Many data breaches occur because of malicious attackers, but insiders pose significant risks. For example, a disgruntled employee could erase confidential company data or share sensitive information with outsiders via email. DLP solutions help identify, classify and tag PII and other critical details and monitor activities and events around it. They can even provide the reporting capabilities needed for compliance audits.

Protecting Critical Data

Data breaches and exfiltration transmissions are costly for businesses, resulting in fines, lost customers and reputational damage. In addition, they expose confidential information and put the organization at a higher risk of cyberattacks by adversaries seeking financial gain, corporate espionage and personal gain. A DLP solution helps prevent critical data loss and protects business-critical data by identifying, classifying and protecting sensitive information. It also helps ensure data policies like HIPAA and GDPR meet compliance standards. It can identify, monitor and protect data at rest or in motion on the network and in software-as-a-service and infrastructure-as-a-service applications. It lets users easily locate and retrieve confidential data saved on computers, servers and mobile devices. DLP also automatically identifies and flags suspicious data moving between networks to and from the cloud. DLP remediates these incidents by sending alerts, encrypting data and isolating the information during routine network monitoring. It also provides reports for auditing and regulatory compliance.

A DLP solution can prevent the misuse of confidential information by ensuring employees only have access to necessary data for their job duties. This is often achieved by educating employees and stakeholders on what constitutes sensitive information and why it is important to follow data security procedures. It is also important to document the DLP strategy and set metrics.

Preventing Data Exfiltration

In addition to detecting threats that bypass your cybersecurity defenses, DLP solutions can help prevent data loss by scanning for sensitive information being shared outside the organization. This can be done by identifying and protecting critical data in motion, at rest, or by securing files copied to external devices like USB drives. Building a strong business case for your DLP solution is important before implementing it. This involves gaining buy-in from engineering, operations, legal and marketing leaders to ensure the solution is fully integrated into the company’s security architecture. Then, a DLP program can be built to scan and protect data across the entire corporate environment—including cloud and endpoints—and prevent it from leaving your network via email or being transferred to external devices. While it’s true that data breaches occur mainly due to malicious attackers, negligent or disgruntled employees can also cause data leaks. Internal data breaches account for half of all violations. DLP tools can help you protect critical data against these risks by detecting and preventing unauthorized disclosure or theft. A comprehensive DLP strategy includes three key objectives: personal information protection/compliance, intellectual property protection and improving data visibility. A good DLP tool can perform native inspection of TLS/SSL-encrypted traffic on your Internet connections and in the cloud, enabling you to detect threats that cannot be seen with traditional firewalls or other point products.

Identifying Data Leaks

Identifying data that might leave the business via email, cloud storage, or other sources is another way DLP solutions can help prevent data loss. They monitor file activity to detect unauthorized sharing, including a ransomware attack that hit cybersecurity firm RSA in 2021 and resulted in hackers seizing 40 million employee records, accessing their emails and other systems and stealing SecurID authentication tokens for remote and mobile devices.

They can also flag anomalous activity during routine network monitoring, spotting potential threats that may not follow traditional threat patterns. This is especially important as more companies use the cloud and supply chain networks they need full control over. Finally, they can provide visibility into sensitive information that might be shared outside the company by alerting and encrypting files as they are moved to external locations or sent via email. This helps ensure that only the intended recipients see the data and reduces a major risk factor for businesses.

Lastly, some DLP solutions can provide reporting that helps businesses meet compliance and auditing requirements. This is particularly important as global data protection regulations evolve. DLP tools can automate detecting and classifying sensitive data so companies can comply with these new rules.

Increasing Compliance

DLP can detect and stop data leaks by identifying and monitoring files with critical, sensitive or regulated content. The tools also create policies based on government requirements like GDPR and HIPAA to help organizations handle sensitive data. They monitor and prevent outgoing channels, such as email and web chat, from leaking sensitive information. DLP solutions can also notify staff when policies are violated and provide options for handling the violation. Global regulations are always changing, and a DLP solution should allow flexibility to accommodate changes. DLP technologies and policies can protect data in motion, at rest or archived with access controls and encryption. They can also track and report unauthorized activities to improve detection accuracy. Many DLP solutions come with pre-configured rules and policies configured for common violations. ITDMs should regularly review and update these settings to ensure they are effective. Additionally, they should conduct regular adversary emulation exercises to validate the tool’s effectiveness in their environment.

A DLP solution can also help protect business-critical data from a loss of reputation, revenue or customers due to unintended or negligent employee actions. It can also mitigate risks from malicious attacks that may occur through phishing emails, clickbaity malvertising sites or other hacking methods. DLP solutions can identify these attacks through file, vector and user behavior analysis.