March 23, 2015

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) can be defined as a strategy to identify or monitor confidential data to ensure that it is not sent outside a corporate network. It involves real time tracking of data as it moves through the end users in an enterprise and prevents its unauthorized access by implementing strict privacy policies. The term may also be used to describe software solutions that enable the web administrator to control the data that can or cannot be transferred by the users.

With the increasing number of devices connected to the network, Data Loss Prevention has become extremely important for the organizations to maintain their stability and protect confidential information. The types of data that may be leaked include:

  • Corporate Data: such as employee information, company strategies, financial documents etc.
  • Intellectual Property: such as product designs, price lists, source code etc.
  • Customer Data: such as financial records, personal details, credit card and bank account numbers, social security numbers etc.

Mainly, Data Loss Prevention products offer three different types of protection:

  • In-Use Protection: This is applicable when the confidential information needs to be used by certain applications. Access to such data depends upon the user’s ability to pass through different levels of control systems to authenticate his identity such as employee ID, job role and security policies. Additionally, such information is likely to be stored in an encrypted form to prevent the attempts to access snapshots, paging or any other temporary files.
  • In-Motion Protection: This is applicable when the sensitive data is being transferred through the network. Proper encoding methods are implemented to alleviate the risk of spying or hacking attack. The more confidential the information, the tougher the encryption will be.
  • At-Rest Protection: This is applicable when the data is saved on some kind of physical storage medium. It involves restricting access to the programs, monitor the attempts to use such information and use strong encryption to prevent threats to the physical media where the information is stored.

Requirements Of A Data Loss Prevention Software

  • Your DLP product should be capable of finding and protecting all information, regardless of its storage location.
  • It should also be able to track the usage of the data and prevent it from getting out of the organization’s internet network.
  • The system must also accurately detect any potential threats or breaches of network security.
  • Lastly, DLP software must be able to encrypt the sensitive information to prevent loss of data.

It is extremely important to have an effectively functioning Data Loss Prevention system to keep your business and data protected from potential security threats.