Why Do You Need Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Solutions?
All companies handle different types of sensitive information on a daily basis. The sensitive information they handle could be trade secrets, proprietary business plans, health records, or the personal identifying information of employees, partners, and customers. The unwanted disclosure of an organization’s sensitive data could lead to serious penalties, bans, and reputational damage, and expose the company to cyber-criminal charges.
DLP Solutions
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Solutions defines the technologies that facilitate a company’s implementation of data handling policies and procedures to stop information loss and theft.
How these solutions work?
DLP Solutions go through the systems for files of sensitive/critical information that might be unsecured, and then monitor network traffic for possible attempts to take that sensitive data from the company. The DLP Solution can act quickly to block the transmission of data before the damage is done, and alert administrators to the attempted information breach.
What are the types of DLP Environments?
There are two types of DLP Environments:
· Host Based DLP
· Network Based DLP
Host-based DLP works based on software agents installed on a single host system that searches only that system for the existence of sensitive information. These investigations by the software often turn up Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, and other sensitive information in the most unlikely places.
Identifying the stored sensitive information permits security experts to take timely action to either get rid of that information or safeguard it with encryption. Taking the time to safeguard or remove sensitive data right now may pay rewards along the way if that device is missing, stolen, or compromised.
Host-based solutions available in the market can also monitor system/resource configurations and user activities, stopping unwanted actions. A simple example: when an organization uses host-based DLP to prevent users from moving data to USB-based removable media devices, that might then be used to take information out of the company’s protected environment.
The Network Based DLP systems focus on safeguarding network connections. These solutions monitor outward-directed network traffic, looking for any communications that contain unprotected sensitive information. They can then prevent those communications, stopping the unsecured loss of sensitive information.
Network Based DLP techniques may simply prevent traffic that violates the company’s policies. In other cases, the solution might automatically apply encryption to the data. This type of automated encryption is frequently used with DLP approaches that focus on email.
It is likely that most companies would benefit from a combination of both types of DLP, but having at least one in place can dramatically improve your data security and prevent malicious actors from obtaining sensitive data that can cause harm to the company and or individual employees. If you’re ready to make sure that your company has effective DLP solutions in place, you’re in the right place! Reach out to us at sales@bizcomglobal.com (or call us at 866-253-4316) to start a conversation about how we can help put the right solutions in place and keep them maintained.