Cyera Explained: How DSPM Finds and Classifies Sensitive Data, and How Cyera Compares with Sentra

Most security tools start from infrastructure: accounts, machines, identities. Data security posture management (DSPM) starts from the data. Its first question is "where is our sensitive data, and who can get to it?", which turns out to be a question most companies cannot answer. Cyera is the best-funded company in the category and has been expanding fast, which makes it a common reference point.

What it is

Cyera began as an agentless DSPM product that discovers and classifies data across cloud storage, databases, SaaS applications and on-premises stores, then scores risk by combining sensitivity with access and exposure. It has since grown through acquisitions into what it calls an AI and data security platform:

Sentra, a smaller DSPM competitor, offers a similar core product with a different emphasis on where scanning happens, covered below.

How it works

Collection. Cyera describes itself as fully agentless. It uses native cloud APIs and reads data stores through snapshots. In the SaaS model the scanning runs in Cyera's environment; in the outpost model all scanning happens inside your own account. In both, Cyera says only metadata reaches its service. It groups similar objects with machine learning so it does not need to read every object, which keeps scans affordable but means not every file is read.

Classification and risk. An AI-based classifier labels data such as personal data, payment data, health data, credentials and intellectual property. Risk combines that sensitivity with business purpose, the identities that can access the data, access activity and exposure, for example a database snapshot with customer records that is shared publicly or readable by a third-party role.

Sentra's approach. Sentra states that short-lived, read-only scanners run inside your account in the same region as the data and that only labels and risk scores leave. Comparing these data flows, rather than feature lists, is the most important part of a DSPM evaluation.

How to use it

Day one: agree the data flow, then connect

Before connecting anything, agree with your privacy and legal teams which deployment model is acceptable, because a DSPM reads real customer data to classify it. Then connect cloud accounts, databases and SaaS applications, starting with the stores you already know hold regulated data.

Week one: validate classification before acting on it

1. Spot-check labels. Sample findings in each classification and check they are right. A classifier that calls test data "customer PII" will flood owners with false alarms.
2. Find the shadow data. The most useful early findings are usually copies: old snapshots, exports in buckets, analytics extracts and development databases loaded from production.
3. Map owners. Every data store with sensitive data needs a named owner who decides on retention and access.

Every day: fix access and exposure

Work the highest-risk issues first: sensitive data that is public, shared with external accounts, or readable by over-broad roles. Remediation actions include revoking access, applying sensitivity labels, disabling public access and opening tickets for data owners. Feed labels into data loss prevention and AI controls, so that sensitive data is not pulled into a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) index or an AI assistant's context without review.

Where it stops

• Classification is probabilistic. Labels need sampling and feedback; clustering means not every object is read.
• It reads the data. The scanner is a privileged reader of your most sensitive information; its deployment model and permissions need the same scrutiny as any production access.
• Posture, not activity. DSPM shows who could access data; proving who did needs access logs.
• Fast-moving product. Several AI and agent features announced in 2025 and 2026 have no published general availability date.

How it comes up in interviews

• "Where would you start securing data in a company that has never mapped it?" Discovery, classification, owners, then access and exposure.
• "A DSPM says a bucket holds customer PII and is readable by a vendor role. What do you do?" Verify the label, check access logs, remove the access, decide retention.
• "How do DSPM and DLP differ?" Data at rest and its access, versus data in motion leaving through channels.

Sources

Checked on 13 November 2026: Cyera platform and DSPM pages and FAQ; Cyera press releases on Trail Security (17 October 2024), Otterize (26 June 2025), AI Guardian (4 August 2025) and Agent Guardian (3 August 2026); Cyera blog on its Series G (10 June 2026); Business Wire release on the completion of the Oasis Security acquisition (3 September 2026); Sentra product page.