Data Loss Prevention Tools Play a Crucial Role in Enterprise Security
Posted by AdamChriss on July 11th, 2014
Data loss prevention tools, which are also referred to as data leakage prevention tools or content monitoring and filtering tools, are positioned to inhibit the purposeful and unintentional exposure of highly confidential information. This information spans social security numbers, financial numbers, and other sensitive information.
According to Summit analyst Marco De Villa, they conduct such processes by first identifying highly sensitive content, then tracking access and engagement activity, and then blocking the transfers of confidential information accordingly. Therefore, if Joe the marketer attempts to send highly sensitive email to his personal computer at his home, or tries to copy such data to a USB drive, data loss prevention tools can intervene the transfer, by either notifying Joe, or blocking the transfer altogether, or both. These tools have become so valuable for, that research firm Gartner estimates that the market for data loss prevention tools has tripled from $50 million in 2006 to $150 million in 2007.
Gartner also states that based on its findings about clients’ preferences, they find host-based data loss prevention systems more difficult to operate and less complicated in detections. Rich Mogull, vice president at Gartner, says, “If someone came onto the network with a laptop that didn’t have an agent installed on it, they could gain access to files, and you’d never have insight into that activity”. Mogull also views host-based abilities as important, but ultimately believes in a combination of both approaches as best. "You should have one management console for data discovery, data in motion, data in use and data on the endpoint system," Mogull says.
De Villa also suggests that enterprises evaluate data loss prevention tools that contain built-in capabilities that detect what’s most significant to any given user at a certain time. Furthermore, De Villa recommends considering tools with data at rest capabilities, "A significant percentage of information is eventually exploited and revealed on a stolen laptop. Often times, users are unaware of the presence of the confidential data to begin with. DLP tools can aid this security issue.”
Furthermore, as data leaks and breaches continue to rock headlines regularly, companies have a lot to worry about. Data leaks and breaches can create severe damage for a company’s reputation, trust with customers and legal problems. According to the Ponemon Institute’s 2013 Cost of Cybercrime Study, the average yearly cost of cybercrime taken place per organization was $11.6 million, a 26 percent increase over the same statistic in 2012. Furthermore, its quite evident that data loss prevention tools are among the top choices for security procedures used by enterprises to prevent such damage. According to the Ponemon Institute, data loss prevention was chosen by 45% of organizations surveyed as a “most significant security technologies deployed by organizations”.
In summary, it’s important to leverage data loss prevention loss tools to protect organizations nowadays. Data loss prevention tools are refined and honed in to protect both the intentional and unintentional exposure of critical company data. Given the ridiculous omnipresence of data leaks and breaches nowadays, its absolutely crucial organizations invest in their defense with data loss prevention tools.
Author :
Adam Chriss, a proud contributing author and a freelance writer with interests in various subjects and writes articles on several subjects including Cloud Technology, Cloud Security, Cloud Data Security, Data Loss Prevention Tools etc.,
