How To Evaluate DLP Software And How To Buy It
Data loss prevention needs to be at the forefront of every organization's mind, and yet not every DLP software solution out there is necessarily the right solution for your business. That is why we have come up with the top questions you need to ask to help you decide which solution is best for your business.
Is Full-Suite DLP Really Necessary?
A lot of vendors will try to sell a full suite of data loss prevention software to everyone, and almost everyone will buy it because they are afraid of the cyber threats which exist today. But you may be able to save yourself a bit of money by choosing a “DLP-lite” product.
For example, if you are concerned about email but do not want to bother with generic network monitoring, several email security gateways already include data loss prevention. If you want to keep an eye on employees sending sensitive data over webmail, then a next-gen firewall or a Web gateway may suffice.
With that said, if you want a more complex content analysis, or if you want to manage data across more than one single location, you will need to invest in a full suite of data loss prevention tools.
How Well Do You Know Your Users?
Messy directory servers is one of the greatest obstacles when it comes to data loss prevention deployments. You may be able to work with the vendor to find an effective way to tie each user to their activity on the network, file servers or systems. Until then, you will have a difficult time building data loss prevention policies that will actually work.
How Are You Going To Monitor Your Web Traffic?
The truth is that most businesses are not able to monitor their web traffic, particularly as most traffic on your network is tucked away into SSL?TLS encrypted HTTP connections. The best solution for most businesses is to invest in data loss security software, even if it is only integrating with a Web gateway or some other SSL proxy.
Is A Risk Assessment All You Really Need?
If you are not sure where you should start your DLP efforts, start by looking into tools which offer a wide range of pre-built collection capabilities and policies. After it is installed, turn everything on and see where the majority of your problems lie.
This will take a lot of time and it will turn out a number of inaccurate results. But it will give you a good idea of where you need to focus your efforts so that you can reduce your risk of data loss.
Data loss protection specialists will often meet with organizations free of charge and will be able to help you hone in on areas which likely need more focus based on a variety of factors (i.e. the industry you are in, where you conduct business, etc.). Explain what your budget is and they will be able to help you find a workable solution for your business.