Explain like I'm five · Security

What is Data Classification?

Data classification, told as a story about putting a colored stamp on every paper in the castle.

bread recipemenugate key drawing?can I take this to the village?…no ideanobody knows which papers matter

The bread recipe and the gate key drawing sit in the same chest.Nobody knows which papers matter. So when the maid asks, the guard has no answer.

even the bread recipe in the vaultthe vault overflowsvault key please, for the breadopening the vault twenty times a daykey drawingmeanwhile the one that matters walks outwhen everything is precious, nothing is

Put everything in the vault, then? When everything is precious, nothing is.The vault overflows, and the cook borrows the vault key every time she bakes. Then the one paper that truly matters walks out and nobody notices.

GREEN · anyoneBLUE · castle onlyORANGE · a fewRED · the king and twomarket noticethis week's menupatrol timesgate key drawingon the village boardin the castle hallin the guard room chestin the king's vaultstamp it the moment it's written — the stamp is the rule

Data classification is putting a colored stamp on every paper.Green for anyone, blue for castle folk, orange for a few, red for the king and two. Stamp it the moment it's written — the stamp is the rule.

Four colorsmore, and nobody remembers
Stamp at birthlater it's a mountain
Stamp = rulewhere it goes, who reads
Someone stampsthe paper's owner decides
where keptshelfshelflocked chestvaultwho readsanyonecastle folka named fewking + twoleaves castle?freelynosealed onlyneverwhen donebintearshredburnone look at the stamp tells you everything

One look at the stamp tells you everything.Where it's kept, who reads it, whether it may leave the castle, how to get rid of it when done. The maid and the cook never need to ask.

key drawingdoorkeeper: red paper never leaveskey ring: only three keys to the red chestsealed letter: sent so no one can read without the keywithout the stamp, none of them know what to protect

Once it's stamped, the others know what to do.The doorkeeper stops red paper, the key ring gives out only three keys to the red chest, and it travels only as a sealed letter. Without the stamp, none of them know what to protect.

In one breath

Data classification = put one of four colored stamps on every paper as it's written, and let the stamp be the rule — where it's kept, who reads it, whether it leaves, how it's destroyed.

Sorting data into levels like public, internal, confidential, and restricted, labeling it, and setting storage, access, transfer, and disposal rules per level. DLP, access control, and encryption all act on that label.

When grown-ups say it

Classification levels
The four colors. Public · internal · confidential · restricted. Three or four is enough; more, and nobody remembers.
Labeling
Stamping. The stamp on the paper. Today it's a small tag next to the file name.
Data owner
The one who stamps. Whoever wrote the paper, or the owner of that room. The guard room doesn't decide for them.
Handling rules
The table by color. Where kept, who reads, does it leave, how it's destroyed.
DLP
The red-paper doorkeeper. Reads the stamp and stops it at the gate. → the paper with the red stamp
Access control
Keys by color. Only three keys to the red chest. → a key ring for every hat
Encryption
The sealed letter. From orange up, it travels sealed. → the letter no one reads without the key
Retention & disposal
Burning day. How long it stays, and how it goes when done. Red paper gets burned.
Next story
Every Paper Has a Burning Day →
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