What is Data Loss Prevention (DLP)?

With files and information being digitised for every industry, businesses are constantly at risk of data loss or misplacement. 

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) is a security strategy that identifies, monitors and protects data from unauthorised access and accidental data leaks. Data leaks have become increasingly common in today’s world, and DLP manages and protects your data from being exploited by hackers. 

In this article, we will develop an understanding of Data Loss Prevention, its benefits and shortcomings. 

What is Data Loss Prevention?

Data Loss Prevention is a security strategy used by businesses to protect their data from unauthorised access. It also protects companies from the unwanted detection of sensitive or personally identifiable data (PII). 

Data Loss Prevention does this using various tools and techniques that monitor traffic, scan devices and enforce security measures to prevent any form of data leak or data loss. 

Businesses use Data Loss Prevention software to: 

• Identify sensitive information across all mediums, such as on-premise or cloud-based systems. 
• Monitor and protect data
• Prevent accidental sharing of data
• Educate users on how to comply with the privacy guidelines of the State. 

Why Is Data Loss Prevention Important?

In a data-driven economy, companies need to adopt measures for the preservation of data and here’s why: 

• Data Visibility and Management: DLP provides companies with a comprehensive view of their data and its path. This view also tracks where the data is travelling, who has access to it, and how it is being used. This helps companies govern their data and understand their position in the market. 
• Compliance: All companies, especially the ones dealing with sensitive public data such as healthcare, insurance and finance, need to comply with State and industry privacy policies such as GDPR, CCPA and HIPAA. 

DLP software helps organisations comply with these privacy regulations by handling data securely and responsibly without having to pay any heavy fines.

• Stop Data Breaches: With cyberattacks getting more sophisticated, DLP acts as a critical barrier to monitoring and blocking potential data leaks by actively identifying and mitigating risks. Data Loss Prevention helps companies avoid any loss of finances or reputation by safeguarding the companies against any data breach. 

How Does Data Loss Prevention Work?

DLP carries out its process of data prevention in four steps as mentioned below: 

1. Data Identification and Classification: The first step for any DLP software is the identification and classification of your data. Data is assessed and classified into two forms: structured and unstructured data. 

• IT teams typically use DLP tools to trace all data stored in various mediums, including cloud, on-premises, endpoint and employee personal devices. 
• Then, they start classifying the data according to its level of sensitivity into various categories. 

This process helps the organisation keep track of its data and formulate its data protection policies. 

2. Data Monitoring: Once you have classified the data according to their level of sensitivity, you can now monitor its flow and usage. 

DLP uses multiple techniques such as content analysis via AI and machine learning, data matching by comparing file content, detecting labels, tags and other metadata, known as “data fingerprinting, matching files and keywords and pattern matching. 

3. Applying Data Protections: DLP solutions also detect policy violations and use tools that help with data recovery by automatically backing up information to restore it after a loss. 
4. Documenting and Reporting DLP Efforts: Organisations can track the performance and efficiency of their DLP tools from the dashboard provided. This documentation allows the security team to track the DLP performance and strategise their security measures accordingly. 

Causes of Data Leaks

• Insider threats with access, who decide to misuse their authorisation to move data outside of the organisation. 
• Cyber attackers often give people access to their victims by pretending to be someone else to extract data from them. They carry out this process through phishing, malware or code injection to gain access to sensitive data. 
• Sometimes, people accidentally reveal their data in public by providing open access to the internet or failing to follow restrictions according to company policies. 

Types Of Data Threats 

Data threats are a major cause of concern for any organisation as they affect the integrity and confidentiality of your organisation. Here are a few of the data threats that mostly affect the data system: 

• Cyberattack: A cyberattack is an internationally malicious way of stealing or destroying someone’s data by hacking into their data security system. 
• Malware: Malware or malicious software such as worms, viruses and spyware disguised as trusted emails or programs. Once approved, it allows unauthorised users to access your data. 
• Insider Risks: Employees with legitimate access can also go astray and sell your data to other sources or transfer it outside the company. 
• Unintentional Exposure: Sometimes, people from within the organisation accidentally reveal sensitive data on a public forum, allowing public access. 
• Phishing: Phishing is making fraudulent calls or sending fraudulent messages and emails on behalf of a trusted entity to extract or gather access to sensitive information. 
• Ransomware: Ransomware is malware that threatens to destroy or block your access unless a ransom is paid. Human-operated ransomware is difficult to prevent since a team of hackers is generally trying to gain access to your system. 

