In our digital world, data is one of the most prized possessions an organisation can have. Be it customer data, trade secrets, internal strategies, or any other types of intellectual properties, traffic data is simply priceless. But the surging number of cyber crimes, insider threats, and human mistakes makes data breaches and the need for protection more important than ever before. DLP (Data Loss Prevention) tools, also referred to as data protection or loss prevention, help mitigate data risks by protecting against data loss and misuse or theft by safeguarding against unauthorised use.
In conclusion, while it may appear to be the case, what they may think is the obviously right DLP solution is in actuality the most costly, most frontline insensitive, and most other frontlines insensitive to the organisation’s overall needs and security profile prior to implementation. This article will focus only on those guiding the most appropriate DLP solutions to be arms for less prior to the implementation of the organisation’s most costly, most preventive of the most frontline needs overall and the most other needs resources.
The Growing Danger and Importance of DLP Solutions
Technological advancement, remote work, and criminal work have influenced and caused changes to the threat landscape every year. With an average of £4.24 million per data breach to consider, there are expensive consequences of poor protection of sensitive data. Data breaches are becoming more common, so DLP solutions are needed to improve protection.
Data breaches can happen in a number of ways, whether it’s an outside breach, employee error, or employee action. Data breaches are a common occurrence, so organisations must implement multiple security measures. Firewalls, encryption, and DLP solutions are necessary, and each serves a different purpose to protect data.
Must-Have Features of a DLP
Not every DLP solution will provide the necessary protection against data breaches, so each organisation must prioritise specific features. Here are the most important.
Examine Content & Categorise Data
A solid DLP solution should provide protection of data in both structured form and unstructured form. This would include protection of data in documents, data in emails, images, videos, etc. This allows companies to locate PII, payment card info, and other sensitive data of proprietary intellectual property. DLP solutions can devise security policies to protect sensitive data that they have categorised and classified.
Monitoring & Reporting in Real-Time
DLP solutions that are capable of providing monitoring in real-time are the most effective. These providers have the ability to monitor data activities in real-time across many endpoints and networks. This serves the organisation to identify and address concerns of data breaches and violations of the policies they have in place to prevent such violations. Identifiable concerns of data breaches and other policy violations as they are occurring provide the security teams in place the means of investigating the concern to be able to provide the organisation with measures to be taken in order to improve the security of the organisation.
Granular Policy Enforcement
Data loss prevention solutions are super helpful because they let administrators set up and manage detailed policies that take into account things like user roles, the sensitivity of the data, and other important factors.As an example, someone’s role in an organisation will determine how much access to sensitive information they have. Also, depending on how sensitive the information is, certain actions, including printing, moving, or transferring the information may be restricted. This is another way sensitive information is protected, and unintentional or intentional security and data breaches are prevented.
Endpoint protection
A lot of the loss of data occurs on what are called endpoints. These could be USB devices, laptops, or mobile devices. DLP solutions need to address endpoint protection by monitoring and managing data on these devices. Examples of this would be blocking the use of unapproved USB devices or preventing the copying of personal data onto personal devices.
The existing integrated security infrastructures’ best DLP solutions integrate seamlessly with other security solutions. These may be firewalls, intrusion protection software, and antivirus software. This is how data loss prevention solutions provide layered protection.
Cloud Security Capabilities
Due to the ever-increasing popularity of cloud-computing services, it is imperative that your DLP solution monitors and protects data in cloud services. Your DLP solution needs to be able to track cloud activity, control access to data, and prevent the wrongful uploading and sharing of sensitive data.
Identifying Issues in Data Loss Prevention Solutions
Each organisation has its own certain needs that are unique to it that must be taken into account when acquiring a DLP solution. The following is a non-exhaustive list of items to take into account.
Determine Your Company’s Data Protection Requirements.
The answer to this question is dependent upon a multitude of variables. An example of this would be a health organisation that is required to maintain the confidentiality of its patient’s records, and as such, must comply with the stipulations of the Health Insurance and Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This is in contrast to a financial organisation that is bound to the tenets of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and is required to restrict access to any records that contain credit/debit card information. The solution that is compliant and secures the data.
Look Into the User-Friendliness and the Degree of Deployment
The ease with which the organisation is able to complete the implementation of the DLP solution is dependent upon her choice of vendor. A majority of the organisational solutions tend to be a bit more in-depth than those of the individual solutions. Look for a solution that is complete but also simple to manage and maintain. User-friendly interfaces, centralised control, and comprehensive and detailed guides are typical of such systems.
Evaluate the Effectiveness of Detection and Prevention
Not all DLP solutions offer the same levels of detection and prevention from compromising data. One important consideration is the accuracy of the solution’s data detection and classification capabilities. Tools based on keyword matching will cause a lot of false positives leading to alert fatigue and security teams overlooking true security threats. However, more sophisticated machine learning solutions have the ability to evaluate data in an adaptive context, therefore increasing accuracy with time.
Consider the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
The price of a DLP solution entails more than the cost of the software. Organisations also need to calculate the total cost of ownership (TCO), which accounts for the costs of implementing the DLP, the training of personnel, the support, and the cost of maintaining the DLP. Then, the value of the solution should help the organisation eliminate the risk of data breaches, the costs of regulatory fines, and the loss of the organisation’s goodwill.
Consider the Vendor’s History Experience and Customer Service
Review the history of DLP vendors and their history and experience in working with clients the same as your organisation. history with your type of organisation and a history of delivering reliable, high-performing solutions. Vendors should also offer quality and timely customer support as well as maintenance of the software. Data protection solutions evolve constantly. Thus, protection tender solutions should evolve continuously as well.
The protection of data loss will continuously change as digital and online methods change. DLP solutions are beginning to utilise new technologies, specifically Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) as part of their enhancement solutions to improve their detection and response capabilities. These technologies improve DLP system capabilities.
In addition, the data loss protection solutions will change to protect secured data over distributed environments, including data in hybrid and multi-cloud structures. The data loss protection solutions will also continue to change to protect data boundaries their own employees and their own organisational employees.
Conclusion
Selecting an appropriate data loss prevention (DLP) system is a unique undertaking for each organisation and is not a simple task. With the threat to organisational data continuing to grow, it is paramount to take a methodical approach in assessing the value and importance of the organisational requirements and key characteristics of different DLP options in order to select an option which meets current organisational requirements, while still being flexible enough to address needs that may arise in the future.
The appropriate DLP system will allow the organisation to provide protection of sensitive data, minimise the risk of the organisation incurring a data breach, and in most cases, adhere to the requirements of regulations. Furthermore, the organisation will improve its data protection and overall security by protecting its most valuable asset: data.