Data Loss Prevention Market Grew 25% in 2013
Posted by skyhighnetworks on June 2nd, 2014
According to technology analyst firm Gartner, the data loss prevention software market grew at a CAGR of 25% in 2013, reaching $670 million. “Increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks and stiff penalties for violating regulatory requirements are driving companies in regulated industries to invest further in data loss prevention solutions across the board,” says analyst Kevin Epsmith.
One example of the type of incidents driving this software market is the recent $4.8 million fine paid by Columbia University and New York Presbyterian Hospital for publicly disclosing medical records. Medical records are highly regulated by HIPAA and other regulations. With fines that can reach millions of dollars, companies are looking at investments in data loss prevention software as worthwhile. “If you can invest x dollars and prevent a payout of 5 times that amount, it’s a win-win.”
Data loss prevention solutions are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Their primary function is to prevent sensitive or regulated data from moving outside the company in a way that violates a policy or external regulatory requirement. For instance, when an employee at a bank accidently tries to email a client’s social security number, the software can detect the violation and prevent delivery of the email. The employee receives a notification of the mistake to correct behavior.
The growing usage of cloud services such as Dropbox, Salesforce, Evernote, and ServiceNow are driving a new need in data loss prevention – protecting the vast amount of corporate data stored remotely by third-party cloud providers. “The holy grail is preventing data from leaking from cloud providers, or perhaps even prevent that data from being shared within those cloud applications in ways that violate policy, but doing so in an unobtrusive way that enables all the benefits of cloud.” The focus then is on prevention at the technology layer, because humans are imperfect.
Until that day comes, companies are making significant investments in data loss prevention software that can automate the prevention process. Given the substantial fines they can prevent, analysts expect this market to continue growing for the next several years.
Author :
Skyhigh Networks, the Cloud Security Services company, enables companies to embrace Cloud Security Services with appropriate levels of security, compliance, and governance while lowering overall risk and cost. With customers in financial services, healthcare, high technology, media, manufacturing, and legal verticals, the company was a finalist for the RSA Conference 2013 Most Innovative Company award and was recently named a "Cool Vendor" by Gartner, Inc. Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Skyhigh Networks is led by an experienced team and is venture-backed by Greylock Partners and Sequoia Capital. For more information, visit us at http://www.skyhighnetworks.com/cloud-data-loss-prevention/ or follow us on Twitter@skyhighnetworks.
