Protect Your Data from the Risk of Data Breaches
All organizations have sensitive data that needs to be protected from the risk of data breaches, which can be extremely costly and devastating, and are unfortunately becoming more common. With over 80% of all organizations having adopted cloud technology, and more and more making the shift, the risk of a data breach continues to increase, and the average data breach costs almost $4 million dollars. To prevent sensitive data from being compromised, organizations must have systems in place to block users from sharing it with people who shouldn’t have access to it – this is called data loss prevention.
Let’s dive into what data loss prevention is and how your organization can use it to ensure your sensitive data remains secure.
What is Data Loss Prevention?
Simply put, data loss prevention prevents sensitive information like financial data, social security numbers, and confidential data from being overshared or maliciously modified by bad actors. With a data loss prevention (DLP) system enabled for the cloud, organizations can mitigate the risk of data breaches. With a DLP solution, organizations can clearly view data flows, identify gaps in data protection, and implement data protection controls like access controls and policies to tighten their security.
Most cloud providers include DLP tools built into their platform to secure and protect the confidentiality, integrity, and use of data, as well as ensure compliance with regulations. A DLP strategy commonly includes antivirus software, AI, and machine learning to detect suspicious activities.
Typical Data Loss Prevention Framework
There are 4 parts to a typical A DLP framework:
- Know your data
A DLP security solution understands your data landscape, identifying and classifying essential information across your hybrid landscape. - Protect your data
A DLP solution applies flexible, protective actions such as encryption, visual markings, and access restrictions. - Prevent data loss
A DLP solution helps people in your organization avoid accidental oversharing of sensitive information by detecting risky behavior. - Govern your data
A DLP solution ensures compliance with regulations and retains, stores, and deletes data according to requirements.
Best Practices for Data Loss Prevention
Once your organization has a data loss prevention solution in place, it is helpful to create data loss prevention policies that dictate how users access, share, and use data in your cloud environment. Some best practices for a DLP include:
- Least access
Maintaining least access means that all accounts run with as few privileges as possible, reducing the probability of data being compromised. - Data encryption
Data that isn’t actively being updated should be encrypted so that unauthorized users are not able to view the content even if they gain access to where it is located. - Anomaly detection
Use machine learning and behavioral analytics to identify abnormal or risky behavior that could potentially result in a data leak. - Metric establishment
By tracking metrics such as number of incidents and time taken for a response, you can determine the effectiveness of your DLP strategy. - Role allocation
Establish roles and responsibilities to clarify who is responsible for what and educate stakeholders on their role in protecting your organization’s data.
What DLP Resources Does Microsoft Offer?
Microsoft offers a DLP solution known as Microsoft Purview, which provides intelligent detection and control of sensitive information across Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, and more. Microsoft Purview DLP for endpoint helps organizations detect and prevent data breaches through common processes that attackers use today.
Some key features of Microsoft Purview include:
- Unified and flexible policy management
The flexibility of Microsoft Purview allows you to configure rules and enforcement actions across various devices, apps, and services. - Integration with Information Protection
Microsoft Purview comes with many pre-defined templates and over 100 sensitive information types, but also allows you to create custom policies with ease. - Unified alerting and remediation
The API support provided by Microsoft Purview allows you to enable security information and event management (SIEM) integration to remediate data loss. - Guided management
Microsoft Purview delivers data loss prevention solutions that do not require any on-premises infrastructure.
By using Microsoft Purview, you can prevent unauthorized sharing, use, or transfer of sensitive data across apps and devices. Microsoft Purview offers native protection for Windows 11, Office apps, and Edge, seamless deployment through a lightweight configuration, and integrations built on existing capabilities.
Leverage Klarinet’s Cloud Security Services
We understand that establishing data loss prevention policies and implementing a data loss prevention solution can be complicated, but as experts in cloud security, Klarinet Solutions is here to help.
Get in touch with us today to determine whether Microsoft Purview is the best DLP solution for you, or if another fits your organization better.
