Common mistake: Treating a single scan as “done.” Discovery is an ongoing process because your data environment is constantly changing.  

Common mistake: Conflating a data category (what the data is) with data categorization (how sensitive the data is). These are distinct determinations and serve different purposes. 

Common mistake: Treating classification as a technology problem. It is first a governance problem, then a technology problem. 

Common mistake: Assuming classification alone drives enforcement. Security tools enforce policies based on signals they can read and tagging provides that signal. 

Common mistake: Assuming that because a user has applied a Sensitivity Label in a document, the tag is being enforced . Tags must be integrated into the control plane, they are not self-enforcing. 

Think of it this way: imagine you are responsible for organizing a large, disorganized archive. Before you can put a restricted-access sticker on a folder, you need to k 

Skip any step and the sticker either never gets applied, gets applied to the wrong things or means nothing to the system enforcing access. The sequence is not a methodology preference, it is a logical and critical dependency chain. 

Senior Security Consultant,