The Free Edition of Data Security Center (DSC) provides a fixed quota for data asset protection to all Alibaba Cloud users. It offers features such as data classification and categorization, baseline checks, and data auditing.
Applicable users
Alibaba Cloud accounts and Resource Access Management (RAM) users that have completed individual or enterprise verification.
Accounts that have not purchased any paid editions of Data Security Center.
Free resource specifications
The following table lists the total specifications of the free resources provided by a Data Security Center Free Edition instance. The free quota for Log Storage for data auditing is provided only in the first month after you activate the Free Edition for the first time.
Feature | Resource | Free quota |
Asset authorization | Number of database instances | 500 |
OSS and SLS protection amount | OSS and SLS protection amount | 500 TB |
Classification and categorization | OSS and SLS detection amount | 5 GB |
Number of database tables for detection | 100 | |
Risk governance | Baseline check items | 51 items (Supports the Alibaba Cloud Data Security Best Practices baseline. Does not support the PIPL Security baseline.) |
Column encryption | 1 column | |
Detection and Response | Log storage for data auditing | 5 GB |
| Supported |
Instructions
You can use the data protection services provided by the Free Edition instance for free within the specified quota.
For the data auditing feature, additional fees are incurred for storing audit logs after you enable the native log collection mode for certain databases and OSS buckets. For more information about billing, see Additional fees for cloud services that are connected to DSC.
The Free Edition does not support upgrades or renewals. If the free resource specifications cannot meet your business requirements, you can purchase a paid edition of Data Security Center to ensure continuous data security governance. For more information, see Purchase Data Security Center.
Features
The Free Edition of Data Security Center provides the following features. For more information about the differences between Data Security Center editions, see Differences between editions.
Feature | Description | Documentation |
Asset management |
Note The number of data assets that you can authorize does not exceed the free quota provided by DSC. | Asset Center (for Enterprise Edition 1.0, Premium Edition 1.0, and Basic Edition) |
Sensitive data classification and categorization | DSC uses built-in and custom detection models to detect sensitive data in your assets and supports searching for sensitive data. Note The amount of OSS data, SLS data, and the number of database tables that can be scanned for detection do not exceed the free quota provided by DSC. | |
Baseline check | Data Security Center dynamically checks the configurations of your data assets. It detects configuration risks in your database assets on Alibaba Cloud, such as insecure configurations for identity verification, access control, encryption, and backup and recovery. Note
| |
Column encryption | Encrypts sensitive data in columns that are detected in ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL and PolarDB for MySQL. This prevents unauthorized users from accessing plaintext sensitive data using cloud platform software or database connection tools. | |
Data detection and response | Data Security Center detects and handles risk events such as AccessKey (AK) leaks, database account and password leaks, mixed use of human and machine accounts, and public storage of sensitive information. | |
Data auditing | Enables and configures the audit mode for database and OSS assets. It collects and stores operation logs of the data assets for auditing and analysis. Important The free log storage quota is provided only in the first month after you activate the Free Edition for the first time. To continue using this feature, you must purchase log storage as a value-added service. | |
DSC audits your assets based on built-in and custom audit policies. It displays information about audited sessions, raw logs, and audit alerts. Note The whitelist feature is not available when you handle alerts. To manage whitelists, you must purchase an Enterprise instance of Data Security Center. | ||
System configuration | DSC provides configurations for alert notifications, email reports, and OSS synchronization. |
Use the Free Edition
Activate the Free Edition
Log on to the Data Security Center console, click Activate Free Edition, and follow the on-screen instructions to grant DSC permissions to access your cloud resources.
View resources of the Free Edition
You can view the current resource usage on the Workbench page.
Click the switch to the right of Beginner's Guide to view instructions on how to use Data Security Center.
Release the Free Edition
To manually release the Free Edition instance, go to the Overview page, close the Beginner's Guide page, and then click Release in the Version Information section.
After you release the Free Edition instance, the authorized assets and related usage data are retained by default.
If you have not purchased a paid edition of Data Security Center, you can reactivate the Free Edition instance. The authorized assets and related usage data are retained.
If you reactivate the Free Edition instance in the same month, the free quota is the remaining quota of that month before the release.
If you reactivate the Free Edition instance in a different month, the free quota is reset to the initial quota.
Usage duration
There is no time limit for using the Free Edition as long as you have not purchased a paid edition of Data Security Center.