Types of Data Loss Prevention

Various data security measures are available to provide corporate DLP networks. These include:

• Data Identification: For getting the best results out of your DLP software, you need to have a proper idea of the various forms of data and their level of significance in the system. Using a data identification tool will only make your process easier and will make minimum mistakes. 
• Protecting Data In Use: Once you have installed DLP software, you can monitor the flow of your data. Using DLP tools also ensures your data that is in motion is not used with any wrong intent. 
• Protecting Data at Rest: This technique also protects data that is currently or hasn’t been used but is present in your database, other applications, cloud repositories and devices. 
• Endpoint DLP: This type of DLP provides data security at the endpoint devices such as computers, mobile devices, phones and tablets. 
• Data Leak Detection: This process involves setting a baseline for normal activity and then actively looking for unusual behaviour. 
• Cloud DLP: These services protect and manage critical SaaS data and IaaS applications. 

Benefits of Data Loss Prevention

• DLP platforms provide a user interface that allows users to view their data and send alerts if they detect any unusual movement. 
• DLP helps organisations handle data according to privacy regulations set by the state and federal bodies. 
• DLP protects your data by limiting access and employing authentication and access control features that allow only people with certain defined roles to access sensitive data. 
• DLP helps prevent data leaks so that your organisation doesn’t suffer from any reputational or financial harm. 

Drawbacks of Data Loss Prevention

• The configuration and the management of data can get complicated based on the volume of data and the amount of employees accessing it. 
• DLP requires employee training for them to properly access its systems. This is an added layer of effort and an extra expenditure for the organisation. 
• Sometimes, normal and innocent actions can also be tagged as threats, causing alertness and user fatigue when locating the threat. 

Trends Driving Data Loss Prevention

• The constant growth of global privacy regulations requires your DLP to constantly qualify the government’s legal regulations. 
• DLP solutions must constantly evolve to protect company data. Failing to do so can leave data vulnerable to hackers, leading to reputational and financial loss down the road. 
• Companies employ Chief information security officers (CISOs) who make use of DLP to create and oversee government regulations for securing intellectual property, confidential data and information. 
• Getting skilled professionals to carry out efficient classification and handling of data can be tough. Hence organisations provide agencies with DLP to provide efficient services. 
• DLP provides security to all forms of data stored in various devices, applications and cloud services from ransomware, malware and other cyber threats. 
• DLP also protects your organisation's data from insider threats from employees transferring data to outside sources. 

Best Practices in Data Loss Prevention

• Conduct an Inventory Assessment: Without proper knowledge, you can not protect your data properly. DLP solutions can help you conduct a thorough assessment of your inventory. 
• Classify Data: Not every data stored in your databases or cloud repositories is equally important. Some require more protection than the rest. Hence, it is important to classify and segregate your data into distinct categories to allow the DLP solution to understand the level of security each category requires. 
• Establish Data Handling and Remediation Policies: Once you have classified your data, your next step is to create policies in accordance with government regulations to help you handle your data. 
• Implement a Single DPL program: Instead of employing multiple DLP programs, get one overarching program. This prevents clutter of inconsistent data. 
• Educate Employees: Educate the employees regarding various security policies and procedures to prevent any unintentional leak of data. 

Tools and Techniques Used in Data Loss Prevention

DLP uses two types of tools and techniques for data loss protection: dedicated and integrated. Dedicated tools products are standalone products that offer in-depth and complex capabilities. Integrated products are more basic, work in compliance with security tools, enforce the DLP policy and are more affordable.

DLP software helps meet business requirements and enforce regulatory rules while protecting critical information. This means unauthorised users can not access data files without being granted access rights. 

All of these tasks can not be conducted using one tool. The number of tools you require depends on the number of areas you want to focus on. Based on that, businesses can curate the best tools. 

Conclusion

Data Loss Prevention is an important component of safeguarding yourself against modern-day cyber threats. By using good Data Leakage Prevention software for your business, you can rest assured about the safety of your critical data. 

At Instasafe, we offer Data Loss Prevention solutions like our Secure Web Gateway to help protect your data. Our expert team is always there to help you with the management and optimisation of your data. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is the difference between DLP and IDS?

The difference between DLP and IDS is that DLP prevents data leaks while IDS prevents unauthorised data access. 

2. How do you avoid data loss?

You can avoid data loss by investing in good DLP software, encrypting your data, educating and training your employees and monitoring your data loss. 

3. What is the difference between DLP and EDR?

DLP prevents data leaks while EDR traces and prevents any security threats at endpoints. 

4. What is endpoint DLP?

Endpoint DLP protects sensitive data on endpoint devices, ensuring security even when devices are being used remotely.