A system for identifying data of interest from among a multiplicity of data elements residing on multiple platforms in an enterprise, the system including background data characterization functionality characterizing the data of interest at least by at least one content characteristic thereof and at least one access metric thereof, the at least one access metric being selected from data access permissions and actual data access history and near real time data matching functionality selecting the data of interest by considering only data elements which have the at least one content characteristic thereof and the at least one access metric thereof from among the multiplicity of data elements.