Adversaries have changed the game, it’s time you change your DLP. Your Challenge As adversaries focus more and more on data theft, and increasing compliance and regulatory requirements need to be met, protecting and securing data becomes more and more important. Data can be leaked via a variety of channels, from email communication, various web protocols, smartphones, and removable devices. A Data Loss Prevention (DLP) solution that doesn’t address these options is leaving the enterprise exposed. An enterprise's ability to protect and keep safe its data is only as good as the knowledge IT has on the organization's valuable or sensitive data. Security professionals must ensure that their DLP technologies are configured correctly and supported by the correct organizational specific policies. Enterprise security budgets are constrained, yet must be spent on an increasing number of protection mechanisms; since spending on DLP likely takes money from other security solutions, enterprises must carefully determine if DLP is right for their environment. Our Advice Critical Insight As the environments in which organizations operate expand and become more versatile (mobile devices, cloud services, operating systems, databases, etc.), the ability to scan, detect, and enforce actions across these mediums becomes paramount to effective data protection. Effective data protection not only comes from strong visibility, but also the ability to take action once sensitive data is detected. A breadth of actions enables greater data protection and information governance. The ability to stop data leakage or theft is based on knowing what data is sensitive and where that data lies. A DLP product's ability to identify data as sensitive across the organization is essential to stopping its extraction. The DLP market will continue to divide into two main segments: simple dedicated DLP solutions for less demanding security organizations, and advanced add-on functionality to comprehensive security operations for high demand organizations. Impact and Result Understand that DLP is an investment, but it is possible to find the best value and meet most feature requirements. An investment in DLP will provide the enterprise with a tool designed to control these threats – a tool that is aware of all enterprise data, where it resides, and how it moves – with the power to enforce automated responses to inappropriate activity. Review the market and identify a best-fit vendor and product from the broad and diverse market space. Whether the organization targets security, compliance, or overall risk reduction, there’s a solution for every need.

1. Key Insight:
Content and context aware DLP has emerged as the baseline for viable vendors leaving behind solutions that apply policies without viewing content or
analyzing the context. Simple regulatory compliance solutions no longer serve the general market as demand grows for comprehensive, multi-faceted
DLP solutions.
Timeline Information:
How did we get here?
Data loss prevention (DLP) entered the security scene in the mid-2000s as the next effective solution to enterprise security concerns. Originally, all of the
DLP providers on the market were startups specializing in the area.
Primary usage of DLP was centered on meeting compliance and regulatory requirements. The existing DLP technologies were able to demonstrate data
protection.
By 2010 unstructured data became more important and more numerous than structured data. DLP had grown in protective capabilities and was now
being used to protect intellectual property. Advanced data fingerprinting and detection methods enabled organizations to secure their sensitive and
valuable data.
DLP functionality has progressively branched out to other security products such as email and web security gateways.
Understand where we are now:
Heterogeneous environment coverage:
As the environment in which organizations operate expands and becomes more versatile (mobile devices, cloud services, operating systems, databases,
etc.), the ability to scan, detect, and enforce actions across these mediums becomes paramount to effective data protection.
Breadth of enforcement actions:
Effective data protection does not only come from strong visibility, but also the ability to take action once sensitive data is detected. A breadth of actions
enables greater data protection and information governance.
Data discovery and knowledge:
The ability to stop data leakage or theft is based on knowing what data is sensitive and where that data lies. The DLP product’s ability to identify data as
sensitive across the organization is essential to stopping its extraction.