstructured data