Guide to understanding Data Loss Prevention (DLP): what it is, how it works and tips

A company’s data is one of its most valuable assets. Whether
gaining insight into customer opinions, monitoring market trends, or
maintaining its competitive edge, data is crucial to a good business
strategy.

However, the immense volume of data that companies generate today
means that the threat landscape is also
growing, and data protection is becoming more
complicated. That’s why approaches such as DLP are essential
to protecting sensitive data and the people who handle it. We review what
DLP is, how it works, and the reasons why you should implement it in
your company as soon as possible.

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) refers to
a cybersecurity solution that detects and prevents data
breaches. By blocking the extraction of sensitive data,
organizations use it for internal security and regulatory compliance.

DLP enables companies to detect data loss, as well as prevent the
illicit transfer of data outside the organization and the unwanted
destruction of sensitive or personally identifiable data (PII). It also helps
organizations with compliance with various local and national
regulations.

Its main
advantages are:

• Identify sensitive information across multiple on-premises and
  cloud-based systems.
• Prevent accidental data exchange.
• Monitor and protect data.
• Educate users on how to comply with regulations.
• Automate data classification.
• Monitor data access and usage.
• Maintain regulatory compliance.
• Improve visibility and control.

Data threats are actions that can
affect the integrity, confidentiality, or availability of the organization’s
data, while data breaches expose sensitive data to untrusted
environments.

The most common threats are:

• Cyber-attacks are deliberate
  and malicious attempts to gain unauthorized access to computer systems
  (business and personal) to steal, modify, or destroy data. Cloud security,
  identity,y, and access management, or risk management are some ways to
  protect the network.
• Internal risk: misuse of authorized
  access by employees, vendors, contractors, or partners can adversely affect
  the organization.
• Phishing: This is the act of sending
  fraudulent emails impersonating the names of other companies or trusted
  sources. Its intention is to trick users into revealing personal information
  in order to steal or damage confidential data.
• Malware: these can be viruses or
  spyware, which are usually disguised as email attachments or a trusted
  program. Once opened, it allows unauthorized users to enter the environment
  and attack the entire IT network.
• Accidental exposure: occurs when
  employees unknowingly allow access to viruses or unauthorized users. To
  prevent this, there are identity and access tools, which help control what
  users can and cannot access, and help keep important organizational
  resources, such as applications, files, and data, secure.
• Ransomware: is a type of malware
  that threatens a victim with destroying or blocking access to critical
  systems or data until a ransom is paid. Human-operated ransomware can be
  difficult to prevent and reverse, as attackers can make use of their
  collective intelligence to gain access to an organization’s
  network.

DLP is a multi-step process that
relies on a coordinated effort among several components. Each step plays an
important role in the success of the solution in protecting an organization’s
valuable data.

Real-time discovery and
classification of data

A DLP solution for today’s distributed organizations requires AI
and ML-based classification to help with pre-discovery and
classification.

An organization’s data can be classified into 3 general
categories:

• Low-risk data: includes publicly
  available information and data that can be easily retrieved or
  recreated.
• Moderate-risk data: consists of
  internal data that is important to a company, but does not meet the criteria
  for high-risk data.
• High-risk data: confidential and
  sensitive data that should not be disclosed, or that cannot be easily
  recreated or retrieved.

In many cases, a combination of the basic methods is used to
ensure proper classification of the data:

• Content-based classification: uses
  automation to search for sensitive information in files.
• Context-based classification: uses
  indirect indicators to classify data, which may include the location of the
  information, its creator, or the application that used it.
• User-based classification: relies on
  the user’s knowledge to establish the confidentiality of data. It is a manual
  process that can be used to complement the classification based on content
  and context.

Application of data management
policies

Data protection solutions should include policy packages that
simplify the creation of policies for different compliance requirements and
rules on how different classes of data should be handled.

With DLP solutions, the process of enforcing
these data handling policies and resolving any issues
that arise is automated. This may involve encrypting data before allowing it
to be transferred or applying a different policy for business or personal
accounts.

Report and
analysis

These types of solutions should generate reports and analytical
information that can be used to optimize data management
policies and address a company’s operational gaps and
vulnerabilities.

These analytics can identify the applications that make the most
use of high-risk data and can influence how cybersecurity is implemented
throughout the organization. As a result, companies must rely on techniques
to prevent data loss.

Education of
employees

All members of the organization, regardless of department, must be
informed about the risks involved in insecure data handling.

End users must understand how they can use data without
introducing risk to the company. Regular participation in
cybersecurity awareness training courses is therefore very
important. This will reduce the likelihood of accidentally
exposing confidential or sensitive data that could damage the company and its
reputation.

Organizations handle more sensitive
data than ever before, so security and privacy have become a top concern for
businesses. In fact, according to IBM’s Cost of Data Breach Report,
compliance failures were one of the three factors associated with the largest
net increase in the average cost of a data breach.

So, with increasing pressure to comply with these regulations and
rules, organizations are finding themselves with a great
need to implement a modern DLP solution that provides immediate value and
flexibility to adapt to changing regulations.

In addition, DLP solutions are especially useful when dealing with
multinationals, where data management by employees must be facilitated in an
uneven regulatory landscape.

If an organization is trying to mature in the field of data
protection, implementing a DLP solution will be the best option because, by
being context-aware, it enables the automatic collection of information about
the use and movement of data in and out of the enterprise, providing the
organization with valuable insight and visibility into its data and
preventing costly breaches.

With constant data threats, it is
important to consider when they will occur, not if they will occur. Choosing
a DLP solution for your organization requires research and planning. This
investment of money and time will ensure that your sensitive data, personal
information, and company reputation are protected.

Knowing the different options and how they work with DLP can help
you get started on the road to a safer and more secure data
environment:

• User behavior analysis: understand
  the data you collect from the systems and the people who use them. This will
  detect suspicious behavior before it leads to a data breach or security
  vulnerability.
• Education and awareness: adopt a
  training approach for all your employees so that they learn to recognize and
  report security incidents and know how to act if a device is lost or
  stolen.
• Encryption: Maintain data
  confidentiality and integrity by ensuring that only authorized users can
  access data while it is at rest or in transit.
• Data classification: Identify what
  information is confidential and business-critical so that it can be managed
  and protected throughout the environment.
• Cloud Access Security Broker Software
  (CASB): Enforces security policy between enterprise users and
  cloud service providers to mitigate risk and maintain
  compliance.
• Internal risk management software:
  identifies which employees may be accidentally leaking data and uncovers
  malicious insiders who are deliberately stealing sensitive
  information.

At Plain Concepts we offer you customized governance, protection,
and compliance solutions for your organization with Microsoft
Purview and our Zero Trust strategy. Moving to a Zero Trust
security model doesn’t have to be all or nothing. We recommend
using phased approaches, closing the most exploitable vulnerabilities first,
covering identity, endpoints, applications, networks, infrastructure, and
data.

In addition, we are specialists in unlocking
the potential of technology and solving our client’s challenges by applying
the latest techniques available. Whether you are unfamiliar
with AI or generative AI, don’t know how to apply it, or already know what
you want, we can help you accelerate your journey through artificial
intelligence with the best experts in the field.

We will analyze where your data is at, explore the use cases that
best align with your goals, create a custom plan, create the patterns,
processes, and teams you need, and implement an AI solution that is secure,
modern, and meets all compliance and governance standards:

• We train your technical and business teams.
• We help you identify the use cases with the greatest impact and
  best ROI.
• We guide you in the generation of the strategy to launch these
  use cases effectively.
• We define the infrastructure, security, and governance of
  services, models, and solutions.
• We develop a strategic roadmap with all activities, POCs, and AI
  projects.
• We accompany and advise you throughout the process until the
  final deployment, consumption, and maintenance.

Don’t wait any longer to protect and secure your data!