Data Leak Prevention (DLP)

Data Leak Prevention (DLP) is both a strategy and a set of processes and tools designed to prevent sensitive data from flowing out of your organization to any unauthorized third party.

The purpose of DLP is to stop data from being exposed to any person or environment outside of what is specifically allowed. Data Leak Prevention falls within the domains of cybersecurity and regulatory compliance.

Data Leak Prevention is a subset of Data Loss Protection, which encompasses hardware failure, accidental deletion, and other internal and external threats.

A comprehensive Data Leak Prevention strategy includes the following::

• Identification and classification of sensitive data, including content inspection, contextual analysis, and regular data audits.
• Access control and user activity monitoring, which ensures that permissions are set appropriately and users are interacting with sensitive data in the manner consistent with their roles.
• Security measures for data at rest, in use, and in motion, such as encryption at all three levels and endpoint protection to secure data on workstations, infrastructures, and other devices and channels.
• Third-party risk management, requiring a thorough and ongoing assessment of the security practices and posture of the vendors and partners who access sensitive data.
• Policy enforcement that prevents unauthorized data transfers and sharing, and incident response planning to mitigate damage caused by a leak.
• Employee education and training on data security and data leak prevention policies.
• Continuous risk assessment to ensure DLP strategies are updated and able to address emerging threats.
• Data Leak Prevention technologies designed for risk management, Data Leak Prevention, and have the benefit of artificial intelligence to enhance protection.
• Legal and regulatory awareness will help ensure compliance with relevant regulations and reveal gaps in your DLP strategy.

The DLP strategy should also outline best practices that include regular data audits, layered security measures, and a clear understanding of the organization's data landscape.

The shift to remote work, work-from-home, and other hybrid work arrangements has required organizations to rethink their Data Leak Prevention strategies.

• Data security was traditionally based on a perimeter that surrounded the offices and other facilities where business activities took place. Remote work moves business activities outside of that perimeter, requiring the company to secure data in homes, public spaces, and other uncontrolled locations. This forces companies to deploy dynamic security solutions and policies that can protect data wherever it is accessed or stored.
• Remote work has accelerated the adoption of the cloud services and software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications that employees use to access data and applications from anywhere. This requires companies to address risks associated with these services and the credentials and permissions used to control access.
• Employees may work from multiple locations using multiple devices, which forces the company to enforce Data Leak Prevention at the endpoint. This could include secure internet access, local encryption, and more. Many companies have deployed advanced endpoint detection and response (EDR) systems and mobile device management (MDM) solutions.
• Remote work has increased the adoption of Zero Trust security, where verification is required at every stage of digital interaction.

Many of these strategies and solutions go well beyond Data Leak Prevention but may be considered as part of the company DLP strategy.

Data Leak Prevention supports the security of non-digital assets by safeguarding sensitive information that relates to these assets. For example, DLP can protect details about physical security measures, such as alarm systems, access codes, and security protocols. By preventing unauthorized access to this information, Data Leak Prevention helps ensure that facilities are protected from unauthorized entry. DLP also protects the unauthorized sharing of details around prototypes and other non-digital intellectual property, financial documents, and sensitive information. If any physical asset has digital documentation, digital images, or digital copies, Data Leak Prevention should be used to secure these associated artifacts.

The overall security posture of a company includes a Data Leak Prevention strategy that reduces potential risks and costs associated with data breaches:

• DLP solutions identify, monitor and safeguard an organization's critical data, such as personally identifiable information (PII), protected health information (PHI), financial data, and trade secrets. By preventing unauthorized access and exfiltration of this sensitive information, companies can avoid costly data breaches.
• Many industries are required to comply with strict data protection regulations like HIPAA and GDPR. The DLP strategy can be used to ensure compliance by enforcing policies around data handling and providing audit trails. This reduces the risk of legal issues and non-compliance fines.
• Data leaks can severely harm a company's reputation and erode customer trust, even when the leak isn't the result of an attack. DLP mitigates this risk by detecting and blocking potential data leaks before they cause irreparable damage to the brand.
• The comprehensive DLP strategy gives managers visibility into where sensitive data resides, how it is being used, and by whom. This reduces the time it takes to identify user behavior and business processes that might put that data at risk. DLP also includes tools to alert security teams to unusual activities, allowing these teams to reduce incident response times.

A complete DLP strategy offers many business benefits and is a key component of a defense-in-depth security approach.