Path-Governed Data Security: A Framework for Data Path Creation Control

Abstract Conventional data security relies primarily on authentication and access control to prevent unauthorized access to protected data. However, when a legitimate account or credential is compromised, or when authorized privileges are misused, access to data may lead to new data movements beyond the scope of established business operations. This study proposes a path-governance framework that separates the authority to access data from the authority to create new data movement paths and treats the creation of a new path as an independent security control point. The framework is intended primarily for data subject to legal, regulatory, or organizational protection requirements, including personal information, customer data, financial information, and authentication data. Once protected data is identified, the system operator analyzes the existing operational environment and actual data-use relationships to establish an approved path set required for normal business operations. The protection level of the data and the approval status of an individual path are treated as separate decisions; even highly protected data may use an existing path when that path is operationally necessary and explicitly approved. For a requested data movement path , if , the movement is treated as the use of an existing approved path. If , it is treated as the creation of a new data movement possibility and is subject to a verification and approval process separate from ordinary data-access privileges. Only after approval is the allowed path set updated as . The security focus therefore shifts from repeatedly controlling individual data movements to controlling changes in the set of paths through which protected data is permitted to move. The proposed framework can be implemented using existing security technologies. Logs and data provenance or lineage can be used to identify existing data movement relationships, while data classification, information flow control, data loss prevention, access control, and Zero Trust mechanisms can support identification, enforcement, and authorization. Rather than introducing a new standalone security technology, the framework connects these existing capabilities through a common policy criterion: whether a requested movement requires the creation of a new data path. This structure is particularly relevant after the first access-control boundary has been compromised. Even when an attacker successfully obtains access to protected data through a legitimate account or credential, movement to a new destination or through a new relationship must still cross a path-creation boundary that is independent of the compromised access privilege. By preserving approved business paths while independently controlling the creation of new movement possibilities, the proposed framework establishes a second data-security boundary that prevents compromised access authority from automatically expanding into unrestricted data-movement authority. Keywords: Data Path, Path Creation Control, Path Governance, Protected Data, Data Security, Access Control, Information Flow Control, Data Loss Prevention, Defense-in-Depth