Three factors have come together which make the future of DLP (Data Loss Prevention) a critical issue for organizations of all sizes.
First, data usage and collection is increasing at a rapid rate. Second, data is becoming more valuable and thanks to the dark web, more easily tradeable. Third, data is everywhere. Organizations are dealing with decentralized models with critical data often found on commercial platforms, such as Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive.
Protecting this data has become paramount – witness the recent stories of industrial espionage and the government’s warnings regarding these threats.
A DLP solution is the answer. The question is, what is the future of DLP? How are we going to stay ahead of the threats? We’ll look at the current state of DLP, what the future of DLP holds, and what you can do to ensure your precious data is protected.
Growth of DLP Solution Need
The need for a DLP solution, besides for the reasons outlined above, has been driven by some very specific factors. These include:
- Increased compliance requirements
- Higher risk of data exfiltration
- Greater risk of insider threats
- More value in stolen data
Increased compliance requirements: regulators have noted that data protection is one of the most critical issues facing organizations – and individuals – today. Many new or updated regulations have come into effect with the goal of ensuring data is protected. These regulations include the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and others.
Increased risk of data exfiltration: whether driven by ideological motivations (e.g. Edward Snowden), criminal ones, or even in error, data exfiltration is on the rise.
Increased risk of insider threats: related to this is the risk of insider threats. Just recently, the story broke of foreign agents in large U.S tech companies: see the story in CSO, “Twitter spy scandal a wake-up call for companies to clean up their data access acts”. In this case, “two Twitter employees accessed user data on behalf of the Saudi government. Neither should have had access, and this is a sign of a bigger problem at all companies.”
Increase in value of stolen data: our friends over at Trend Micro have a great article on how much-stolen data is worth. Titled “A global black market for stolen personal data”, the interactive site gives a glimpse into the market for stolen data.
Current Status of DLP
There’s no question that to combat these growing threats, an effective DLP solution is required. Something must be wrong, however: why is it that despite large companies using DLP solutions, data breaches and data loss are still occurring with alarming regularity?
The answer lies in the specific challenges faced by existing DLP solution. Among these are:
- Current DLP solutions are passive
- Difficult to deploy and implement
- Challenging to manage
- Impact employee productivity
- Expensive
- Limited visibility
Current DLP solutions are passive: in today’s constantly changing threat landscape, a smart, proactive DLP solution is required in order to mee the data protection needs of most organizations.
Difficult to deploy and implement: most DLP solutions require huge resources to implement. This causes massive disruption, drains resources, and distracts focus from the IT team and the company in general.
Challenging to manage: many current DLP solutions require at the minimum a dedicated individual and up to a full internal team just to effectively manage. And they’re only as effective as the manual rules put in place by the team implementing them.
Impact employee productivity: picture the scene – a client has requested the latest copy of a presentation, and when the employee tries to access it, they’re denied by the DLP solution that has erroneously decided that they should not have access. This kicks off a cycle of frustration, blame, wasted time and money, and lowered employee productivity and morale.
Expensive: most DLP products are prohibitively expensive, often forcing organizations to give up on other critical initiatives just to fund their DLP suite.
Limited visibility: this is especially critical after a breach has taken place. Regulators want evidence and answers, and companies need to know what’s happened to their data.
The Future of DLP: ITsMine
These frustrations and limitations are what led to ITsMine offering its Beyond DLP™️ solution to the market.
ITsMine solves the DLP challenge by utilizing artificial intelligence, behavior analysis, and deception techniques – which makes for a solution that is proactive, smart, highly effective and affordable.
ITsMine secures and protects all stages of digital data, without requiring policies or permanent endpoint agents. It has no effect on employee productivity and returns a negligible number of false positives.
With ITsMine, companies can:
- Proactively and automatically protect against internal and external threats
- Ensure users only access the files they need and are educated on handling sensitive data
- Avoid inline network appliances or endpoint agents on employee devices
- Ensure zero effect on employee productivity
- Meet regulatory requirements such as GDPR, HIPAA, PCIDSS, CCPA, SOX and more
The Future of DLP Is Here
The future of DLP is proactive, smart and uses the latest tech to stay ahead of the threats facing all businesses today.
Current solutions have fatal flaws, which are borne out by the numerous breaches of big companies that make headlines on a regular basis. Not to mention the inefficiencies and disadvantages we saw previously.
For a DLP solution that’s oriented around today’s challenges and tomorrow’s threats, look no further than ITsMine.
To find out more, or see a demo, get in touch with ITsMine.