10 reasons why you should invest in a data loss prevention solution

 It is no secret that the volume of data controlled by third parties has grown in the past decade. Our personal data is everywhere - the HR department of our workplace, in the backends of all eCommerce websites that we’ve used and in our social media accounts. Yes, your name, age and gender can be public information but your social security number, credit card information and the financial information of your company’s last fiscal year most certainly qualify as sensitive data. 

During the past three years, we have witnessed an unprecedented rise in cyber crimes and security breaches. From social media platforms to governmental agencies and big enterprises, many were exposed to this threat signaling to the rest of the world to take serious actions to protect data. That is how Data Loss Prevention or DLP entered our lives. 

Governments, international organizations, and individual companies started taking action to prevent further data breaches. The EU, for instance, brought forward Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which has the following objectives as quoted in their official legal text: 

1. This Regulation lays down rules relating to the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and rules relating to the free movement of personal data.

2. This Regulation protects fundamental rights and freedoms of natural persons and in particular their right to the protection of personal data.

3. The free movement of personal data within the Union shall be neither restricted nor prohibited for reasons connected with the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data.

Other DLP policies include Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), European Union Data Protection Directive (EUDPD), The UK Data Protection Act, Japan’s Personal Information Protection Act, Korea’s Personal Information Protection Act and more. 

DLP aims to identify, monitor and protect any data that is being used, stored or temporarily passes through your network, desktops, laptop, mobile phone or tablet. DLP solutions were created to allow organizations to manage, detect and prevent the unauthorized use and transmission of sensitive information. 

If you are still not sure why you need a DLP solution, take a look at these 10 reasons. 

1. Know how your company’s confidential data is stored, accessed and used

DLP solutions use advanced technology to enable your IT staff to monitor the location, usage, and flow of the data across your company. With such software, your mind can be at ease as you will have full knowledge of how your company’s sensitive data is stored, accessed, and used.  

2. Prevent the malicious use of your data by your employees and partners

It may seem like cybercrimes are done by external people and hackers, but many data breaches occur through insiders. Data Loss Prevention solutions not only monitor your data but they also look at who uses them. So if anyone of your employees or partners who has access to data tries to retract, the software will detect and prevent them from leaving via the network. 

3. Avoid unwanted legal suits, fines, and brand damage

DLP solutions do require money but they also save money and much more than you invest in them. Data leaks and other related crimes are subject to big lawsuits, they threaten the image of your company and will lead to big fines. You can avoid all that by using DLP software. 

4. Compliance with DLP regulations 

You have to follow both statewide and international DLP regulations and the best way to ensure compliance is with the help of Data Loss Prevention solutions. Your company will be audited every once in a while and DLP will be a part of it. Spare yourself the negative consequences of non-compliance. 

5. BYOD and IoT threats

You may have strong security in place for the devices in your company but the Bring-your-own-device (BYOD) and the Internet of Things (IoT) still pose threats. DLP solutions help prevent any accident across all devices whether it stays there, is transiting, or being used. DLP solutions look over data at any stage and in any device ensuring its safety. 

6. Gain a competitive advantage 

There is a growing awareness of cybercrimes and the importance of privacy when it comes to data and a lot of users, prospective employees and partners look for companies who can ensure data loss prevention. So, by having a DLP solution in place, you are gaining a competitive advantage in the market. 

7. Automize the protection process

DLP solutions are made to make the IT department's job easy. Besides having the technology in place to keep the data safe, the companies, which design DLP software aim to make them easy to use and strive to automate the protection process, so it required minimum regulation and maintenance. 

8. Collect evidence in case an employee misuses your data 

We already briefly talked about the danger of having an insider misuse your data. Even when data is transmitted from one device to another for non-malicious reasons, it is still important to collect evidence and be able to properly assess the intentions of the transfer and the subsequent use of the data. In addition, DLP allows you to limit and filter Web surfing, and control which applications employees can access. 

9. Protection in cloud applications and storage 

Very rarely does data stay in one place. It constantly moves from one device to another, from one application to another. All these different environments such as cloud applications and storage need to be constantly monitored. DLP solutions are able to track these transfers, recognize confidential data, and ensure that they are not being misused. 

10. Be proactive 

“We will deal with it when it happens” is not the right approach when it comes to sensitive data, and that is why there are dozens of policies and regulations in place. DLP solutions help you be proactive and instead of dealing with data breaches, avoid them altogether.