5 Features To Consider When Looking For a Reliable Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Software To Buy

In this tech-oriented world, where technology is advancing by leaps and bounds, cyberattacks are evolving simultaneously with leading innovations. Do you know that in 2020, Magellan Health was banged by a ransomware attack? 365,000 patients were affected by this sophisticated cyberattack. 

For every organization, whether it is big or small, security platforms such as data loss prevention (DLP) solutions play a crucial role to prevent unauthorized access to an organization’s sensitive data. Continuous monitoring of security policy implementation assists the protection of financial infrastructure’s critical information at all times.

Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASBs) provide competencies around four significant piers of functionality. Those four piers are: 

1. Data Security 
2. Threat Protection
3. Compliance 
4. Visibility 

Garner recognizes DLP as being mandatorily included in the above-mentioned data security piers of CASB. This concludes that CASB performs as a checkpoint among cloud services, users, and crucial information they are consuming and sharing. Numerous vendors miss out on key features that limit their capability to adequately cover mandatory inspection of content that a user interacts with, could traffic and protect sensitive data accurately and efficiently without various false positives. Here are the 5 crucial features to encounter under consideration while buying reliable DLP software.  

#1 Data Supply Chain

In term of DLP, protection of data throughout its lifecycle is something which cannot be ignored at any cost, including three major characteristics:

Data At Rest: This includes scanning and storage of other content repositories for the identification of a location of data. DLP products must be able to scan servers and document identification that possess sensitive information such as credit card numbers. 

Data In Use: Endpoint solutions generally communicate with it, involving continuous monitoring of data as the user interacts with it. DLP solution must provide endpoint protection that provides the security of data at disconnected devices. 

Data In Motion: It is the snuffling of traffic on the network either passively or inlines via proxy for the identification of the content that has been sent across certain communications mechanisms. 

#2 Admin and Policy Management

For the management of whole solutions, a Central management server or central administration interface is something that is actually the first principle for security administrators. The foremost point to ponder is the dashboard of an interface must be customizable so that it proves to be beneficial for both technical as well as non-technical users, permitting administrators to hide those items which are certainly not relevant to users.

For the creation and enforcement of security policies, the policy management feature plays a crucial role as it assists the modification of all the security protocols according to the requirements of a company. It involves handling both technical as well as non-technical staff. It not only provides data protection, but also protects data resources, devices, destination channels, and endpoints for continuous monitoring and protection. It assists in taking certain actions at the time of policy violation, permitting admins and users to change the policy. Data variations, as well as data storage, are expanding with every passing day and policy implementation for the protection and security of data is something that cannot be neglected. 

Therefore it is mandatory that DLP solutions must offer directory integration, hierarchical management,  and role-based administration so that DLP solutions are handled effectively by both technical and non-technical staff.

#3 File Cracking and Content Analysis techniques

Capturing the envelope and opening it is the initial yet crucial step for content analysis. The engine is required to parse the content and then indulge in it. It is simple for plain text email but it gets complicated when we have a look at binary files. DLP solutions revolve around this issue using “file cracking”. Even if the content is buried numerous layers down, this technique is utilized to read and understand files. For instance, it is not normal for a cracker to read an excel spreadsheet submerged in a zipped word file. The product is required to read the file after unzipping it, analyze it, find the excel data, and carry out the analysis process on it. 

Moreover, the following are 7 major content analysis techniques that are utilized to find policy violations, each with its own robustness and weakness. 

• Regular expressions 
• database fingerprinting 
• Partial document matching
• Exact file matching
• Pre-build categories with dictionaries and rules 
• Lexicon or conceptual
•  Bayesian analysis and other statistical techniques.

#4 Instantaneous Analytics

DLP software is considered to be vigorous only when it generates real-time notifications and alerts of secured data from data breaches, permitting analysts to respond and prioritize encountering threats more efficiently and intelligently. This crucial feature permits aggregation and analysis of millions and trillions of system events, user events, and data events. Instantaneous alert generation assists to notify security professionals about an unusual and serious incident so that they can take the required actions.

Analytics and reporting feature assists administrators to watch out overall security protocols and solution’s performance. While purchasing a DLP solution, it is mandatory to attentively consider that it creates customizable reports according to requirements. Also if your organization fulfills compliances, the DLP solution that is under consideration to be implemented must provide compliance reports.

#5 Cloud Traffic Inspection

Inspecting where your users are located and where the traffic is coming from is something that is mandatory to consider while purchasing DLP software. The mandatory requirement is to ensure that you have proper coverage and involves the inspection of cloud traffic including on-premises, remote or mobile users. Considering how the whole world is accommodated with cloud computing, you must encounter the fact while purchasing DLP software that it also covers remote users.

In addition, to ponder that DLP covers all the mobile users, monitoring of traffic emerging from desktop applications, mobile applications sync clients, web browsers are also crucial aspects to examine. Critical observation of sensitive data that is coming from desktop applications on PCs and Macs and mobile applications from Android and iOS is something that cannot be ignored at any cost and this feature must be appraised while purchasing DLP software. The capability to implement DLP to authorized cloud services is crucial, however, the application of DLP to unauthorized cloud services is much more mandatory.

Final verdict 

Data loss prevention (DLP) is the least understood yet the most hyped market in the security armaments. With at least half a dozen different technological approaches and techniques, it is difficult to develop an understanding of the ultimate significance of the tools and which product is suitable for which environment. DLP features comprise most of the enforcement and detection abilities of DLP products. Perhaps,  there is a wide range of significant considerations when it boils down to selecting an ultimate DLP solution.

However, the 5 most important features are briefed down in this article that must be considered by financial infrastructures during the planning and implementation of the DLP system. With the advancements in DLP tools and availability of more robust capabilities, more and more financial infrastructures are required to acquire DLP software for customer satisfaction and enhancement of security protocols.