DLP solutions are primarily mandated to ensure that an organization complies with various laws and regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS. However, its primary goal is to protect companies from cyberattacks that may lead to their downfall.
In a nutshell, Data Loss Prevention refers to the practice of improving information security within an organization. It protects businesses from data loss due to breaches and frauds by hacktivists who do their best to get their hands on sensitive information. Moreover, these solutions can go beyond meek detection and provide essential alerts, encryptions, and data isolation.
Some of the most common features of Data Loss Prevention are:
Monitoring
Monitoring provides visibility to whoever is accessing the organization’s data and system. It also provides the user’s exact location for maximum security.
Filtering
DLP can also help filter data streams by restricting unidentified and suspicious activities.
Reporting
It also provides detailed logs and reports regarding crucial incident auditing and response.
Analysis
Lastly, DLP helps in identifying security vulnerabilities and suspicious movements. Therefore, it provides a much-needed forensic context to IT security teams.
How To Prevent Cyberattacks By Jumpstarting DLP
Here are the best DLP measures that can protect you against cyberattacks:
Have A Centralized DLP Strategy
Before anything else, you must implement a centralized strategy throughout the entire company. Doing so will help prevent the unwanted confusion that comes with inconsistent rules, making way for a smooth transition into having safer company data.
In addition, it also prevents a lack of visibility regarding data assets and below-average data security.
Form A Strong Internal DLP Team
In order to curate and implement an efficient DLP plan, you’ll need a team of employees with strong DLP expertise. Some factors to consider are:
- DLP risk analysis
- Data protection laws
- Data breach response and reporting
- DLP training and refresher
Moreover, it’s important to note that specific government regulations require companies to employ a robust set of internal staff or seek external help from consultants with DLP expertise. They might also advise you to install some browser extensions that could add an extra layer of security.
Don’t Rush DLP Implementation
As a rule of thumb, it’s always better to implement DLP strategies in phases instead of dumping it all on your employees in one go. However, it’s a long, tedious process that will take plenty of time to get used to, so implementing it in stages would be your best choice.
Most organizations agree that prioritizing data and communication channels into specific types or categories is the best approach. Likewise, you might consider utilizing DLP software modules or components as needed depending on your organization’s priorities.
Start A Classification System
To successfully protect your organization from cyberattacks with the help of DLP, you should create a data classification framework for all company data — both structured and unstructured.
Data security categories typically include:
- Internal
- Public
- Confidential
- Personally Identifiable Information (PII)
- Regulated data
- Financial data
- Intellectual property
If you ever choose to invest in DLP products, you may use them to scan sensitive information using a pre-configured taxonomy. And, of course, you may customize it to fit your needs.
Reinforce Data Handling & Remediation Guidelines
Now that you already have a classification framework, the next task is reinforcing policies concerning handling various data categories. It’s also important to understand that government mandates specifically state the DLP policies for handling sensitive information.
And to administer the set policies, DLP strategies prevent, monitor, and regulate outgoing channels such as web chats and emails. With this, they also provide options for handling cybersecurity attacks.
For example, employees who are about to send emails containing sensitive information may receive a notification suggesting that they should encrypt the message.
Educate Your Employees
Of course, you must continually educate your employees regarding your Data Loss Prevention strategies. Employee awareness, acceptance, and implementation of security protocols are critical to DLP. You should always provide training and refreshers to ensure that your employees can uphold the necessary standards to protect the company data.
Another thing to consider is imposing penalties for breaching data protection because it could lead to better DLP compliance.
DLP Tools & Technologies To Check Out
Although it’s next to impossible for only one DLP tool to fulfill all your organization’s security needs, you may opt to use multiple tools at once. Some of the best vendors in the DLP business include:
CA Data Protection
It is a software that aims to protect all data within the organization, both at rest and in motion.
Check Point Data Loss
This DLP tool fixates on breaches and data exfiltration, providing robust data management protection throughout the company.
CoSoSys Endpoint Protector
This powerful, multifaceted system acts as an all-in-one cybersecurity protection for Apple, Windows, and Linux.
ManageEngine Device Control Plus
This tool would be an excellent option if your employees typically use USB devices because it focuses on protecting external devices.
Conclusion
Data loss is a highly devastating process for all businesses, whether small or large. It can impact your organization’s financial and operational well-being, not to mention your branding to the public eye, which could result in a long-term negative impact.
With this in mind, it’s essential to impose proper Data Loss Prevention strategies to protect your company from cyberattacks. And following the list above would be a great way to jumpstart your business’ robust protection against hacktivists who want to make easy money by damaging your business.
