Why Does Every Business Need a Data Loss Prevention Strategy?

Introduction

Do you know why every business needs a data loss prevention strategy? There is an increasing risk of cyberattacks, insider threats, and digital data leaks. The consequences of a single data breach can be severe with loss of financial data, legal penalties, and reputational damage to the organization.
Understanding how data loss prevention (DLP) works is essential to prevent malicious breaches, unauthorized access, and exposure to sensitive information. This article explains DLP in cyber security, common causes, types of DLP solutions, and top data protection tools for your business.

What is Data Loss Prevention in Cyber Security?

Data loss prevention (DLP) in cyber security refers to the strategies and techniques to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive information. Industries such as accounting, healthcare, and legal services have confidential information that must not get into the wrong hands. Therefore, a good DLP plan ensures that sensitive data remains within only assigned networks. As an organization prioritizing data loss prevention, you must regularly review existing regulatory compliance standards such as GDPR, ISO/IEC 27001, PCI-DSS, and HIPAA.

How Does DLP Work?

Data loss prevention in cybersecurity works to identify, monitor, and control how data moves across your organization’s network, endpoints, and cloud-computing systems. There are three operational areas for DLP solutions:

• Protecting data in motion
  Cyber scammers sometimes target the high vulnerability in data transfer methods. Businesses must have trusted security frameworks that monitor emails, messaging platforms, cloud applications, and company networks to prevent unauthorized sharing.
• Protecting data at rest
  DLP for data at rest protects information stored in a cloud or physical hard drive. A secured data loss prevention strategy should include regular database updates, efficient backup systems, high-end encryption, and automated scanning to detect risks.
• Protecting data in use
  Protecting data in use involves preventing unauthorized copying, modification, or sharing. It involves DLP functions to mitigate insider threats and breaches during active data processing.

Common Causes of Data Loss

A popular misconception is that the data loss threat is always a cyber attack. Sensitive information could be lost in different ways such as:

1. Insider threats

An insider threat is when an authorized user leaks data either intentionally or not. You need a user analytics tool to track unusual employee behavior. Employees may attempt to leak information due to job termination, financial benefits, or other wrong motives.

2. Human error

Some simple human errors that can cause data loss are accidental deletion of useful files, failure to save documents in real-time, or wrong formatting of storage devices. Employee cybersecurity training is important so they know how to properly handle data while backup systems must be put in place.

3. Cyberattacks

Cybersecurity threats are a popular reason why every business needs a data loss prevention strategy. Hackers can use AI and Deepfake technology to mimic identities while trying to attack with malware to corrupt files, ransomware to encrypt data, and phishing tactics to trick authorized users into revealing login credentials.

4. Hardware failure

The unreliability of hard drives with limited lifespans is one of the reasons why many businesses are adopting cloud computing strategies. Mechanical issues, overheating, or physical damage can make the data on hardware inaccessible.

5. Corrupted software

Software and operating systems could also malfunction through glitches, bugs, sudden crashes, or shutdown while running. Frequent software updates and using trusted products are how to avoid this common cause of data loss.

6. Violations of data retention policies

Compliance with standard industry regulations is important as a safety-conscious business. Failure to adhere to these standards can result in data loss. Organizations should regularly ensure compliance within their frameworks and among third-party vendors.

7. Weak credentials or unsafe networks

Using weak passwords or connecting to public Wi-Fi networks exposes you to unauthorized users bypassing your security access. Weak credentials like your business ID can also be easily replicated and cause data loss to the wrong persons.

Types of DLP Solutions

Every business needs a data loss prevention solution to protect its sensitive data and ensure compliance with policies that prevent unauthorized access. There are three major types of DLP solutions:

• Network DLP Network DLP solutions monitor and protect data movement across the network of your organization. They usemachine learning and artificial intelligenceto oversee the outflow and inflow of data to block unauthorized file transfers or email attachments. A good network DLP primarily protects your data in motion, but should also cover data in use, and data at rest.
• Endpoint DLPEndpoint DLP solutions focus on the separate activity of devices such as laptops, servers, and mobile devices on the same business network. Endpoint data loss prevention tools are installed individually to prevent users from actions beyond their access levels. This could involve restricting unauthorized screenshots, printing, and file sharing between devices.
• Cloud DLPCloud data loss prevention tools protect information stored and processed in cloud environments such as SaaS applications or cloud-based storage. Cloud DLP solutions scan and encrypt sensitive data in cloud storage while ensuring compliance with cloud security regulations.

Top Data Loss Prevention Tools and Their Benefits

The penalty for a data privacy violation can be severe, such as the 1.3 billion US dollar fine on Meta in 2023 by the Data Protection Commission (DPC) of Ireland. These are our top 4 data loss prevention tools to avoid such data breach issues:

1. Symantec DLP (Broadcom)

The Symantec DLP tool leverages generative AI in its content-aware detection feature to minimize false positives and false negatives. It is a leading data security application for protecting data across endpoints, networks, and cloud environments. Symantec DLP operates an integrated zero-trust model for real-time data alerts and a robust incident management plan through automated response actions.

2. The Forcepoint DLP

Forcepoint DLP is a behavioral pattern solution that uses advanced analytics to monitor user interactions and detect anomalies that may indicate a potential data leak or insider threat. Unlike other cyber resilience DLP solutions, it implements a human-centric method to identify risky behaviors and real-time security structures to prevent malicious data loss. Forcepoint DLP tools protect data across endpoints, networks, cloud services, and email platforms.

3. Digital Guardian DLP

Powered by AWS, Digital Guardian is a cyber defense tool that tracks sensitive data location, movement, and risk analysis. It provides endpoint-to-cloud protection for hybrid organizations and enforces zero-trust cyber security with real-time data egress monitoring across your SaaS and cloud-based platforms. Digital Guardian offers their security experts to manage your data security platform so you can focus more on business operations.

4. Microsoft Purview DLP

Microsoft Purview is a comprehensive data loss prevention solution with full integration support for Microsoft 365, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams. It seamlessly protects data privacy across your cloud storage and email communications in the Microsoft environment. This explains why third-party integrations with non-Microsoft platforms may be limited. However, Purview applies an automated incident response plan like other top DLP tools and customizable cybersecurity options.

Conclusion

Every business needs an effective data loss prevention (DLP) strategy that seamlessly integrates with cloud and offline applications across its network. However, the ideal DLP plan goes beyond implementation and requires a clear understanding of common data loss causes, DLP solution types, and the top prevention tools. Monitoring your security frameworks is a continuous responsibility and a crucial one to protect data privacy.