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Cloud security services provider Skyhigh Networks and enterprise cloud storage firm Box have announced a partnership designed to enable greater data governance for Box customers.

Users can identify sensitive data, automatically classify it, and enforce collaboration control policies through Skyhigh and Box Security Classification, all without requiring any change in customer behaviour.

To put the partnership into context, take a situation where an employee uploads a document with protected health information (PHI). The document under the new system will automatically be classified, and as a result cannot be shared with employees who lack proper access privileges. Similarly, if an audit uncovers a document with passwords shared externally, the document is automatically removed.

According to Box, more than 18% of stored files in the firm’s storage repository contain sensitive data, such as credit card and social security numbers, as well as health data. The need for data governance policy is therefore necessary, the companies argue. “Companies are flocking to Box not only for a powerful work tool, but for superior security,” said Chris Cesio, VP of business development and channel at Skyhigh in a statement. “With Skyhigh and Box Governance, our joint customers can create a secure collaboration platform that the security and compliance teams love just as much as business users.”

One customer using the revamped solution is the State of Missouri. “We moved work to Box to increase employee productivity and, naturally, control over our sensitive data needed to follow,” said Michael Rolling, Missouri CISO. “Using Box and Skyhigh we can automatically classify sensitive data in the cloud and apply necessary policies, thereby reducing risk without burdening our IT team or business users.”

Last month Skyhigh announced it had secured $40 million (£30.9m) in series D funding. The company said it hoped the funding would enable them “to accelerate our growth and carry us to profitability.”