In an attempt to minimize data breach risks, organizations are stepping up their privacy, identity and access management techniques in 2012. These will be driven by a number of trends, including the advancement of authorization technologies, according to a report by Gartner Research.

"[Establishing] identity in such a diverse and heterogeneous environment is becoming more difficult, and the identity information itself is increasingly problematic as a source of privacy breaches," said Gartner analyst Bob Blakely. "New technologies, new services and new architectures are emerging in response to these pressures, but plenty of work still has to be done before the industry can produce a comprehensive and dependable identity architecture for the modern world."

Authorization, which is the process of creating and enforcing access control policies, is not very mature yet but will become a major data security and compliance theme of 2012. This is because identities are nothing without the ability to hold people accountable for their actions, the report said.

Additionally, companies will likely implement data classification programs, especially as they move to collaborative environments like SharePoint. By enhancing SharePoint security with authorization technologies, businesses can feel safer about their data and know that only certain individuals will be able to see it, according to industry expert Mark Brooks.