Wall Street Scrambles to Enforce Data Loss Prevention in Cloud-First World

Posted by skyhighnetworks on April 16th, 2014

After protecting sensitive client data while being transmitted via email, IT security teams on Wall Street are scrambling to secure the latest technology: the rise in cloud apps like Dropbox and Evernote that are easy to sign up for but present another vector of potential data loss for financial firms. “With email we had just one solution and it was under our control. With the cloud, there could be thousands of apps and we don’t control any of them,” according to Jeff Anderson, Director IT Security.

What has banks worried is the type of sensitive client information they routinely access, such as Social Security numbers and credit card numbers. Another potential problem are regulations that protect such information, and also prohibit certain groups within the bank from exchanging information with each other (e.g. separating analysts rating stocks, from bankers whose clients are those companies being rated by the analyst).

During the last decade, data loss prevention software has proliferated, making it easier for IT departments to control sensitive information and even stop certain types of compliance violations from even happening in the first place. “We’ve developed a very robust set of data loss prevention policies which we apply to how sensitive data is exchanged via email or downloaded to external storage devices like USB drives,” says Anderson.

With the enormous growth in the use of cloud apps over the last couple years, companies are scrambling for ways to apply their data loss prevention methods to the tools that employees are using to collaborate. One of the challenges is that they don’t want to recreate the complex policies enabled using current DLP solutions, nor do they want to have their DLP teams using 2 or more different data loss prevention tools which makes the work they do much more complex and challenging.

Some companies are turning to cloud data loss prevention solutions from cloud security companies like Skyhigh Networks that bridge the gap between existing DLP solutions and the cloud world. The idea behind this next generation of solutions is securing the new world of collaboration, file sharing, and other tools employees routinely using via web browsers.

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.