Defend against Inside and Outside Threats with Data Loss Prevention Tools

Posted by Tomas Cohen on August 4th, 2014

Data loss prevention tools can serve as a incredible shield of defense versus inside and outside threats which target an organization’s highly valuable and sensitive data. Data loss preventions help detect and block unauthorized transfers of company or customer information, which can cover medical records or financial data.

According to Matterhorn research analyst Stefano Clavier, “Data loss prevention tools are effective via a three-step process. First, companies should discover and pinpoint their highly confidential content, then actively monitor data transfer and data access trends and patterns, and if necessary, block data transfers as deemed appropriate.”

This process can be outlined like this. If a malicious employee, say, Jared is determined to send off confidential files to his spy friends via cloud storage, data loss prevention tools can prevent this from happening. Data loss prevention tools can first, detect that this transfer is happening. Secondly, data loss prevention tools can notify the monitoring party, the company in this case, immediately. Lastly, data loss prevention tools can be programmed to automatically block transfers of a certain file size or from a certain person if need be.  As one can see, data loss prevention tools can literally, prevent a data security catastrophe from happening. According to research firm Gartner, estimates show that the market for data loss prevention tools has tripled from $50 million in 2006 to $150 million in 2007.

Furthermore, Gartner declares that in their research and insights given their customer’s requirements and likings, data loss prevention tools are often found to be more arduous in terms of day to day operations but less complex in discovery capabilities. According to Vice President at Gartner, Rich Mogull, “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”. In addition, Mogull views host-based capabilities as essential, but finally considers a grouping of both methods as paramount. "You should have one management console for data discovery, data in motion, data in use and data on the endpoint system," Mogull states.

In addition, Clavier recommends enterprises assess data loss prevention tools that cover incorporated abilities that sense the most important statistics and insights in a smart manner. Also, Clavier suggests contemplating on tools with data at rest competences, "A substantial proportion of data is ultimately exploited and discovered on devices which are confiscated illegally, such as stolen smartphones or laptops. Furthermore, its horrible that users of devices are completely uninformed about the fact that the private data is present in the beginning. Therefore, data loss prevention tools can assist this prominent security issue.”

Additionally, as information leaks and breaches are seen in the press and media on an everyday basis, enterprises should be concerned with their highly sensitive data. Data leaks and breaches can consequence in horrible catastrophes for an enterprise in terms of their brand image, their customer patronage, and furthermore, incompliance 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. Also, it’s clear that data loss prevention tools one of the best solutions for security actions utilized by businesses to avert such attacks. 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 conclusion, it’s absolutely crucial that enterprise and organizations adopt cutting edge data loss prevention tools to protect their valuable data from inside and outside threats. Data loss prevention tools are customized to block malicious insiders and defend against cyber attackers, and are a company’s best hope against the horde of threats.

Author:

Tomas Cohen is a security enthusiast and analyst covering the most significant security topics and trends prevalent worldwide. He also involves in the technology related to Cloud Security, Data Loss Prevention, Box Security etc.,