Sometimes
common computer users (and even IT administrators) are confused by marketers,
as is the case with the term Data Loss Prevention (DLP). This
term usually appears when we search the internet for tools to avoid the loss of
data from our systems.
Contrary
to what we might think, this term is not related in any way to the
prevention of data loss. Actually, it is a name that was created by
marketers and that is related to the software packages that protect your system
against leaks and unauthorized use or access.
For
about 10 years now, IT security solution creators and their marketers have
advertised one or many of their product features as DLP solutions. With
these solutions, the data is protected against unauthorized access and,
therefore, protected from "data loss". What it actually means is
that they offer protection against data breaches.
What were DLP
solutions designed for?
In
reality, these solutions were designed to protect companies against data theft
and / or industrial espionage. Today, companies face serious threats from
all kinds of hacks, data theft, ransomware, and network-related intruders.
DLP solutions
offered by vendors can be software or hardware based. Since data security
has become a serious need for companies, there is a high demand for this type
of solution. Since DLP is not a fixed term, these solutions combine a
variety of different IT security measures and techniques.
Technically,
so-called DLP suites can protect a company against all kinds of data theft:
reading and writing can be enabled or disabled on all possible storage media
(USB sticks, HDD, SSD, etc.), as well as also the transfer of data via emails,
file uploads or the internal network. In addition, it is also possible to
disable cut and paste or screen printing functions. The main ingredients
of a modern DLP solution are data encryption, monitoring of all incoming and
outgoing (data) traffic, and access control to the company network. However,
some vendors offer all-in-one solutions, while other suites consist of several
modules, which can be purchased separately.
Current
Data Loss Prevention
solutions
In
recent years, another technology has emerged within DLP: the classification of
data by content and by user. By using these methods, the most sensitive
data is captured by DLP. By designating entire groups of data as sensitive
and adding more user data, we will ensure that only a smaller fraction of the
data is not covered by this method. Then, based on this classification
method, the DLP solution automatically activates the appropriate security for
each data set.
Last
year, DLP solution providers integrated new security features regarding cloud storage
and online file storage services, such as Microsoft Azure, Drop box, and
others, to prevent data breaches.
Additionally,
the most advanced Data Loss Prevention solutions incorporate
data indexing to identify sensitive data, real-time monitoring, advanced
reporting, flexible data labeling, and an easy-to-use management console. It
is even more important to identify sensitive data in light of the entry into
force of the GDPR (European law on data security) and its stricter regulations
in most European countries (and the companies that work with them EU
countries), as they carry much higher fines.
Conclusion
What
Data Loss
Protection really does is try to protect you against data breaches. It
is not intended to protect your data from loss caused by software or hardware
failures. So when looking for specialists who can recover your lost data,
it is better to use the phrase "Data Recovery" and not "Data
Loss" so as not to be confused with DLP!
In
most cases, you will easily find the correct data recovery service provider for
your specific case of data loss, and in many cases this will be Ontrack
Data Recovery. Over more than 20 years, Ontrack has developed a wide
range of tools and has acquired the capacity and experience necessary to
recover data from various storage media: hard drives, SSD and NAND-based USB
drives, tape media, high-end servers, and storage, as well as smartphones,
tablets, and many others.
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