Data Leakage Prevention: Types And Prevention Tips In 2021

Introduction

Data is crucial for every industry today. Data plays a huge role in organizational working patterns irrespective of whether it is banking, health, education, or population registry. Data is maintained everywhere. Data is not just human details as mentioned in the above examples but other data that are industry-specific such a manufacturing, food processing, or military to name a few.

The protection of data is vital for every industry. Data is like a live weapon if they get into the hands of cybercriminals it can be disastrous. Hence, dlp data leakage prevention is of utmost importance to every industry. So, let’s take a look at what is data leakage? What are the available data leakage prevention software, and data leakage policies available that can be used to keep data safe?

1. What does DLP means?
2. Types
3. What is data leakage prevention?
4. Data loss solution components

1. What does DLP means?

DLP means Data loss prevention. So, what is data loss prevention mean? The data loss prevention definition is to prevent access to confidential data by unauthorized personnel. 

Data leakage is unauthorized access by a cyber-criminal to data belonging to an organization or government. The data belonging to a company is leaked to an external resource by electronic transfer or physically. This is known as data leakage. The data leakage can happen by a malware email or by mobile data storage devices or laptops and USB keys.

2. Types

Data leakage happens in various ways. The data leakage can be started from either an internal source or an external source. The much needed protective steps need to be taken to guarantee the common data leakage trials can be stopped. The most commonly found data leakage types are listed below.

• The Accidental Breach

The data leakage is not by an external source or malicious at all times. Most of the data breaches are unintentional and happens when the recipient is misplaced or the wrong recipient is chosen. But these kinds of data leakages without intention still attract the same penalties and result in reputation damage.

• Unhappy Employees

Data leakages are not always by an external source. Many times it is due to unhappy employees within the organization. It has been found that most of the data leakage happens over cameras, printers, photocopies, and USB drives. The dumpster diving used for discarded documents is also used for data leakage. If the employee has made up his mind to leak the data there is nothing that can be done to stop it. This kind of data leakage is known as data exfiltration.

• Electronic communication medium

Communication is vital in today’s work environment. Employees in most organizations have access to email, the internet, and instant messaging available. With all these arises the possibility of data leaks to outside sources. The commonly used weapon is malware which is sent using any of the above mentioned electronic media. This is found to have a high success rate when it comes to data leakage. The cybercriminals send a fake id that looks like a legitimate business email account with a request for sensitive information. The user checking the legitimate email account sends the requested information which can vary from financial details or pricing details. 

Another cyber technique that has been quite successful is phishing attacks. On click of a link consisting of malicious code sent by a cyber-criminal will give the control of the victim’s system to the cyber-criminal. The cybercriminal will access the victim’s laptop or network and gathers the information required.

3. What is data leakage prevention?

Data leakage threat is existing and very much real. The threat needs to be addressed and implement data leakage prevention. How to prevent data leakage is a question of prime importance faced by organizations. Organizations are using data leakage protection software and implementing data leakage prevention policies in their work environment.

The data leakage prevention security needs to assure that employees in the organization are aware of employee and security policies and tools involved in the process. One of the precautionary measures is to ensure that confidential data is not sent outside the organizational network. 

The data leakage prevention solutions grants privileges to the administrators to have business rules in place. This will categorize the confidential and sensitive information and bars any access to it by unauthorized users. The data leakage prevention tools such as Forcepoint’s DLP solution provides the user to find out the sensitive data and also the users at risk in a matter of a few seconds. 

The data leakage prevention comparison done on DLP software available in the market shows that Endpoint Protector by CoSoSys is ideal for small to large organizations on windows/mac/Linux/thin clients and printers in a virtual appliance, and cloud services. The Symantec DLP is good for enterprises in windows/mac/Linux platforms on the cloud-based and on-premise environment.

4. Data loss solution components

Below are the six data loss solution components that are normally implemented in data protection security policy. 

1. To secure the data in motion: Identifies the sensitive data sent violating the policy.
2. To secure the endpoints: Endpoint checkpoints can block the attempts of communication concerning sensitive data.
3. To secure the data at rest: Encryption, data retention, and access control policies are implemented.
4. To secure the data in use: DLP systems will monitor the unauthorized activities of users either intentionally or not.
5. To identify the data: Identifies which data needs to be blocked by ML or metadata.
6. To detect the data leaks: DLP solutions installed will alert the staff on the data breach.

Conclusion

Not a day goes by without news about the data breach and data leakage. The data leakage prevention policies are being implemented strictly at all levels of the organization. Data leakage happens slowly with data theft happening in small quantities. This is posing a huge problem to dlp cybersecurity in organizations. The data leakage detection and prevention is of foremost importance to the organizations. The data leakage prevention best practices are implemented in organizations to keep the data secure. 

The damage caused to the reputation of the organization is massive. The impact on the organizations can vary from a decrease in revenue to losing their reputation in the market, legal issues, and financial penalties. This is a huge threat from which the organizations and governments would like to be protected. The data leakage prevention controls have become a need of the hour today.

So, have you made up your mind to make a career in Cyber Security? Visit our Master Certificate in Cyber Security (Red Team) for further help. It is the first program in offensive technologies in India and allows learners to practice in a real-time simulated ecosystem, that will give them an edge in this competitive world.

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