What is data loss prevention (DLP) software?
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) software is a solution that organizations can use in their security practices to help safeguard sensitive data and adhere to compliance regulations.
Using a predefined policy pack that meets regulatory standards, DLP classifies sensitive data and monitors endpoint activities and networks to detect and prevent data breaches. This helps to ensure data is not lost, stolen, or compromised by internal or external threats.
Must-have DLP features and capabilities
A DLP solution should help your security team work more efficiently to respond quickly and appropriately to potential threats. Look for these essential features in DLP software:
- Data visibility: Your DLP solution should be able to monitor all of your organization’s data, regardless if it’s at rest or in transit, including devices, endpoints, cloud environments, etc. To effectively protect data you need to have a clear view on all the data that exists. Ideally, a DLP solution will have these discovery capabilities and user-friendly dashboards that provide a global view of all data movement.
- Prioritize risk based on context analysis: Context is key when monitoring data access and movement. A DLP should offer context that is quick and simple for analysts to understand to help prioritize risks that need immediate action. By providing multi-dimensional context related to a file, source, exfiltration destination, and user, a DLP solution can help your organization contextualize the risk of any activity.
- Appropriate response: Flagging a threat is important, but a DLP solution should proactively initiate a fast, right-sized response based on the risk. Controls should include video-based policy reminders, endpoint and cloud prevention techniques, and integrations that support endpoint isolation, conditional access, and orchestration automation.
- Federal Protection and Compliance: A DLP solution should have built-in functionality to help ensure your data protection practices are compliant with regulatory standards, including support for FedRAMP.
Protect your organization with data loss prevention software
Data loss prevention software can protect your most valuable information from being leaked accidentally or for malicious purposes. From private financial information and customer data to future business plans and intellectual property, much of your business-critical data exists in digital form and can be easily leaked via email. A superior data loss prevention software solution can protect your information by stopping email leaks before they happen, helping you to avoid the cost of fines and legal fees, and the even greater costs of loss of customers and business opportunities.
Selecting the right data loss prevention (DLP) solution for your organization is critical. Your data leakage prevention software must be easily managed, to avoid adding yet more administrative burden to your IT team. It must be comprehensive enough to provide DLP protection across the entire organization, while not affecting the productivity of users. And it helps immensely if your data loss prevention software can be implemented quickly and easily, without significant capital cost.
Data loss prevention software from Mimecast
That's where Mimecast can help.
Mimecast's cloud-based services for email security, archiving and continuity include powerful data loss prevention tools, available via a subscription service. Mimecast's data loss prevention software lets administrators create policies for email content that can enforce secure communications and stop leaks in outbound traffic in real-time.
With Mimecast data loss prevention software, you can:
- Protect business-critical data from being inadvertently or maliciously leaked.
- Comply more easily with regulations such asPCI-DSS, GLBA and HIPAA by setting granular content and DLP policies.
- Roll out DLP solutions quickly, thanks to Mimecast's SaaS-based services that require no on-premise hardware or software.
- Centralize and simplify administration of DLP policies to reduce the burden of managing data loss prevention software.
How Mimecast's data leakage prevention tools simplify security
Mimecast's data leakage prevention tools allow administrators to define and manage DLP policies from a single web-based console. Because any aspect of an email may pose a risk, Mimecast examines the subject line, headers, body text, HTML and attachments for all inbound and outbound email, searching for anything that may violate DLP policy. Mimecast data leakage prevention tools can also remove hidden metadata from Microsoft Word documents to reduce the risk of unintentional leaks.
In addition to tools for data leakage protection, Mimecast email security services include protection from advanced targeted threats, cloud based email filtering for malware and spam, and tools for sending emails and large files securely.
Learn more about data leakage prevention tools from Mimecast, and about how to send a large file or implement secure email for small business with Mimecast.
FAQs on Data Loss Prevention software
Why is data loss prevention essential for organizations?
Data loss prevention helps organizations protect their devices and networks against malicious actors that wish to expose or compromise sensitive data.
DLP significantly reduces the risk of data loss that can be catastrophic to an organization's operations and reputation.
How does data loss prevention Work?
Data loss prevention software works by identifying risky behavior and taking measures to block unauthorized data sharing. Often, DLP software takes a policy-based approach in which organizations define and classify sensitive data and apply rules surrounding its access, use, and movement.
Why adopt a data loss prevention solution?
A robust DLP solution can help organizations fill gaps they may not know exist in their security protocols.
Since a DLP solution runs automatically on devices, it can effectively monitor and safeguard information without the need for manual intervention, saving organizations money and IT resources.