The invention belongs to the technical field of big data technology and information security, and particularly relates to a sensitive data identification processing method and system. The method comprises the steps of determining a safety sub-target according to a safety target; analyzing the influence of each data item in the data set on each safety sub-target; determining sensitive data items according to the number of the security sub-targets influenced by each data item; and performing desensitization processing on the sensitive data item. According to the technical scheme, in order to effectively identify the sensitive data items, starting from the security target, the security sub-target is decomposed from the security target by adopting a top-to-bottom method, and then the influenceof each data item in the data combination on the security sub-target is analyzed one by one, so that data desensitization can be carried out in a more targeted manner.